Author Spotlight: Leah Vale Is Here with Rodeo Fun!

I’m delighted to welcome fellow Tule author, Leah Vale to the Spotlight today.  Having never met an unhappy ending she couldn’t mentally “fix,” Leah Vale believes writing romance novels is the perfect job for her. A Pacific Northwest native with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington, she lives in Central Oregon, with a huge golden retriever who thinks he’s a lap dog. While having the chance to share her “happy endings from scratch” is a dream come true, dinner generally has to come premade from the store.

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Thank you so much for this opportunity to introduce my new contemporary romance series with Tule Publishing called Grit and Grace. The first book in the series, All’s Fair in Love and Rodeo, released August 8, 2024.

Starting anything new can be such an adventure. For a writer, that adventure usually takes the form of research. Because the five books in the Grit and Grace series take place in Tule’s fictional town of Last Stand, Texas, I now know more about Texas Longhorn cattle (their horns can grow to a span of nine feet!) and bluebonnets (they need no less than 8-10 hours of direct sunlight to thrive) than I ever imagined I would.

I also learned loads about the brave women who compete in ranch bronc riding, where for eight seconds they hang onto the saddle horn with one hand in an attempt to cling the back of a 1,200-pound horse determined to buck them off. These women are determined to challenge the male-dominated rodeo world through, you guessed it, grit and grace.

In All’s Fair in Love and Rodeo, five friends have decided to up this challenge by moving from ranch bronc riding to starting their own rodeo roughstock company located outside of Last Stand, Texas. While they are willing and able to handle all aspects of providing rodeos with the bucking bulls, broncs, steers, and calves, they do need investors and rodeo contracts to make their dreams come true.

All’s Fair in Love and Rodeo

Finding Love Through Grit and Grace…

Samantha “Sammie” Abel, formerly of the Buckin’ Babes reality TV show, always wanted to be known for more than her beauty. The new Grit and Grace Rodeo Roughstock Company, founded with her friends, is her opportunity to prove she can compete in a male-dominated world. She just needs to secure their first rodeo contract. Nothing stops her—not an oops pregnancy, sexist demands or the unexpected arrival of her baby daddy intent on winning the same bid.

Professional bull rider Alec Neisson knows he can’t compete forever. The youngest in his wealthy ranching family, he’s always been determined to step up and prove he can run the family’s lucrative bucking bull program. As a favor to his grandfather, he heads to Last Stand, Texas to prove he has what it takes, never dreaming his family business opportunity will pit him against the woman he’s tried but failed to forget.

Only one can win, but when Alec discovers Sammie’s news, more than his career is at stake, but he needs to woo Sammie and gain her trust.

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Excerpt

The Texas Hill Country was perfect. The A Bar H Ranch was perfect. Ripe for success. A perfect place for the birth of the Grit and Grace Rodeo Roughstock Company. Among other things.

Sammie’s gaze drifted past the chute and out over the corral to the groups of men—potential investors, but still just men—talking to each other outside the high, metal corral fence. They were dressed in varying degrees of cowboy casual, ranging from western-style shirts, jeans, and boots to lightweight suits, bolo ties, and boots. The cowboy hats were a necessity beneath the already hot July Texas sun. Ten deep pockets and their representatives had accepted the invitation extended by the former Buckin’ Babes.

Maybe just out of curiosity. Sammie shouldn’t care why they’d traveled to the high-end ranch she and her friends were lucky enough to call theirs just outside of Last Stand, Texas. The women had been able to lease the huge property for a fraction of its value, thanks to Peyton.

Peyton’s oldest brother, Asher Halliday, had bought the ranch, changing the name to A Bar H, as an investment and updated it to an oil billionaire’s standards. But for whatever reason, Asher had lost interest in the place and had been willing to lease it to his sister’s friends for a song. Most of the rough stock—bucking bulls, broncs, and steers—that hadn’t already been here at the A Bar H were coming to them courtesy of Peyton’s new fiancé, Drew Neisson, in two weeks’ time. More specifically, they were coming from Drew’s grandfather, Thomas Wright, of the renowned Wright Ranch. A legend in the rodeo roughstock game.

Though why the Wright Ranch would want to supply a future competitor with bulls and broncs, even clear down here in the Texas circuit, was beyond Sammie. Especially when Peyton had opted to stay in Oregon to help Drew with his sports medicine practice. Did Thomas Wright doubt that Grit and Grace would succeed? Did he believe a bunch of women, former reality TV stars—using the term loosely—had no chance competing against very successful men?

A very real possibility if they couldn’t get their potential investors to stop talking to each other long enough to watch Emma ride.

Then Sammie would have let these women get close for nothing. Just to be a part of something. The slow burn that had taken up residency behind Sammie’s breastbone flared.

Before her mind could travel farther down that path, Emma popped up and began climbing the stairs to the platform above the bucking chute added to the metal pole corral-turned training arena. Sammie followed. Laura and Meira were already up there, readying the bronc they’d chosen for the demonstration while Beth waited in the arena to pull the gate.

The ranch manager, Justin Chadwick, who had been hired by Peyton’s brother and had come with the A Bar H, was acting as their pickup man—the cowboy tasked with helping the rider off the bronc after the buzzer sounded or running down the bronc if the rider was bucked off—and waited on the far side of the corral atop his big black gelding.

Emma turned to look back at Sammie. “Are you sure you don’t want to be the one to ride Willie Bite?”

“Positive.” Sammie made a show of putting her hand to the small of her back as she climbed the stairs. “I must have tweaked my back hoisting a bale of hay earlier.”

Emma stopped in her tracks, concern radiating from her pale-blue eyes. “How bad?”

Guilt swamped Sammie. But there was nothing to be done about the need for subterfuge. At least not yet. Not until she’d come to grips with her new reality.

She mustered a reassuring smile for Emma, strengthened by the very real love she felt for her friends. “Not bad at all. Really. I promise.”

Emma searched her face for a heart-stopping moment, lasting long enough to make Sammie want to tug down the brim of her cowboy hat.

Then Emma shrugged. “If you’re sure. Promise you’ll lay off buckin’ bales for a few days.”

“I promise.”

“Good. And I’ll try to remember to do that hair flick thing you always do if Willie decides to be lazy today. It’s crazy how flipping your hair around makes a ride more impressive.”

Sammie released the breath she’d been holding at having escaped Emma’s scrutiny with a laugh. “That big chonk of a bronc won’t let us down today. He’s born to buck,” Sammie said with a confidence in the bronc she didn’t feel. Peyton’s seed money had gone a long way toward setting up the Grit and Grace operation, but they needed investors if they were to survive for the long haul. Investors and rodeo contracts.

When Emma and Sammie reached the chute, Meira straightened from where she’d been checking Willie’s flank strap. She gestured toward the men. “Look at them. Clumped together like a bunch of hens. And they call women gossipy.”

Laura snorted. “One of them is even texting.”

“Or probably googling us,” Meira groused.

“With another one looking on,” Emma added.

“They might not even be thinking about us.” Sammie dropped her voice several octaves to imitate the man leaning to see the other man’s phone. “Hey Carl, add this to your contacts. For a good time call 1-800-RIDE-MY-BULL.”

The women erupted in a burst of laughter.

Sammie quickly shushed them. “Don’t giggle. Do. Not. Giggle. We don’t want to risk them saying that this”—she pointed at the G & G embroidered on the breast pocket of the white, button-down, long-sleeve shirt they all wore—“stands for Giggling Girls.”

Nodding, Laura said, “We need them to take us seriously.”

Meira planted her hands on her hips as she glared at the men from beneath her brown, wide-brimmed hat. “We need them to at least watch.”

Emma climbed into the chute and said, “I’ll make them watch.”