Carmen Peone’s series Seven Tines Ranch are sweet contemporary romance books that deal with abusive relationships. I’m happy to share my blog space with her and her books and hope they help women in similar situations.
Cowgirls with Grit
You gotta love cowgirls with grit.
They are hardworking, super businesswomen, dedicated, and beautiful – inside and out.
You might hear one saying something like:
A woman who wears spurs gets the job done.
Dwellin’ on lost love leaves no room for future romance.
Ridin’ the gossip wagon is not group therapy.
You might see one of them:
Carrying a flag, turning a can, wearing a crown, or roping a calf.
You might even find one, like my heroine, Rita Runninghorse, roping several calves, giving them shots, tending to bovine and equine wounds and illness, fixing fence, herding cattle, and baking her favorite dessert.
Check out the opening scene of my latest novel, Broken Bondage.
Early October
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Eastern Oregon
“You dirty bugger, git over here!” Henry, the red-and-white
calf Rita Runninghorse had secretly named,
darted sideways as she winced at the pain in her sides,
gathered her lariat, and tried for another loop.
Her head pounded from when her fiancé, Bowie Dark
Cloud, had slammed her against the door of his pickup
earlier that morning and crushed her against a stall door two
days ago.
Concentration eluded her, and her timing dragged
like the sludge of cold cowboy coffee at day’s end. Dusk’s
chilly breath hovering over the rolling hills of the Columbia
Plateau country on her father’s ranch failed to help matters.
“Come on, Opal, let’s get ’im this time.” She swung her
lasso overhead and spurred her smokey grulla mare into a
gallop, close on the calf ’s tail. With her horse staying on him,
she landed the loop over its head and reined her mare to the
right. Th e jerk of the rope when her horse skidded to a halt
caught her breath.
The calf balked on the other end of the rope as Rita jumped
off, and her backside landed on the wet ground. Could this
day get any worse? She pushed to her feet, wobbled toward
the wide-eyed little one, and flopped him to the ground with
a deep groan. Good grief. Her father could’ve built a smaller
holding pen.
“Sorry, little man,” she said, thankful for the fall calf ’s
small size. “You shouldn’t have run from me.”
Rita pulled a short piggin’ string from her back pocket
and tied the critter’s legs together. Seconds later, he finally
quit fighting her. Th e cut on his leg was nastier than she’d
suspected. She went to one of her saddlebags and retrieved a
syringe and a bottle of penicillin. His round eyes watched her
while she cleaned the crusty wound, a low bellow escaping
his mouth.
Inhaling his earthy scent, she gave him a shot of antibiotic,
massaged the injection site, and untied his legs. “All better
now.”
Carmen’s Latest Book
Broken Bondage
A Road Trip to Redemption
Rita Runninghorse is about to marry the wrong guy. She has to get away from him. Now. She flees to a guest ranch in Eastern Washington State that offers a safe haven for women in need only to find the owner on a month-long speaking tour.
Robert Elliot has one thing on his mind: bronc riding. The Indian National Finals Rodeo is within reach, and he’s not about to let anything ruin his chances of going pro. Not even the woman he finds asleep in the stall of their rankest horse.
When Rita’s fiancé discovers where she’s hiding out, she takes Robert’s offer to go with him on the road and prays her fiancé gives up the hunt. Saddled together, Rita and Robert must rely on each other as they go on the road to keep her alive.
About Carmen
Carmen Peone is an award-winning author of Young Adult and Inspirational Western Romantic Suspense and lives with her husband in Northeast Washington and on the Colville Confederated Indian Reservation. With the love of history and the Western woman’s lifestyle, she weaves threads of healing, hope, and horses, with threads of love, of course, into her stories.
Connect with Carmen
Website and Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BookBub | Goodreads
Sign up for her newsletter and receive her novella, Gentling the Cowboy for Free. https://bit.ly/3WyltBG
Writing Into The Sunset 