Captured Secrets: Guest Post + Giveaway

 

 

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Captured Secrets by Carmen Peone, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About the Book

Title: Captured Secrets 
Series: Seven Tine Ranch Romance #1
Author: Carmen Peone
Publisher: Iron Stream Media
Release Date: March 7, 2023
Genre: Christian Contemporary Western Romance

"Brimming with suspense and adventure, Captured Secrets, is a love story I'll not soon forget. An engrossing tale with all the twists and turns that make a contemporary Western so hard to put down." Debra Whiting Alexander, award-winning author of Zetty

After her parents die in a horrific car accident, Sydney Moomaw is thrust into running their guest ranch in eastern Washington. She soon discovers that her parents were keeping secrets. Why is the ranch in serious debt? Why did her parents allow the insurance to lapse? Why didn’t they tell her about it? And where are their wills? Sydney needs to figure out a way to save the ranch she loves before her sister sells it. 

Photographer Trey Hardy arrives at the ranch the same day Sydney’s parents are killed. His working-vacation plans change when he decides to help Sydney save her ranch. But, his offers to help are met with resistance. Her stubbornness and independence are both maddening and alluring. 

Amid the tangle of finances, tensions with her sister, and her own grief and anger, Sydney begins receiving threatening notes. They must be from her abusive ex-husband, but he’s in jail. Isn’t he? When a teenager appears at the ranch insisting she is Sydney’s daughter, Sydney finally realizes she’s going to have to start trusting people to help her. Will Trey’s plan work? Can they save her beloved ranch? Can she really have the life she’s dreamed of? 

PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | ChristianBook | BookDepository | IndieBound | BookBub

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About the Author

Carmen Peone is an award-winning author of Young Adult Adventure and Contemporary Western Romance and lives in northeast Washington state and on the Colville Confederated Indian Reservation with her husband. She had worked with a Tribal Elder, Marguerite Ensminger, for three years learning the Arrow Lakes Language and various cultural traditions, which led to her writing career. With a degree in abnormal psychology, the thought of writing never entered her mind, until she married her husband and they moved to the reservation after college. With the love of history and the western woman’s lifestyle, she weaves threads of hope, family, relationships, love, and faith into her stories. Sign up for her newsletter and receive her novella, Gentling the Cowboy for Free.

Connect with Carmen by visiting carmenpeone.com to follow her on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.

Author Guest Post

The Story Behind the Story: On the Inspiration Behind Captured Secrets

Inspiration for a book oftentimes is harvested from events in news or magazine articles. And other times, it comes from a life event. The inspiration for Captured Secrets came from a tragedy my family experienced. 

In 2009, my niece was flown to a hospital via a medical helicopter after her husband had severely beaten her. This took place in Indian country out west. (Thank you for understanding the need to keep specifics private.) 

A doctor had declared her brain dead. Those words left us feeling numb and hopeless. She remained on life support for a week, her body bruised and disfigured. We prayed for a miracle, spending our days in the hospital waiting room and our hotels crying, trying to process everything. 

When the time came for a nurse to unplug her, our stomachs twisted in grief. I knew God had a purpose but didn’t know what it was. 

I honestly didn’t know how to react. My husband and I supported my sister-in-law during the seven-year trial. We loved on her and prayed for her. Walked with her through every step of the grueling process.

What began as high school sweethearts, ended in the “most heinous crime” the judge had ever seen. All because she married her abuser. 

She thought she loved him. Hoped he loved her. 

But I have to say, I don’t believe abuse is love. 

I don’t believe control is love. 

I don’t believe manipulation is love.

After having several conversations with my family, I decided to write a series of books inspired by and in memory of my niece. 

Captured Secrets and the other two books in the Seven Tine Ranch Romance series include three Native American women who escape their abusers and find their happily ever afters. I shed many tears writing these books, reliving everything I saw and heard in the hospital and in the courtroom. But the process began a deep cleansing I desperately needed.

Through Captured Secrets, I’ve become an advocate for abuse and domestic violence. You can find resources on my website: https://carmenpeone.com/resources/  My goal is to bring awareness of abuse and domestic violence in the fiction arena. The last thing I want is for a family to lose a loved one the way we lost my niece. 

I want women to find safe love. 

I want women to recognize what love is and isn’t. 

I want women to have a happily ever after. 

Because my niece never found hers. 

If you or someone you know is the victim of domestic abuse, get the help that you need by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY) for those who have difficulty hearing.

 

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Tour Giveaway

(3) winners will each receive a signed (or Amazon ebook) copy of Captured Secrets (winner's choice), a $15 Amazon gift card, and a photo greeting card related to the book and taken by the author!

 

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight March 7, 2023 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on March 14, 2023. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

Enter Giveaway

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Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!