Spotlight: Lacewood by Jessica James

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Sometimes love is just too powerful for one lifetime…

MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN in Virginia is a big change for New York socialite Katie McCain. But when she stumbles across an abandoned 200-year-old mansion, she’s enthralled by the enduring beauty of the neglected estate—and captivated by the haunting portrait of a woman in mourning.

Purchasing the property on a whim, Katie attempts to fit in with the colorful characters in the town of New Hope, while trying to unravel the mystery of the “widow of Lacewood.” As she pieces together the previous owner’s heartrending story, Katie uncovers secrets the house has held for centuries, and discovers the key to coming to terms with her own sense of loss.

The past and present converge when hometown hero Will Durham returns and begins his own healing process by helping the “city girl” restore the place that holds so many memories. As the mystic web of destiny is woven, a love story that might have been lost forever is exposed, and a destiny that has been waiting in the shadows for centuries is fulfilled.

Part love story, part ghost story, Lacewood is a timeless novel about trusting in fate, letting go of the past, and believing in things that can’t be seen.

A powerful and poignant tale that vividly conveys the heartache of war, the tragedy of loss, and the fulfillment of destiny…even when souls are separated by centuries. Lacewood takes readers on a journey that connects the past with the present—and the present with eternity.


Excerpt

Turning in a circle, Katie studied the room again. Faded wallpaper curled and peeled above the dusty wainscoting, but the walls themselves appeared sturdy. On the far side of the entryway, and dominating the wall, stood a mammoth fireplace with an ornately carved hearth. And above the mantle hung a captivating painting of a woman in nineteenth century dress.

“Who is she?”

The sheriff turned to the dusty, sun-bleached portrait in the heavy carved guilt frame. “One of the previous owners, they say.” He shrugged. “The family history kind of got lost with the house. Everyone around here calls her the Widow of Lacewood.”

Katie stood spellbound. The woman was dressed completely in black, but the magnificence of the gown gave the impression of sophistication and class. Her chin was slightly elevated as if to project strength, yet there was more than a hint of sorrow and pain in her eyes.

“She looks so sad.” Katie spoke without removing her gaze. “And so young. How could she be a widow?”

The sheriff had already started to walk away, but he turned back and glanced at the painting. “Not sure, but they say she never remarried. She’s the one out in the cemetery, too, I reckon.”

Katie’s heart suddenly struggled to beat. The anguish in the woman’s eyes kept her riveted. She could see the pain. Feel a heart ripped apart. Something was missing that could never be replaced. Katie had felt such loss before. In a way, that’s why she was here.

“You coming?”

Katie heard the sheriff calling from the next room, and turned to follow. With one quick glance back, she noticed particles of dust now swirled and danced in a shaft of light, almost like a living thing. Her breath caught in her throat as the dust seemed to materialize into the form of a woman, her eyes dull with the same tortured despair and disbelief as the one in the portrait.

Katie jerked her head around for a closer look and blinked. The woman was gone.

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About the Author

Jessica James believes in honor, duty, and true love—and that’s what she writes about in her award-winning novels that span the ages from the Revolutionary War to modern day.

She is a three-time winner of the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, and has won more than a dozen other literary awards, including a Readers' Favorite International Book Award and a Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of America. Her novels have been used in schools and are available in hundreds of libraries including Harvard and the U.S. Naval Academy.

Contact Links

Website: https://www.jessicajamesbooks.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001IYTXOG

BookBub : https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jessica-james

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorjessicajames/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/586216.Jessica_James

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

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Spotlight: Kasey by Jennifer Hanks

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Kasey
Jennifer Hanks
(The Dimarco Series Novella)
Publication date: February 27th 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Introducing an exciting new series filled with suspense, sacrifice, family, and most of all, the healing power of love. Welcome to the Family…

One. Defining. Moment.

Kasey Moore is happy to be home. Moving to New Hope as a teenager hadn’t been easy, but once she settled in, she couldn’t imagine herself living anywhere else. After four years in College, she’s finally back to living in the town she loves and working her dream job as a teacher at the Elementary School.

For Kasey, her life couldn’t be more perfect.

Until a school assembly, an arrogant man, and a hot encounter in a closet shakes up everything Kasey thinks she wants.

Ten years as a Navy SEAL and Jackson Dimarco is coming home.

Ten years of rigid schedules, almost unreachable expectations, and being a part of something bigger than himself has changed him. Coming home, trying to find himself, the last thing Jax wants to do is talk to an auditorium full of school kids about his time in the military, but when his brother signs him up that’s exactly what he ends up doing.

And he meets someone who challenges him in a way nobody has in a very long time. He meets someone who inspires him to become more than who he’s settled for. He meets someone who makes him feel alive again.

It’s just a shame she doesn’t feel the same way.

But Jackson Dimarco has always loved a challenge and Kasey Moore is the biggest incentive he’s ever had to win.

This is a novella in The Dimarco Series. Can be read as a standalone and at any point in the series. However, if new to the series, I’d recommend reading this novella before the first book in the series, Lucy.

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PLUS! The rest of the series is only 99¢ for a limited time!


Author Bio:

Jennifer Hanks is the author of The Dimarco Series as well as The Elite Securities Series. Her stories are contemporary romance and romantic suspense, all with the underlying message of the power and strength in love. She's also a sucker for a Happily-Ever-After. Her love of reading and books in general started at a very young age and has steadily grown into a love of writing as well. She admits to being addicted to all things romance and has no plans of quitting her habit. Jennifer lives in Pennsylvania with her two children. When she's not reading or writing, she can be found with her kids at their various activities. Her house is frequently filled with any combination of her children's friends, nieces, nephews and a variety of pets.

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Spotlight: Crush by Carrie Banks

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Crush
Carrie Banks
(Sea Crest Series, #1)
Publication date: June 18th 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Ry…

My world was black.
I was living bottle to bottle.
Only waking up for a new one.
I was burning through girls. Loving them and leaving them. I swore that I’d never love again. The pain of losing it was too much. I was shutting that shit down.
But then one summer night, I saw her standing there on the beach.
The last rays of the sun glinted off her hair.
Her shy smile captured me.
She stole the heart I thought was dead.
And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do, but let her take it and run.

Tess…

Sea Crest is a popular tourist town, but to me it’s just home.
I’m an average girl who rarely strays from the middle of the road.
But then… we collided.
Me the local good girl and him… the damaged, mysterious new bad boy in town.
My friends told me to stay away.
My gut told me to run.
But my heart’s a traitor that burned for him.
This is more than a summer crush… this could be everything. But in this seaside town, image is the name of the game.
Either you are in or you’re out.
The local good girl catching the eye of the hottest bad-boy who ever graced the halls of Pine Point Academy won’t go over well.
Time to up my game and fight for what I want.
But by summer’s end, will I be the one left crushed?

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Author Bio:

Carrie Banks writes new adult and teen fiction coming of age and romance books.
She loves chocolate, coffee and dogs!
In addition to writing, Carrie enjoys riding her favorite horse, Sienna, camping in Cape Cod and hanging out with her six nephews!

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Spotlight: The Lemon Sisters by Jill Shalvis

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Brooke Lemon has always led the life she wanted, wild adventures—and mistakes—included, something her perfect sister, Mindy, never understood. So when Mindy shows up on Brooke’s doorstep in the throes of a breakdown with her three little kids in tow, Brooke’s shocked.

Wanting to make amends, Brooke agrees to trade places with Mindy, taking the kids back to Wildstone for a few days so she can pick up the pieces and put herself back together. What Brooke doesn’t admit is she’s just as broken …also how does one go home after seven years away? It doesn’t take long for Brooke to come face-to-face with her past, in the form of one tall, dark, sexy mistake. But Garrett’s no longer interested. Only his words don’t match his actions, leaving Brooke feeling things she’d shoved deep.

Soon the sisters begin to wonder: Are they lemons in life? In love? All they know is that neither seems to be able to run far enough to outpace her demons. And when secrets surface, they’ll have to learn that sometimes the one person who can help you the most is the one you never thought to ask.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis writes warm, funny, sexy contemporary romances and women’s fiction. An Amazon, BN & iBooks bestseller, she’s also a two-time RITA winner and has more than 10 million copies of her books sold worldwide.

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Spotlight: Dating by the Book by Mary Ann Marlowe

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Dating by the Book
Mary Ann Marlowe
Published by: Kensington
Publication date: June 25th 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Is love just something you find in books?

Six months ago, writer and bookstore owner Maddie Hanson was left at the altar. Since then, she’s had zero interest in romance—despite the fact that she runs a book club full of sexy eligible bachelors. But when her latest novel is panned by an anonymous blogger who goes by the name Silver Fox—and who accuses her of knowing nothing about passion—she decides to prove her nemesis wrong by seeking a romance hero in real life . . .

There’s the smoldering rock musician, the bookish college professor, and her competitive childhood friend who may want to steal her bookstore more than her heart. Even Silver Fox is getting in on the action, sending Maddie alarmingly—and intoxicatingly—flirtatious emails. And that’s not all. Her ex wants her back.

Now Maddie is about to discover that like any good story, life has twists and turns, and love can happen when you least expect it—with the person you least expect . .

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EXCERPT:

The cry of You’ve got mail! broke the silence, and I made the mistake of checking my phone. The preview showed me an incoming email from Silver Fox. I steeled my nerves for the inevitable sting and clicked the link with one eye closed, bracing for a deadly attack. Here he was a total stranger, and the prospect alone of what he might say had my heart racing worse than a Stephen King novel.

I bounced my foot on the spindle of the stool and dove headfirst into what I was sure would be a flogging.

Ms. Kincaid,

I don’t know why I’m responding to you, but I confess that I keep arguing with you in my head, so I’ve finally decided to tell you a thing or two.

First, you’re wrong if you think reviewers don’t hear from authors. We hear plenty, and trust me when I tell you that responses can be pretty vicious. I sometimes ignore them, but believe it or not, I do realize that authors are people, too, which is why I find myself wanting to mentor you to a better mental place. My main argument is that you shouldn’t respond to reviewers because your opinion is no longer valid. Or let me rephrase it—your opinion is no more valid than mine.

Second, I find myself once again in the position of defending my own personal situation. While I do enjoy video games as much as anyone of my generation, it’s not my primary occupation. In fact, writing reviews is my hobby. I may do this in my underwear, but not simultaneously at my mother’s house.

Third, I do have a healthy imagination, and I can read between the lines. You may have romantic experience, but I suspect you’ve forgotten what it feels like to truly be in love. Unfortunately for me, love is a feeling I’m all too familiar with, and I recognize when someone is faking it. If I could offer you some free advice, I’d urge you to get out and get more experience—romance, sex, heartache. Live a little. If you haven’t felt your stomach flip when your hand brushes someone else’s, if your spine doesn’t tingle when you think back on your first kiss, you can’t bring those feelings to your readers.

Or ignore me. I’m sure there will be plenty of readers who don’t care about the romance anyway. You can write for them.

SF

Heartache? He wanted me to intentionally fly into that turbulence again? It had taken me six months to nurse myself from the depths of the abyss before I could sink my fingernails into the ledge and heave myself up and out. Silver Fox expected me to just do it again? Sure.

But what if he was right? What if the cocoon I’d wrapped myself in was preventing me from writing a genuine relationship? Worse, what if it was preventing me from moving on with my life?

I poked at my bruised heart and didn’t recoil in agony. Had it dried up and died?

“Live a little.” Like that was so easy.

I made a fresh latte and walked over to sit with fellow romance-phobe Charlie.

“What are you working on, Charlie?”

“Reading.” He closed his laptop and stretched. “Why do you think so much of literature is about waiting? Why can’t it all just be the good parts? Why do I have to wade through hundreds of pages lost in the mines of Moria before getting to some real action?”

“Are we talking about Tolkien?”

“It’s just a metaphor. So much wandering around. My patience grows short.”

“Sounds like my life. I strayed from the path in Mirkwood forest and can’t find my way back.”

“Have you considered flipping pages?”

“Of my life?” I laughed, trying to imagine how that would work.

“Why not? Choose your own adventure.” He pointed his index finger toward an invisible lightbulb. “Stuck in the mines? Go over the mountain.”

“Madness.”

“Maybe, but it’s still a choice. Or just go to the next chapter. It can’t be that hard.”

I considered his premise. “But what if you skipped over all the boring or hard parts of life? You’d go straight to your death bed!”

“Hmm. I think you can always choose to stray from the path.” He stirred his coffee. “And with that in mind, I’m going to make a monumental decision to start a new book.” His eyes sharpened with sincerity. “You could, too.”

Charlie the Chronicler had struck again.

“Choose your own adventure . . .”

Peter wasn’t even in this chapter of my life. How long was I expected to wait for the return of the king? Did I have to return to the original path? Did I have to wait for Peter to come back around?

Or could I consider other avenues?

What if, instead of sitting in my own self-pity, I took a chance on a perilous quest fraught with messy complications, whose successful completion seemed impossible? It wasn’t like there was safety hiding in the mines anyway. I’d already spent six months in the dark, chased by a cave troll of emotional destruction. I might not die of heartbreak, but loneliness rose up like a flaming Balrog from the depths of hell, and only I could choose to fly to higher ground.

I wanted to emerge as the heroine of my own adventure. A badass heroine controlling her own destiny.


Author Bio:

Some Kind of Magic is Mary Ann Marlowe's first novel. When not writing, she works by day as a computer programmer/DBA. She spent ten years as a university-level French professor, and her resume includes stints as an au pair in Calais, a hotel intern in Paris, a German tutor, a college radio disc jockey, and a webmaster for several online musician fandoms, plus she has a second-degree black belt. She has lived in twelve states and three countries and loves to travel. She now lives in central Virginia where she is hard at work on her second novel. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website at www.maryannmarlowe.com, on Facebook, www.facebook.com/marlowemaryann/, and at twitter.com/maryannmarlowe.

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Spotlight: A Rainbow Above Us by Sharon Sala

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Publication Date: June 25, 2019

Hurricane Fanny left no one in Blessings, Georgia unscathed—including Rowan Harper, the only surviving member of her family. Rebuilding her life now seems almost impossible.

Bowie James comes back to help repair his grandmother’s house, but he doesn’t intend to stay long. He and his mother were forced out of Blessings a decade ago, and he’s neither forgiven nor forgotten those responsible.

But Rowan is kindhearted, beautiful, and lost, and Bowie discovers that he can entrust her with his deepest secrets. If only their love could bring hope and healing to everyone around them, maybe they’d be willing to give it a chance…

Excerpt

Bowie pulled up at his motor home and got out. He was almost at the steps when he heard a laugh that cut to his core. He knew it was Rowan. He didn’t know what had made her laugh like that, but it was such a joyful belly laugh that he was already grinning when he unlocked the door and walked in.

The trio was sitting at the dining table, playing cards. Ella looked up and waved.

“You’re back! Thank God. We’re playing strip poker, and I’m losing.”

He grinned. His aunt Ella was missing both shoes and her skirt. Luckily for all of them, she still favored slips.

But it was Rowan who startled him most. The quiet, dark--eyed beauty was doubled over with laughter, and every time she looked up at Pearl, she started laughing all over again.

Pearl was blushing. “It’s not funny, missy. Just because you’re still wearing all of your underwear doesn’t mean you shouldn’t worry.”

Rowan couldn’t even look up. She just rolled out of her chair onto the floor, laughing until tears were running down her face.

Pearl slapped the cards she was holding facedown on the table and pointed at Rowan.

“Bowie, take this snippet with you to Piggly Wiggly so we can put our clothes back on. I’ve never played such a game in my life.”

Ella laughed. “Mama, don’t lie. I remember you and Daddy playing this after you put me to bed.”

Pearl gasped and then blushed again. “Well, never mind.”

Rowan groaned. “Oh my God…somebody help me up. I can’t breathe,” she said, and then covered
her face.

Bowie couldn’t take his eyes off her…flat on her back on his floor, so gloriously sexy he could hardly think.

“Well, get her up and out of here,” Pearl said, and then hid a grin. Even she was entranced by the unexpected delight.

Bowie moved toward Rowan. When she held up her hand, he grasped her by the wrist, her hand engulfed within his fist, and pulled her upright.

“Thank you,” Rowan said, and then turned loose of him and ran around the table to hug Pearl. “I’m sorry, sweetie, but thank you for the first joy I’ve felt since before the storm.”

Pearl kissed the side of Rowan’s cheek and hugged her back. “I’m happy to have been of service.”

Rowan started giggling again. “I need my shoes. I think I left them in the master bedroom. I’ll be right back,” she said, and bolted toward the back of the motor home.

Bowie was a dedicated bachelor with an image to protect, but they had yet to pass one night under the same roof, and he was already feeling a complication in his life that he didn’t need.

“I’m back,” Rowan said, and snagged their grocery list from the table.

“Then I guess we’re off,” Bowie said. “You sure you two don’t want to come with us?”

Ella shook her head. “I guess we’ll pass. I’m not dressed, and Mama isn’t wearing underwear, so there’s that.”

Rowan was still giggling when she got in the front seat with Bowie and buckled up.

“Oh my word…I didn’t know I could still laugh. That was the best medicine ever,” she said, and then burst into tears and started apologizing.

Bowie handed her a pack of tissues from the console.

“Honey, don’t apologize. I grew up with three women. There’s little I haven’t already seen or heard about.” Then he grinned. “I can’t believe you got Gran to play strip poker.”

“It was Ella’s suggestion, and then she kept losing. Pearl is the one who made me laugh, though. I guess she figured if she shed her drawers, she could still maintain her dignity…unlike Ella, who just peeled stuff off as she went.”

Now Bowie was chuckling, imagining Gran getting up and taking off her panties.

“What did she do with them?” he asked.

“She heard you drive up and sat on them,” Rowan said. “That’s when I burst out laughing.”

That image was too priceless to ignore. Bowie laughed all the way to the Piggly Wiggly.

Right before they got out, Bowie paused. “I don’t know what’s on the list, but if you have things you need that you might be embarrassed about, I can easily wait up front and just pay when you’re finished.”

Rowan shrugged. “Mama died when I was ten. Daddy raised me. He’s the one who told me about the birds and the bees and all the girl stuff. I’m used to shopping for all that with a man, so I’m fine if you are.”

“Then we’re good,” Bowie said. “Remember…three women and me.”

Rowan grinned. “We’re quite a pair, aren’t we?” she said, and jumped out. He got out and followed her into the store, trying not to think about what it would be like to be part of her world.

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Excerpted from A Rainbow Above Us by Sharon Sala. © 2019 by Sharon Sala. Used with permission of the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Blessings, Georgia Series:

You and Only You (Book 1)

I'll Stand by You (Book 2)

Saving Jake (Book 3)

A Piece of My Heart (Book 4)

The Color of Love (Book 5)

Come Back to Me (Book 6)

Forever My Hero (Book 7)

A Rainbow Above Us (Book 8)

About the Author

SHARON SALA has over one hundred books in print and has published in five different genres. She is an eight-time RITA finalist, five-time Career Achievement winner from RT Book Reviews, and five-time winner of the National Reader’s Choice Award. Writing changed her life, her world, and her fate. She lives in Norman, Oklahoma. Visit her on the web at sharonsala.net.