Synopsis
Sydney Thomas wants nothing
more than to train rodeo horses and hopes becoming a rodeo queen will help her
make the contacts she seeks. She is thrilled when Mike Findley, the co-owner of
Findley Brothers stock contractors, hires her for her dream job as a horse trainer
until she meets Scott Chandler, the other half of Findley Brothers. He’s
arrogant, judgmental and, unfortunately, unbelievably sexy. Scott doesn’t
bother to hide his attraction to her, but makes it clear that he thinks she’s
nothing more than a “buckle bunny” intent on taming a cowboy and he doesn’t
plan on being any woman’s toy - not again.
When the two are forced to
work together, neither expects their past to show up on the doorstep. Scott’s
ex, Mike Finley’s daughter Liz, returns to win him back, determined to destroy
any budding relationship between Scott and Sydney, even if that means bringing
in outside help in the form of Curtis Willits, Sydney’s ex-fiancé. Sydney faces
her abusive past relationship and Scott fights his distrust of women and love.
Can they overcome their past and learn to trust one another with their hearts?
Purchase Links: Amazon
| Barnes & Noble | Avon Romance | iTunes
Inspiration for Rodeo Queen:
In 1987, after competing in rodeos with a horseback drill
team, I looked up during the opening ceremony to see a beautiful girl in a
sequin outfit holding the American Flag.
As the National Anthem played, she circled the arena. I watched her in awe. It was a few minutes later that I found out
she was a “rodeo queen.” I’d never heard
of one before that, even though I’d spent plenty of time around rodeo. I’d never paid that much attention.
As I watched her that day, I saw her talking with
spectators, rodeo participants and performing various activities during the
performance. I decided that very
afternoon that someday, I would be a rodeo queen. It took three years, hundreds of hours of
practice and endless preparation for me to win my first title as a rodeo
queen. Several more competitions and
titles followed. During this period of
my life, I was training horses, going to college and competing. I lived and breathed horses and was
surrounded by the romance of rodeo – incredibly talented cowboys, beautiful
young women and a historic culture.
I loved writing and always wanted it to be my career and I
loved western romances. All writers have
heard the advice, “write what you know” so I looked at the people I had
surrounding me and decided to put them and rodeo into a novel. At the time, I wasn’t sure how to do it so I
just jotted down a few ideas and put them away.
Years later, more than I’d like to count, and now a grown
woman with kids of my own, running a business from home, I decided I wasn’t
going to wait any longer to pursue my dream of a writing career. I decided that I needed to do something
elaborate, to force myself to focus on my writing. Luckily for me, it was two days before
Halloween, just enough time for me to enter NaNoWriMo. With only two days before the start of the
frenzied writing challenge, I pulled out my idea book.
There my “rodeo” story stared me in the face. I wondered briefly if anyone would even want
to read a story about a rodeo queen. Then
it dawned on me, this was NaNoWriMo, it was about producing numbers, not
necessarily quality so no one would read what I wrote anyway. Boy, was I wrong. By the end of the month, I was asking my
critique partner to read it and within ten days, I emailed it to Avon with my
heart in my throat and my fingers crossed.
T. J. Kline was raised
competing in rodeos and Rodeo Queen Competitions since the age of 14 and has
thorough knowledge of the sport as well as the culture involved. She has
written several articles about rodeo for small periodicals, as well as a more
recent how-to article for RevWriter, and has published a nonfiction health book
and two inspirational fiction titles under the name Tina Klinesmith. She is
also an avid reader and book reviewer for both Tyndale and Multnomah. In her
spare time, she can be found laughing hysterically with her husband, children,
and their menagerie of pets in Northern California.
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