Ride a Painted Pony

December 4, 2006
Eagle's latest headlong romance follows A View of the River. Nick Red Shield, who is Sioux, swerves off a rain-slicked Missouri road and comes across an injured white woman in the bushes. Thinking he was the cause, Nick offers "Joey" shelter at a local motel. The woman's real name is Lauren Davis; her taken name of Joey is the name of her son, who has been kidnapped by his father, Richard Vargas. Richard's friend Jack Reed was supposed to kill Lauren, but couldn't bring himself to finish the job. Lauren and Nick quickly fall for each other; back at Nick's South Dakota ranch, she begins to work his new paint horse, True Colors (Lauren's a former jockey). But Lauren can't let her new, complacent life and the man she's falling in love with distract her from her primary goal-reuniting with her son. Nick as protective loner and Lauren as blue-eyed-blond-with-a-problem feel stock, and there's a lot of horse jargon that will be tedious for some. Eagle nonetheless delivers her signature energy.