Friday, July 25, 2014

A Message in the Roses



Weekenders Romance Watch




A Message in the Roses
Author: Sandy Semerad
Genre: Mainstream Romance
Buy: Amazon




Blurb: 

On a snowy day in Atlanta, Carrie Sue Justice revisits the past as a young and passionate newspaper reporter in 1986, covering a shooting death in her community:

Her life is a mess. She catches her husband with another woman inside the antebellum home she inherited from her parents. Then she falls in love with an unavailable man plagued with guilt. The man is none other than the irresistible owner of the Southern Journal where Carrie Sue works.

They begin a steamy love affair. During this wild time, Carrie Sue must find out why three black teenagers were arrested for killing a white teen. One of the teens was wrongly accused.

Regardless of the consequences, she's determined to help prove his innocence.




Enchanting Excerpt:



Chapter One
On a snowy morning in Atlanta, Carrie Sue rummaged through an old cedar chest, searching for a journal. The storm had knocked out her power, but she was grateful to have a fire in the hearth and a kerosene lamp to read by.

She shook her head in dismay at all the stuff she’d collected. Only a pack rat would keep a stack of reporters’ notebooks and a cassette recorder from the 1980s. That was so long ago. No cell-phones or social media then.

When she uncovered her wedding dress embroidered with roses, she buried her nose in the crinoline and inhaled the sweet musk, still lingering after all these years.

Beneath the dress, was a small safe. She fumbled with the combination lock and eventually opened it to reveal the lovely leather-bound book.

Her hands shook as she withdrew the diary. She sucked in a sharp breath and opened it.

But as she began to read, a painful nostalgia stung her. She barely recognized the passionate and reckless young woman she used to be.

Journal of Carrie Sue Justice
December 8, 1986

My stomach knotted when I saw the strange car in my driveway. Damn it, my key wouldn’t open my front door. Deadbolt was locked.

The door vibrated from the blaring stereo inside, as if my house were possessed. I couldn’t imagine my husband blasting music. He’d always complained about loud noise in the morning, and when I left an hour ago, he looked fast asleep.

As the Eagles belted out Heartache Tonight, I punched the doorbell nonstop. No response. By now snow clouds had buried the sun.

Dad used to say, “Always trust your gut.”

My gut screamed disaster, reminding me of the day I received the tragic news about Mom and Dad.


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandySemerad

Saturday, July 19, 2014

God Whisperer



Weekenders Romance Watch




10% of author royalties will be donated to the American Society for Deaf Children.


God Whisperer
Author: Kimberly Troutte
Genre: Mainstream Romance
Buy: Amazon


 Blurb:
A frightened mother on the run…

LONNIE HOGAN has lived and breathed fear for the past eight years. Will the killers find them? She’s ready to run again, or fight for her son’s precious life, but she won’t let anyone take David. 

A desperate man searching for his family…

Few people on St. John, Virgin Islands, know their favorite doctor, MARK NORTON, is a desperate man searching for the life stolen from him. After hours, he surfs the internet for leads gone stone-cold to find his missing family. 

Will sacrifice everything to protect the boy who hears God…


Enchanting Excerpt:
Had they been found?
Holding her breath, she listened. She waited for the bedroom door to scrape open and a dark figure to burst into her room. Her muscle fibers and nerves were ready to propel her body out of bed. She was a live wire. Her senses were on overdrive, ready to yell for help, ready to flee.
Several minutes later she exhaled her relief. No one had gotten in. No one was going to kill them. Tiptoeing down the hall, she went to David's room and gently put her hand on his chest. Her innocent child was fast asleep.
She crawled back into bed. Focusing on the hairline crack in her ceiling, she rehearsed what she'd do if they were caught. Lonnie hated thinking about the scary past showing up on her front porch, but had to prepare. She'd protect David at all costs.
     Mentally, she recited the escape plan she had nicknamed The List:
One: Grab the box hidden under the bed.
Two: Snag the falsified IDs and birth certificate from the sock drawer.
Three: Tuck everything under David's arms and tell him to, "Run to Carrie Beth's!" He'd be confused, but she'd make him understand. She had to.
Four: Run as fast as her legs could carry her unless…she couldn't. If she couldn't get away, she'd stand and fight to save her son. David was the only person who mattered. Only David.
By the time she finished running through her plan she was sobbing into her pillow. The List always made her cry. But not being prepared for the worst was like signing their death warrants.
The worst could be just around the corner. She had to be ready.


Friday, July 18, 2014

Imagine That



Weekenders Romance Watch



Covington Falls Chronicles (Book 3)


Imagine That
Author: Kristin Wallace
Genre: Mainstream Romance
Buy: Amazon

Blurb:
Children’s author Emily Sinclair was supposed to be the next J.K. Rowling… Until her second book flopped and her imagination went on the fritz. So she sets out on an epic adventure to find inspiration again. A journey that leads her to Covington Falls. Rugged, blue-collar Nate Cooper is dealing with his sick mother and troublesome teenage brother. He doesn’t have much use for fancy words and certainly not for a slightly off-center writer on the lam. On paper, these two would seem the least likely pairing, but they’re about to write their own happily ever after.


Enchanting Excerpt:

(Emily’s car has broken down outside Covington Falls…)

The truck slowed and Emily tensed, torn between elation at being found and wariness regarding exactly who might be behind the wheel of the ancient rattletrap. The glare off the windshield made it impossible to see inside the cab, however.

The tires veered off to the side of the road and stopped, sending up a cloud of dust. Emily waved her hand, choking on the airborne dirt. Her mouth felt dry as if she had licked the ground. The door opened. Work boots emerged. Brown and roughed-up and covered in… paint. A man stepped out, and Emily steadied her hands against the car to keep from falling over.

Mr. Darcy. No, Heathcliff. Only instead of a cravat and breeches, he was dressed in faded jeans and a black T-shirt, which seemed molded to an impressive chest. Heath stretched up a good six-plus feet, towering over her puny five-foot-two frame. A lock of dark chocolate-brown hair brushed over his forehead. Their eyes met. Since she was already thinking in clichés, Emily’s mind offered up a million of them to describe his eyes. She could start with gray, but no way did such a mundane word do them justice. Slate, storm clouds, a roiling sea, glazed pewter. Devastating, and framed by thick sooty lashes no man had a right to possess.

He stopped a few feet away, and Emily had the fanciful notion he was trying not to frighten her. Like she was a skittish filly about to bolt.

“Hi,” he said. “Car trouble?”

His voice was like his eyes. Smooth and deep, like honey in a cup of hot tea.
Emily nodded. How could she speak when every male literary fantasy she’d ever dreamed about had unfolded from a rusted-out pickup?



Website: www.KristinWallaceAuthor.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/KristinWallaceAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KWallaceAuthor