Bonnie McCune's NEVER RETREAT

In Never Retreat, a feisty single mom clashes with an ex-military, macho corporate star at a business retreat in the wild Colorado mountains, where only one can win a huge prize. But when a massive flood imperils their love and survival, they learn the meaning of true partnership.
This is the new fiction for you: unafraid to debate contemporary concerns…pulls no punches…provides a fresh look at age-old issues. This is your kind of writing if you think… People are smarter than any phone… Feminism is just starting to come alive… You’ll always take a human over the most advanced app…. You can laugh at yourself… Women use four-letter words, including l-o-v-e.
Author Bonnie McCune says she can’t separate love and romance in her own life from her other activities, and that’s the kind of book she enjoys reading. “Women today have jobs, children, politics, and causes, so why wouldn’t their novels contain all these elements, too? We’re complex, fascinating creatures; and our novels should reflect this.”
Never Retreat is a good example. It spotlights the day-to-day challenges for a single mom both at home and work, the joys of friendship, and the reality of issues like prejudice and inequality. Protagonist Ramona (Raye) Soto isn’t exempt from the pain caused by the loss of a beloved brother, the comfort of remembering a beloved grandmother, the long-term impact of her parents’ divorce. She’s learning through daily life to treasure the successes and delight in life around her.
Years ago, she faced harsh reality when a roving con man knocked her up. Now at thirty-something she’s concentrating on her career in a major telecommunications firm and funding college for her teenaged son. Enter Desmond Emmett—a fast talker and smooth operator. New to the office, the ex-serviceman possesses every negative quality for a guy Raye should avoid. Thrown together at a corporate retreat in the wilderness, the reluctant duo struggles to complete management’s extreme mental and physical tests for a huge reward. But only one can win the prize, and Des needs the money to underwrite medical treatments for his adored younger sister.
See-sawing between attraction and antagonism, the mismatched couple, Raye and Des, face their biggest challenge: learning the meaning of true partnership. When a massive flash flood sweeps down the rocky canyon and threatens their love and survival, they must put aside their difference to rescue their colleagues—and their future as a couple.
EXCERPT:
PUBLISHING MARCH 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77223-350-6
Kindle ebook 978-1-77223-351-3
Trade paperback, 240 pages
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079SY632Z,
Never Retreat http://getBook.at/NeverRetreat
Imajin Books http://www.imajinbooks.com
AUTHOR BIO: Bonnie McCune has been writing since age ten, when she submitted a poem about rain rushing down the gutter to the Saturday Evening Post (it was immediately rejected). This interest facilitated her career in nonprofits doing public and community relations and marketing. She’s worked for libraries, directed a small arts organization, and managed Denver’s beautification program.
Simultaneously, she’s been a freelance writer with publications in local, regional, and specialty publications for news and features. Her civic involvement includes grass-roots organizations, political campaigns, writers’ and arts’ groups, and children’s literacy. For years, she entered recipe contests and was a finalist once to the Pillsbury Bake Off. A special love is live theater. Had she been nine inches taller and thirty pounds lighter, she might have been an actress.
Her true passion is fiction, and her pieces have won several awards. Never Retreat is her third novel and her fifth book of fiction. For reasons unknown (an unacknowledged optimism?), she believes one person can make a difference in this world.
You can visit her at:
- Website www.BonnieMcCune.com
- Email Bonnie@BonnieMcCune.com
- Twitter http://twitter.com/bonniemccune
- Facebook http://Facebook.com/bonniemccune
- LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/BonnieMcCune
I’m not sure most women are even capable of separating love and romance. I know that long-term relationships have ups and downs, and they require real work, but I do believe that romance is always a part of love. How we define romance is up to us. For me, it isn’t Valentine’s Day and all the trappings. Friendship is a lot sexier to me than diamonds, so the fact that Raye and Des become friends and move on to romance from there was a big plus in the book.
I agree with Bonnie that love and romance should not be separated. I enjoy Bonnie’s novels because the romantic partners in her novels begin as friends and their relationship grows organically.
Especially in Never Retreat, Bonnie’s approach to story-telling has evolved and matured. There are such wonderful details and descriptions of the surroundings that they become part of the story even before nature becomes a major character.