Blog | Shylyn Ray

Belinda gets her HEA in this sweet romantic comedy!

Belinda Johnson is floored when the jerk who divorced her because she put on weight asks her to design a wedding cake for him and his new fiancée… the woman he cheated on her with.

When her friends at the bakery suggest she volunteer to chaperone her nephew’s camping trip to give her time to decide whether she should design the cake, she finds herself on a weekend trip being led by none other than Marco Amoros, the muscular firefighter her friends have been urging her to give a chance since he started dropping by the bakery daily just to see her.

The more she gets to know him, the more Belinda starts to believe the reluctant hero is so much more than just a pretty face with a “perfect” body, and that his interest in her could be genuine…

But when Marco’s deepest, darkest secret comes out… can their budding relationship survive it?

S’more to Love is a sweet romance with comedic elements set in the fictional small town of Cupid’s Bottom, where love always wins in the end. Every book in the Cupid’s Bottom series can be read as a stand-alone.

PREORDER

Available to preorder in ebook format. Print links coming soon!

Her Guardian Cowboy was featured in a BookBub newsletter last week resulting in many downloads and apparently some readers who think I was wrong for the scene where Presley has Amber mount her horse on the right.

I did respond to ones who were NICE when they asked me why I wrote it that way because they had been trained to mount only on the left and POLITELY asked me about that scene, but I will not be responding to the incredibly rude readers who were very condescending with their implication that I know nothing about horses because "Anyone who knows anything about horses knows...."

Let me stop you right there.

Amber mounted on the right because that's how I saw the scene play out in my head as I wrote it. There really wasn't a decision between whether she'd mount on the left or right. I just wrote it how I saw it in my head because I see these scenes play out as I write them, and "Always mount on the left side" is not a thing to me because thankfully, the horses I've ridden have all been owned and trained by people who know the whole "mount on the left" thing is a tradition that carried on from the days when men wore swords at their hips and had to mount on the left.

THERE IS NO REASON HORSES SHOULD STILL BE TRAINED TO ONLY BE MOUNTED ON THE LEFT IN THIS DAY AND AGE.

If the horse has been properly trained to allow mounting on both sides, then yes, you can mount on both sides. I really didn't think I would have to explain this in a ROMANCE NOVEL. It's a romance novel, not a manual on horse riding so the fact people are picking that scene apart is really baffling, especially when they're wrong. Either way, if you're getting your horse riding tips from a romance novel, please don't get on a horse.

And if you believe horses should ALWAYS be mounted on the left, I feel sorry for the horses. Not being flippant. I genuinely feel sorry for horses that are treated that way.

I don't mind explaining to people who generally don't know how damaging it can be to only mount a horse on one side, and POLITELY ask me about it so don't take this as a criticism of you if you politely asked because you wondered, but as for the rude ones who seriously need to check their tone, there is no reason to contact an author and be so condescending and demand they "correct it" when they didn't write anything incorrect. Just because you were taught one way doesn't mean the whole world must do what you do. Thankfully, because only mounting a horse on the left side is damaging to the horse.

I wrote that scene based on my own experiences of riding. I have mounted on both sides. I was not taught wrong. I am very thankful the owners of horses I've ridden cared for them enough to not allow constant strain on one side of their poor bodies. They are living, breathing beings who deserve better. They are not machines.

Even if you sadly were taught the traditional nonsense of "Always mount on the left" it takes less than one minute to Google mounting on both sides and come up with MANY results for why mounting on both sides is beneficial and what only mounting on the left can do. If you can go to an author's website and find contact info for her so you can be rude and condescending to her, you can find this information too. Here's some info from just one site found at: https://shopus.parelli.com/ since, you know, some of you want to come at me with the "Anyone who knows anything about horses" bit. Here's some info from some folks who happen to know about horses:

And here's a picture of me on a horse I mounted on the right side. It's a real thing people do. All the time. I will not be "correcting" that scene because it isn't wrong.

Social media and the internet has made people entirely too comfortable with being nasty to others. Before you "educate" anyone in a condescending tone, you'd better know very well what you're talking about because spoiler alert: You're the one who comes off looking like a know-it-all who sadly doesn't know as much as you think you do while you're spreading misinformation so boldly. And while I appreciate readers who treat me with respect, and ask questions politely when they don't understand why I wrote something a certain way and can ask me without being insulting, I do not tolerate or entertain rudeness or implications that I don't know what I'm talking about because of someone's incorrect assumptions. Check. Your. Tone. Mean Girls was a funny movie. Being rude to others in real life is not cute at all and if you're old enough to read romance novels, you're old enough to know how to speak respectfully to others.

S'more to Love is HERE!

"Horse Riding 101"

The New Rom-Com Series Is Here!!!