For Cowgirls and Kings – Trauma Bonded Series Book 2

~Landyn Hill

Welcome to the wild side of the gothic cowboy. A dark, twisted romance – where cowboys wear darkness like armor.

If you’re heading into the Trauma Bonded series by Landyn Hill expecting a traditional cowboy romance, you’re in for a jarring (and captivating) surprise. Marketed as a gothic cowboy dark romance, this is not your mama’s Harlequin. As I said in my review of Fillies and Monsters, Hill has set a gold standard for this niche – and with For Cowgirls and Kings, she not only meets it, she exceeds it.

For Cowgirls and Kings picks up seamlessly where For Fillies and Monsters left off. We return to Stetson and Gus, still managing the ranch Stetson inherited from her mom. Adalene “Dale” Mendes (FMC)has spent the last decade tucked away in Mozetecha, Texas, far away from her family and trauma of her past. As a teacher in the ag department, her students and animals help keep her grounded. But when her friends, Stetson and Gus, find themselves in deep trouble, Dale can’t sit by and just watch them sink.

Out of desperation, she makes the one call she never imagined making. Mateo Reyes (MMC) her best friend from high school and heir to a family fortune. Having not spoken in a decade – since the night she made an advance on him and he reminded her they were just friends – he shows up without hesitation. Dale expects he will help Stetson and Gus, then blow back out of her life like before. But something, more like someone, makes him hang around.

Then the unthinkable happens. Dale is abducted and the only witness is her cat Queen Tut, and he is of no use – yes he. What follows is harrowing – Dale endures days on end of captivity, torture and neglect. The bone-chilling fear she will be forgotten, yet threats that she will be disposed of when the kidnappers get what they want. Mateo, despite all his wealth and resources, is left scrambling trying to find her. No sightings. No ransom demands. Nothing. Will Mateo and Dale’s friends be able to find her before it’s too late? Or will Queen Tut have to settle into Mateo’s home furrever???

Hill’s storytelling in For Cowgirls and Kings is hauntingly immersive. She digs further into the emotional scars, unearthing Dale and Mateo’s layered, messy, human pasts. Fleshing out these characters, allowing us to experience their evolution – both as individuals and together – gives us a raw and gripping journey of trauma and healing. Readers aren’t just observing their transformations – they are living it.

With pacing that is tight and cinematic, and transitions so smooth, you don’t feel like you are reading a story – you are truly watching it unfold and develop in real time. With vivid imagery, unrelenting suspense and unforgettable emotional resonance readers are deeply immersed in a world unlike any other out there.

Y’all, this book doesn’t pull punches – and it doesn’t let go. For Cowgirls and Kings is a bold, brutal and beautiful journey through pain, love and the jagged path to healing. Hill continues to define and shape a genre of dark, gothic, cowboy romance. I don’t know how long it will be until the next installment of the Trauma Bonded series is released, but with the way this one ended, waiting for it is going to be painstaking.

Thank you, Landyn Hill, for allowing me to Alpha/Beta/ARC For Cowgirls and Kings. As always, All opinions and reviews are of my own volition. I have not been promised any compensation, current or future, from the author or publisher for leaving a fair and honest review.

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