Snippet from Chance's Return

 Casey came to Wyoming to heal her heart. Chance returned to face the past. When they meet, love blooms like the wild lupine in the valley. But will their love last 'til summer's end?

My snippet for today is from my contemporary western romance, Chance's Return, Book One in North Star Legacy. The story is set near the Grand Tetons of Wyoming.

For a minute, she didn’t think he’d heard. He remained hunched over the full-to-the-brim mug of coffee that sat steaming on the counter in front of him. He hadn’t made it to the café in time to avoid the downpour. Rain darkened the faded denim jacket, and his battered, equally wet, black cowboy hat tilted low over his forehead, shadowing his face. He seemed totally withdrawn from the bustle of the café around him.

 Casey cleared her throat to speak again and found herself looking into eyes the same color as the moody sky above the mountains. With the chary gaze of a lone wolf, the man stared from beneath the hat brim. He needed a shave, and his dark hair curled just above the collar of his jacket. In one glance, he took her all in, from her pink running shoes and skinny jeans to her green-and-white college sweatshirt. His gaze lifted and dwelled on her face. She shifted from one foot to the other. A crazy rush of warmth flooded her from her toes to the roots of her ponytailed hair.

#wrpbks #romance #amreading #lovestory #cowboyromance #snippetsunday

Forget Prince Charming. I Want a Cowboy.

 

Once upon a time a little girl loved horses, westerns…and cowboys. The fascination started when she and her dad watched Saturday afternoon movies with heroes like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and the Lone Ranger. In those days, a lot of westerns filled the airwaves on TV, and as she grew older, the girl graduated to Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and the Virginian, where cowboy heroes and their horses were larger than life. Eventually, the girl grew up and read romance novels with—you guessed it—cowboy heroes, buying into the whole cowboy myth that has been a big part of American entertainment. Writing her own cowboy hero story just seemed a logical next step. And so, she did.

 Chance’s Return, was my first published novel. Ex-rodeo champ Chance McCord is the epitome of the handsome, reckless, cowboy-rounder, but in spite of my very best efforts, his story has had its setbacks over the years. Suffice it to say, the history of my book would fill a book. The first publisher canceled their romance line before my book made it into print. The second publisher went bankrupt and the rights, along with the rights of all their authors’ works, were held as part of the company’s assets. When rights were finally returned to me, I submitted the story to the Wild Rose Press. This time the book was published and enjoyed a short success with some nice reviews, although the inspirational line of romances they published broke off into its own company. Years passed; Chance’s Return languished and my writing went in a different direction. The day came when I decided to ask for my rights back. I’d written a sequel and wanted to see both books published together but not as inspirational.

I spent months rewriting the book, even through hand surgery, making the story quite different from the original version, although my cowboy hero remained the same handsome rodeo guy. He came with a whole host of problems, though, as did Casey Girard, the pretty widow who catches his eye and wins his heart. As their love story blooms in the shadow of the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, Chance and Casey find that love the second time around is indeed sweet, if fraught with its own set of problems.

I’m pleased to announce Chance’s Return was accepted once again by The Wild Rose Press and released on April 16, 2025. I’m even more excited that the sequel Tetons by Morning is also contracted by TWRP. A third book, Fire in the Heart, will follow at a future date. I call my trilogy of western contemporary romances The North Star Legacy, after the McCord family’s ranch, the North Star. The books are full of family drama, people learning to live with and rise above past mistakes and tragedies, and of course, romance. I’m hoping this time around, Chance’s Return will have its chance to find a new audience who will want to read more about my cowboy hero, the McCord family, and the woman who changes their lives.

Casey came to Wyoming to heal her heart. Chance returned to face the past. Love blooms like the summer lupine in the valley, but will their pasts keep them apart? 

https://wildrosepress.com/product/chances-return/

Release Date and Cover Reveal!

 I'm pleased today to announce a release date of April 16 for my next book, Chance's Return, and also a cover reveal. The story takes place near the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, and for anyone who has been there, you will know this scene on the cover is one of the most popular in the park. The barn is probably one of the most photographed in the country, and walking the paths around it is a remarkable experience I will never forget. The blue lupine does grow there and the mountains are that majestic. What better place to set a love story!

Chance's Return was first published many years ago and has a storied history, but this is a new, completely revised version and now is the first book in the North Star Legacy series. The hero Chance McCord has come home to a family still divided by tragedy. The heroine Casey Girard has come to Wyoming to heal from her own past hurt. When they meet, the attraction is instant and powerful. But is it enough to sustain a lasting relationship? Finding their way may take some time, but it's a love story you won't soon forget.

Thank you to my publisher, The Wild Rose Press, for giving this story new life.

 

It is my pleasure to share the cover reveal for fellow author Wendy Rich Stetson's upcoming new release, Shooting Sunshine. Isn't it beautiful?

One photograph can change everything

On assignment in Green Ridge, PA, New York photojournalist Darcy King will stop at nothing to bag a prestigious staff position at Hudson Magazine. Just one problem: her subjects are Amish, and they shun having their pictures taken.

 

As a wild teen on his Amish Rumspringa, Samuel Rishel fell prey to a photographer who splashed his face on a romance novel and left him with trust issues. Older and definitely wiser, he wants nothing to do with cameras until a pretty young photographer arrives in the family’s farmhouse B&B. Eager to support his mother’s fledgling business, he’ll help Darcy on one condition—no pictures of faces allowed.

 

Will Samuel and Darcy go from enemies to something more? Or will a single photograph shatter their trust forever?

You can check out Wendy on Facebook: AuthorWendyRichStetson and on

Instagram: wendyrichstetson_author

Congratulations, Wendy, on a great cover! Looking forward to the release of Shooting Sunshine on September 30th.

Excerpt from "The Christmas Wish."

 I believe I was born loving horses. I always wanted one but sadly, it never happened when I was a child. My daughter was also born loving them (is that a genetic trait maybe?) and I made up my mind that I would make it happen for her. At the time, I was writing short stories for a magazine and getting paid rather well for them (that was another time and place!). I decided to use the money from one of those stories to buy a horse for us. And I did! Staccato was a great horse, and we had him for ten years until he passed away one day very unexpectedly. We were all crushed. 

Though we didn't get him at Christmas, this story, The Christmas Wish, grew out of our experience, and it will always remind me of our little Arabian, Haf Staccato.

Ever since Hope could remember, Caitlin had wanted a horse. When her daughter could only toddle, she would clamber aboard the mechanical pony at the supermarket and refuse to budge until her mother dug for change in her purse. Three rides satisfied Caitlin then, that and the stuffed pony she got when she turned five. A few years later, she graduated to collecting model horses. Now Caitlin was 13, and this Christmas she wanted the real thing. 

Along with two other holiday stories in the collection, The Christmas Wish is featured this month of August in the For the Love of Horses Book Fair. I hope you'll stop by and check out all the other great horse stories and maybe want to read the rest of Hope and Caitlin's story.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/horse-themed_novels/o7cdst2m7d

For the Love of Horses Book Fair

 It's Live!!

If you love horses, be sure to check out a book fair that features books all with horses. Coming tomorrow, excerpts from my two featured books.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/horse-themed_novels/o7cdst2m7d

 

The Partridge Christmas Collection

 

Today my guest is friend and fellow author Patricia Kiyono. Patricia and I have belonged to the same writing group for a long time, and she writes wonderful sweet historical stories. Please join me in welcoming Patricia, as she tells us about this collection of Christmas tales.

 The Partridge Christmas Collection is a box set including five titles inspired by the holiday carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as well as a sixth story that includes characters from the first book. This series began when my then-publisher (Astraea Press) put out a call for holiday regency romance novellas. The planned multi-author series was to be called “The Twelve Dukes of Christmas” and the two things each story needed to include were a duke and a scene taking place at a ball hosted by Lord and Lady Kringle on Christmas Eve, 1812. 

 

I had never written a regency romance, but I love a good challenge and decided to try. Thanks to several writer friends, I managed to meet the deadline with The Partridge and the Peartree, the story of how Phillip Partridge, Duke of Bartlett, met and fell in love with Lady Amelia Peartree.

 

A few years later, I got the rights back for the story and submitted it to Eskape Press. In addition to giving the book a new cover, I had the opportunity to correct a few historical errors pointed out to me by readers. And in answer to those who asked “What happened to the Duke and Duchess of Bartlett?” I wrote a sequel called Love’s Refrain. And then, knowing that eventually the duchess would have to take a break from teaching the children at the chapel school, I paired Robert Townley, the duke’s valet, with Jeanne Brown, the duchess’ maid for the story I called Two Tutor Doves.

 

In my mind, a series should have at least three books. So, the following Christmas I decided that the verse about the three French hens would become Three French Inns, and would take place in the French countryside. Fortunately, I’d laid the groundwork for that in Two Tutor Doves because Jeanne had a French mother who’d been disowned by her upper-class family. She also had a brother who’d fought in France with the British army. I decided that the brother, Peter Brown, would return to France to look into the fortune they’d inherited from that grandfather. In the process, he’s reunited with Caroline Duvall, a young French nurse he’d met during the Napoleonic wars.

 

The fourth verse was fun to work with. I decided that four calling birds would become Four Calling Bards, in which Amanda Collins, a vicar’s daughter, suddenly finds herself with four suitors, all of whom write to her in hopes of gaining her favor. The hero in this story is Andrew Sommers, one of the children from Two Tutor Doves, who has become a footman in the village of Whitecastle.

 

To finish the series, I took a character who appeared briefly in Four Calling Bards. Five Gold Rings is the story of Amanda’s aunt, Grace Collins Montgomery. When Grace, a social reformer, decides to join the fight against the railroad coming through her home city of Cambridge, she’s up against Arthur Gregory, the railroad station’s architect. 

 

The six stories in this collection take us from 1812 through 1840. A lot of advancements in science, medicine, and social issues took place during this time, and are reflected through the stories. I’m hoping readers enjoy them!

 

 

Bio: Patricia lives in West Michigan, USA, not far from her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Current interests, aside from writing, include sewing, crocheting, scrapbooking, and making music. A love of travel and an interest in faraway people inspires her to create stories about different cultures.

 

 

The Patridge Christmas Collection is available only at Amazon.

Patricia Kiyono can be found on her website and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Bookbub, and Amazon.