Wild and Wrangled: A Guest Post by Lyla Sage
What’s meant to be will be, even if it takes ten years — right? These childhood friends to lovers give their romance another shot, but life may prove to be even more difficult this time around. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Lyla Sage on wrapping up the Rebel Blue Ranch series and writing Wild and Wrangled.
Paperback
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Wild and Wrangled: A Rebel Blue Ranch Novel (B&N Exclusive Edition)
Wild and Wrangled: A Rebel Blue Ranch Novel (B&N Exclusive Edition)
By Lyla Sage
In Stock Online
Paperback
$15.99
$17.99
From the bestselling author of Done and Dusted and Swift and Saddled, the next book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series, a small town romance in which past lovers get a second chance to rediscover what they lost.
From the bestselling author of Done and Dusted and Swift and Saddled, the next book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series, a small town romance in which past lovers get a second chance to rediscover what they lost.
It’s surreal for the last book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series to be out in the world. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this day forever, but I also feel like it came too soon. It’s a weird thing to say goodbye to something you’ve worked so hard on for so long. At the same time, it’s incredibly rewarding to look back on everything Rebel Blue Ranch and I have been able to accomplish over the last few years.
Writing Wild and Wrangled was so lush and dreamy for me. Coming off of Lost and Lassoed, I was feeling run down. That book came with the weight of many people’s expectations, and they were heavy. Readers were (rightfully) rabid for Gus and Teddy. It absolutely thrilled me, but I’d never experienced that type of pressure before, and I don’t know if I did the best job coping with it. It was difficult for me to get out of my head with them–to overcome the fear of disappointing my readers because they mean everything to me.
With Cam and Dusty, though, nobody really knew what I was working on. Of course, some readers picked up on Cam and Dusty’s tension in Swift and Saddled. Overall, though, there wasn’t a lot of focus on them, especially leading up to Lost and Lassoed’s pub day. Writing Wild and Wrangled was the closest thing I had to experiencing the same feelings I did when I wrote Done and Dusted. It felt like I was writing something just for me–something soft and secret and special.
Cam and Dusty’s story became something I could cling to. Something that could just be mine for a little while. And it’s because of that, I think, that I feel so pleased with the book it became.
Their story was the first one I conceptualized after Emmy and Luke, and I knew it was the one that I wanted to end the series with. There was something incredibly special about starting and ending the series with Luke and Cam, respectively–two people who found their home and their family at Rebel Blue Ranch.
Because I found my home there, too.
I knew when I started writing this series that Rebel Blue would be a love letter to the people and places that built me, but I didn’t know that Wild and Wrangled would become a love letter to Rebel Blue itself. All kinds of love stories happen there, and sharing them with readers has been the greatest honor of my life. I feel content with Wild and Wrangled in a way I’ve never felt before. I’m so proud of the ending it provides for this world.
And although I’m saying goodbye for now, Rebel Blue Ranch will always be there when you’re ready to come home again–promise.