New Release ~ More Small Town Western Romance From Paula Altenburg
- kathryntoope
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
The Cowboy’s Downfall, Book 6 in the Endeavour Ranch of Grand, Montana series from Tule Publishing, is one of my favorites.
(Who am I kidding. I love them all.)
But it really was fun to write.
Nix McRae is done with women. He thinks he’s safe on the Endeavour Ranch, but then Shauna Walsh and her little sister Taryn enter the picture. They both cause serious problems for him, and while the problems Shauna creates are obvious to readers (this is a romance), Taryn poses the bigger challenge. She decides she wants to participate in the bull riding clinic that Nix is running for local teens. He never expected a girl to apply.
Taryn excels at the unexpected.
I brought a few characters from my other Grand, Montana books into this scene, which is told from Nix’s point of view. Do you recognize anyone?
The bull wasn’t large, and as far as buck off percentages went was probably a ten, mostly because at this stage in training kids fell off without any real effort on the bull’s part. Mac, Jake McGregor’s nephew, made it past eight seconds with ease. So did four other boys. Taryn didn’t last the whole ride, but it was her first time, and no one expected her to. The training kicked in when she hit the dirt. They’d drummed it into the kids that they were to get out from under the bull and out of the bullfighters’ way as fast as they could, even if they had to crawl. Taryn landed, rolled, and with no thought to dignity—which was sometimes an issue with kids, and girls in particular—she did exactly as she’d been instructed.
The problem occurred because the bull sensed something different about the load he’d just carried and took an interest in figuring out what it was. Normally docile—all things considered—he caught Ford unawares and slipped past him on his fact-finding mission.
Taryn had her back to the bull. She must have fallen asleep during that part of the lecture. Nix, who’d been standing off to one side so he could judge the kids’ rides, saw the bull headed her way and yelled at her to watch out.
Even then things might not have gone sideways if Remi hadn’t taken it upon himself to play hero. He leaped over the boards and into the arena like a TV ninja warrior, then charged at the bull. The bull, completely confused by now, decided to call it a day and headed for the chute—except Taryn was blocking his exit. She finally caught on that something was happening behind her, thanks in large part to Remi and his acrobatics, and she turned at the last second to meet the bull face-to-face. The bull knocked her down, narrowly missed stepping on her head—thank you, Jesus, for helmets—and charged into the chute.
Ford was chasing after the bull like a marauding Viking attacking a village and swearing a blue streak. He reached Taryn before Remi did, hauled her to her feet, and then to her toes, because she was about a foot and a half shorter than he was. Rather than concern himself over her delicate feelings, he demanded to know why she’d had her back turned to a bull.
Remi, continuing in the hero’s role he’d cast for himself, showed a blazing lack of self-preservation by demanding that Ford unhand his woman. Except those weren’t the exact words he chose. Ford, to his credit, was secure enough in his masculinity to ignore any slights.
Miles, who’d been the other bullfighter on duty, entered the fray. He’d been busy watching the entertainment unfold, apparently judging the bull to be no threat to anyone, which was the same sense Nix would have had about it if Taryn had been paying proper attention. That bull was too lazy to do deliberate harm.
Getting knocked down by that kind of weight likely hadn’t been fun for her though, and Ford waving her around by one arm, while giving Remi the tongue-lashing he rightly deserved, wasn’t the way to win friends. Since no one was dying, however, and Taryn could hold her own, Nix decided to mind his own business and let Ford handle his riders the way he believed best.
In addition to The Cowboy's Downfall release another small town western romance, The Cowboy's Redemption, Levi and Dana's story, is on sale for 99 cents for a limited time.
Stay tuned for more news about Grand, Montana coming soon!
I also have a second series set in a whole new town that releases in March, 2026. I'll share the details here when I have them.
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