Texas Pride

By Leigh Greenwood

"Leigh Greenwood… has written another powerful, yet poignant saga in his Night Rider series... saddle up and read on!"—Fresh Fiction

When Carla Reece's brother loses his half of their ranch in a high-stakes game of poker she's less than pleased. Especially when the blond giant that swaggers up to her door makes her madder than wet hen and weak in the knees all at the same time.

Carla had never met anyone more infuriating in her life. No matter how stupid her brother had been for gambling away his stake of the ranch, his usurper had no right to take over her land. But her new foreman claimed to be some foreign royalty and promised to leave after a year. Still, a year was way too long to spend with such an exasperating man.

Ivan may have charmed everyone in town into thinking he was the perfect gentleman, but Carla knew better. There had to be a chink in his armor—a red hot-passion under that calm, cool gaze. But once she finds it, she may be in for more than she ever bargained for.

Night Riders Series:

Texas Pride

Heart of a Texan

What readers are saying about Texas Pride

"…everything I enjoy in an historical romance novel: strong, realistic characters, love, humor, mystery –all that keeps my attention to the very last paragraph."

What reviewers are saying about Heart of a Texan

"Greenwood has created a story filled with action, adventure, and a wily, larger than life, villain who ends up bringing two opposites together who turn out to be just perfect for each other."—Night Owl Reviews

"Entertaining drama, fabulous characters and an emotional love story make this a western romance to treasure."—The Romance Reviews

"Emotional, entertaining and awe-inspiring."—Seriously Reviewed

"Leigh Greenwood, a renowned writer of western romances and USA Bestselling author, has written another powerful, yet poignant saga in his Night Rider series... saddle up and read on!"—Fresh Fiction

"Charmingly old-fashioned..."—Publishers Weekly

What everyone is saying about RT Career Achievement Award Winner Leigh Greenwood

"Greenwood keeps your interest and makes you care about his characters."—Long and Short Reviews

"[Greenwood] writes a Texas romance like he's been there and lived it himself. His settings are vividly described, his characters drawn so effectively you're hooked after the first chapter and his story lines can keep you turning pages late into the night."

"Leigh Greenwood always writes an amazing western. Always."—Books Like Breathing

"You can't beat an historical Texas romance by Leigh Greenwood. He writes of Texas like no other author." –The Good, The Bad, and the Unread.

"If it's a Greenwood cowboy story, readers are guaranteed an emotional, rich, adventurous romance with strong heroes and courageous heroines"—RT Book Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: Mar 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781402263972

Leigh Greenwood

Okay, let's get the hard stuff out of the way right up front. Leigh is a man! He knows men aren't supposed to write romance, but he does and he doesn't intend to quit. He says it's fun. If you're still mad, you can blame it on his wife. He wouldn't have known what romance was if, after he got married in 1972, romances hadn't started collecting all over the house. They were everywhere he looked-in the den, on the kitchen table, in the living room, stacked along one whole wall in the bedroom, even in the bathroom. When his wife wasn't cooking or taking care of the children, she was reading a romance. He admits he was a little supercilious about her choice of reading material. After all, he was reading Dickens, Hemingway, Austen, the classics! He started calling them her "sin, lust, and passion" books. He said it so often his daughter started calling them Mommy's "celeste" passion books. He thought it was riotously funny. His wife didn't. One day, after what he's certain was a typically rude remark (you have to understand he'd never read a romance, just looked at the covers and made a snap judgment), she threw a book at him and told him to read it or shut up. Being an obedient husband (his wife's expletive deleted!), he read the book. It was Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades. He loved it. To this day it's one of his favorite books. Being thoroughly hooked, he searched new and used bookstores until he'd collected every book Georgette Heyer ever wrote. After reading them all several times, he asked his wife to suggest some other books. Since he has a minor in history, she started him on a diet of the icons of early historical romance: Kathleen Woodiwiss, Rosemary Rogers, Jennifer Blake, Bertrice Small, and Johanna Lindsey. By then he was completely addicted. Somewhere along the line, he read that women could make decent money (more than he could as a music teacher) writing historical romances, so he tried to get his wife to write one. She told him she couldn't write, that he ought to write one. He said he couldn't think of a plot. This went back and forth for some time until he said if she'd give him a plot, he'd write a book. She said, "I've lost everything." It wasn't a plot, but it must have been enough. He sat down and started writing. Eight hundred and eighty-nine pages later, he had finished his first romance. He didn't know much about writing, and nothing at all about the romance market, so he had to write two more books and join Romance Writers of America before he knew enough to sell his first book. Wyoming Wildfire was published by Zebra in 1987. Since then he's written 34 more books and four novellas. He's recently celebrated his 60th birthday, so he calls writing his midlife crisis career. He has a B.A. in Voice and an M.A. in Musicology from the University of North Carolina. He taught music in schools and/or was an organist/choir director in churches for 32 years before retiring to write full-time. He's been married for 29 years. His wife is a nurse, but after years of working in a hospital on weekends to help make ends meet, she took a full-time job in an HMO. She said she was too old to be a hospital nurse any longer. He thinks having three children and being married to him just wore the poor lady down. They have three grown children (notice he didn't say mature or responsible!) who are momentarily living in distant parts of the United States. He enjoys gardening when he can find time off from writing and his duties as husband, father-at-a-distance, and slave to the family cat. You may contact Leigh at [e-mail] or by writing to P.O. Box 470761, Charlotte, NC 28226. An SASE would be appreciated. Leigh's web page address is www.tlt.com/authors/leighgreenwood.htm.