Review - - Home for Christmas

Home for Christmas

By Holly Chamberlin

Publisher: Kensington

Release Date: October 31, 2017

Reviewed by Janga

  

Six years ago when Nell King’s husband left her for a younger woman, she left her “perfect life” in a Boston suburb behind and moved to Yorktide, Maine, to start a new life with her daughters, Molly and Felicity, then fifteen and eleven. Nell found healing and happiness in Yorktide, but as this Christmas approaches, she is overcome with sadness at thoughts of her soon-to-be-empty nest. With Molly planning to marry shortly after she graduates in June and Felicity looking forward to college in the fall and planning to spend next Christmas in Switzerland with her father and celebrity stepmother, Nell realizes this Christmas may be the last one her family of three will share.  She determines to make this Christmas one her daughters will always remember, their best Christmas ever.

As Nell struggles with concerns about who she will be once her daughters no longer need her, she begins decorating the day after Thanksgiving. By the second week in December, the house is filled with Christmas trimmings, including three Christmas trees, one so big that it required two men to move it into the house. Her kitchen is filled with holiday cookies and candies, and every spare minute from her job as office manager of a local veterinary practice is taken up with her Christmas handcraft du jour.

Despite her efforts, the season is not measuring up to expectations. Her daughters are begging off participating in some of the family’s cherished traditions. Molly is planning to break up with her longtime boyfriend to avoid losing herself in marriage and motherhood, a decision that Nell sees as a critique of her own life. Felicity, influenced by her stepmother, is displaying a disturbing materialism. And the reappearance of Eric Manville, now a successful novelist and the man Nell loved madly at twenty-one, is forcing her to question choices she made long ago.

This has been a good year for heartwarming Christmas stories with the sentiment and seasonal packaging of a Hallmark movie. Add Holly Chamberlin’s Christmas novel to the list of those that do this sort of story well. Although this is women’s fiction with Nell’s journey to a rediscovery of self at its center, the romantic element is strong enough to make the book appealing to romance readers. The characters are relatable, and Nell’s decorating, baking/candy making, gifting frenzy will strike a familiar note with many readers. So too will her fears that the reality of the holiday will not measure up to her dreams of what it should be. Themes of second chances, forgiveness, and reconciliation add greater substance.

This is a sweet story that manages to avoid the saccharine. There are no villains here. Even the ex-husband is a man with strengths as well as weaknesses and a father who loves his daughters. If you like quieter stories without high drama or sizzling sensuality, I think you will appreciate this one. I did, and I give it an unqualified recommendation for readers who are more sentimental than cynical. 

Winners - - Throwback Thursday

The randomly chosen winners from 

my Throwback Thursday post are:

Annie O'Rourke

and

Anita H.

Please send your full name and mailing address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Anita, please choose a book with a value of $10 or less from bookdepository.com

Review - - A Duke in Shining Armor

A Duke in Shining Armor

By Loretta Chase

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: November 28, 2017

Reviewed by Janga
 

Lady Olympia Hightower is not the kind of young woman one would expect to overindulge in brandy on her wedding day. She is bookish, pragmatic, and downright boring. In fact, she has an unofficial title to attest to the last: for seven consecutive years, she has been voted Most Boring Girl of the Season. With six brothers, an improvident father, and a twenty-sixth birthday perilously close, Olympia knows she should be thankful that she is to become the bride of the Duke of Ashmont, a man who is handsome, charming and wealthy, albeit scandalous to a degree that not even his dukedom can overcome. She’s puzzled about why he wants to marry her, and she is becoming more and more certain that she cannot marry him. What’s a girl to do in such circumstances? Run away, of course.

Hugh Ancaster, seventh Duke of Ripley, watches his friend Ashmont get drunker and more combative as they wait for the no-show bride. Knowing Ashmont well enough to know he is likely to become drunker and more aggressive, Ripley decides the wisest thing to do is locate the missing bride, but when he finds her, she is leaving the premises via a library window. Torn between his desire to pretend he hasn’t seen the tipsy, red-eyed bride and his conviction that keeping up with the bride is part of his responsibility as groomsman in charge, he follows her.

Ripley may begin with the idea of persuading Olympia to return for a delayed wedding, but he ends up helping her escape. For three days, the unlikely pair move from misadventure to misadventure. He discovers that Olympia is many things, but boring is certainly not among them. She discovers that she is more than she thought she was—and that she can feel Ripley’s kisses in twenty places in her body. Soon the last thing Ripley wants is to see Olympia married to Ashmont, but a man of honor can’t just steal the bride of his nearly life-long best friend. Or can he?

A Duke in Shining Armor introduces the Difficult Dukes, a new series from Loretta Chase. It has been almost two years since the release of Dukes Prefer Blondes, so I was eager for a new Loretta Chase book—and this one was a delight. I admit to being a bit skeptical about the runaway bride plot initially. It is one that seems to work wonderfully well or fail dismally. In this case, it worked, in part because I fell in love with the character right away and in part because it quickly becomes a road-trip book with the H/H thrown into each other’s company in a way that could not have been achieved credibly in any other way. It makes the pace of their plunge into love seem slower than it actually is.

Olympia is intelligent, funny, and confused. She is torn between what her head dictates she do (marry the duke who asked her) and what her heart prompts her to do (hold out for her hero). The heart wins. Yay for Olympia! Ripley is the best kind of bad-boy hero, one whose behavior is beyond the pale but whose innate honor, kindness, and humor define who he is at heart. Plus, he has the perception to see the person Olympia really is. His choice is difficult: to betray one of his two friends whose shared history goes back to their childhoods or to see the woman he loves marry another man, one moreover who can never give her the happiness she deserves. Chase provides just enough of Ashmont, who is somehow likable despite his flaws, and the intriguingly mysterious Blackwood with his troubled marriage to leave readers hungry for the stories of these other Dis-Graces. And I hope to learn more about Ripley’s Aunt Julia and Ashmont’s Uncle Fred as well.

If you like historical romance that is light-hearted and smart, witty and warm, and rich in the banter that Chase does superbly, I highly recommend this book. I loved it enough to reread it rather than complain if I must wait until the end of 2018 for the next Loretta Chase book.

Release Day Blog Blitz & Giveaway - - When a Warrior Woos a Lass

The past haunts them. Treachery awaits them. Love will save them. 

A shattered lass… Scarred by the cruel whims of her late husband, Lena MacLeod lives in fear of men and marriage. So when the king’s edict obliges her to wed Scottish warrior Alex MacLean, she never expects to feel safe, let alone happy. But behind Alex’s fierce exterior lies a gentle, gallant highlander who renews her soul, emboldens her, and offers her the one thing she never thought she would possess—true love. Now that Alex has her whole heart, she’ll settle for nothing less than all of his. 

A tortured highlander… 

Haunted by violent nightmares of his dark past, Alex MacLean has put off getting married for as long as possible. But now he finds himself the husband of the fragile, beautiful Lena, and he’s drawn to her as he has never been to another. He vows to protect and heal her, and as she grows stronger, so does his love for her. Yet, his horrible memories and a treacherous task are preventing him from giving himself to her entirely, and the secrets he harbors threaten to destroy their life together. 

A union… 

When Lena uncovers a dangerous scheme involving Alex, she embarks on a desperate journey to save the man she loves. But Alex still hasn’t let her in, and he runs the risk of losing her—and his life—unless he can accept that his once delicate wife is now an ally strong enough to light his way.


I've been an enthusiastic fan of Julie Johnstone's Medieval Scotland world since picking up the first book in her Highlander Vows: Entangled Hearts series. With each book published, I become more deeply enmeshed in the lives of these characters, following their joys, sorrows, challenges, and triumphs with equal intensity. Alex and Lena's story is one I have been eagerly anticipating and Ms. Johnstone is not letting me down. I'm about halfway through their journey and, so far, it is all I could have hoped for. Here's a short excerpt from the first chapter:


She studied him from under her lashes, trying to discern why he was scowling. A smile pulled at her lips as she realized his unrelentingly determined younger sister, Bridgette, who was married to Lena’s older brother Lachlan, had Alex’s hand clutched in hers and was leading him somewhere. Alex was not the sort of man to be led; he was the warrior who others followed. Still, he had a soft spot for his sister, as well as a ferocious protectiveness of her. They were but two of the reasons Lena knew he was a good man.

Two years ago, when she’d seen him for the first time since she’d been taken from her home as a child, her reaction to him had shocked her to the core and then rapidly caused fear to course through her. She was drawn to him, and that was a very frightening thing since she could not tolerate a man even touching her, other than a brief hand to her elbow by her brothers to guide her or a swift hug from one of them. She had not expected to ever feel the pull of desire for a man again after enduring marriage to her late husband, but she’d heard enough chattering from her brothers’ wives to suspect that this tug low in her belly and heat that infused her chest was desire. The truth was that men frightened her, but something about Alex scared her less, which seemed ironic given every inch of his body seemed to be hardened by hours of grueling training and many more hours of actual combat.

She drew in a sharp breath as he came closer, and his glistening bronze eyes locked on her. She felt a fleeting sense of hope when she was around him, as if she might not always be this bird with the irreparable wing, who would never know the joy of soaring into the wind. Part of her wanted to soar, but there was another part of her that had been beaten down by her now-dead husband’s cruelty and wanted to burrow under the dirt and hide.

Even if I had not already read the earlier books and been invested in these characters, that excerpt would have hooked me good. 

Have you discovered Julie Johnstone's books yet? 

Are you a fan of Medieval romance? What is it about this era that calls (or does not) call to you?

One randomly selected person leaving a comment on today's post will receive a print or e-copy (winner's choice) of When a Laird Loves a Lady. Winner will be drawn on December 31. 

Amazon

iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Google Play

Throwback Thursday - - In Grandma's Kitchen

Some of my earliest - and best - memories are of the times spent in my grandma's kitchen. There was always laughter, warmth, lessons in baking, hugs, and gently offered lessons in life. Many years later, as an adult, I happily opened my own kitchen to my young niece and, together, over the years, we created our own special memories. That niece is now a mother who is sharing her love of baking with her little ones. As they live overseas, I don't get to see her as often as I'd like but for the past several weeks she and her two young children have been visiting her parents in Florida and I traveled down to spend time with them. As I had done with his mom when she was about his age, we set aside a day for my 4-year-old grandnephew and I to have our first Christmas candy making day together. There was laughter, warmth, hugs, lessons in candy making, and gently offered lessons in life...just like those wonderful days in my grandma's kitchen more than 50 years ago. The tradition continues...four generations...love, lessons, and the joys of Christmas.  ~PJ

Some of my earliest memories are of being perched on a stool at my grandma's kitchen counter, hanging onto her every word as she taught me how to wield a rolling pin, create flaky melt-in-your-mouth biscuits or golden brown, perfectly baked cookies. Much of what I know about baking was learned at my grandma's side but baking wasn't the only thing I learned in her kitchen. Sprinkled so lightly among the various techniques that I was hardly aware of them, were gentle lessons that have guided my life over the past 50+ years. From that wise and kind woman I learned to find joy in creating something with my own hands and mind, to take pride in my accomplishments but not be boastful about them, to share willingly and joyfully with others, to have compassion for those lacking the skills or resources with which I was blessed, to treat others with the same kindness and respect that I wish to receive from them and to honor those who have gone before me by sharing my love, my time, my knowledge and a few gentle life lessons with the young people in my life.

Grandma has been with the angels for many years now but, to this day, I can still feel her gentle hand on my shoulder, guiding me in the right direction. A few years ago I was visiting with some cousins that I hadn't seen in almost 30 years. One of them said to me, "You're so much like Grandma it's almost like having her with us again." I can think of no greater compliment.

MY FAVORITE SUGAR COOKIES

1 cup solid Crisco shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. lemon extract
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
dash of salt
Cream shortening. Add 1-1/2 cups sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs and flavorings; beat well. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into creamed mixture. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2-3 inches apart onto greased cookie sheets. Dip a fork into flour then lightly press on each cookie to flatten. Sprinkle cookie with remaining sugar. Bake at 375° F. for 9 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.
YIELD: 9 dozen

** For a festive appearance, sprinkle cookies with colored sugar before baking or forego the sugar and frost or glaze the cookies after they have baked and cooled.  .

CHOCOLATE DIPPED LOG COOKIES
1 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons brandy
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups chopped pecans
Powdered sugar
Melted milk chocolate

Cream butter.  Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy.
Add brandy, vanilla and salt; mix well.
Add flour, stirring until blended.  Stir in pecans.

Shape dough into 1-1/2 x 1/2 inch logs.  Place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake at 325° F. for 15 to 20 minutes.  Cookies should not brown.

While warm, roll cookies lightly in (or dust with) powdered sugar. Place on wire racks to cool.  When completely cool, dip one end of cookie in melted chocolate.  Let stand on wax paper until set.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

TIGER'S BUTTER

1 cup melted milk chocolate
1 cup melted white chocolate
1 cup smooth peanut butter

Melt milk chocolate and white chocolate in separate double boilers over 120° F. water. Stir peanut butter into melted white chocolate until blended and smooth. Gently swirl melted milk chocolate into the white chocolate/peanut butter mixture.

Ways to serve: 
Pour into a wax-paper lined baking dish. Chill then cut into squares.

Pour into candy molds. Chill then pop out onto wax-paper.

Spread onto wax-paper lined baking sheets. Chill then break into "bark" pieces.

*Your family will fight for the right to lick this bowl!

Are you creating special holiday treats in your kitchen this Christmas?  Did you gain your love of cooking/baking from someone special? Are you passing along that knowledge by being a mentor to someone else?  Share your memories with me for a chance to win! Earn a bonus chance by sharing a recipe.

One randomly chosen person leaving a comment will receive a package of books from my conference stash. (U.S. only) 

One randomly chosen international comment will receive a book of your choice from bookdepository.com. Maximum value of $10 U.S. 

Winners will be chosen from all comments posted by 11:00PM (ET), December 15, 2017. 

Review - - Moonlight Over Manhattan

Moonlight Over Manhattan

By Sarah Morgan

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: November 28, 2017

Reviewed by Janga

With her brother Daniel and Molly Parker planning their wedding (New York, Actually) and her twin Fliss and Seth Carlyle settling into newly-wed bliss (Holiday in the Hamptons), Harriet Knight’s life is changing. She has decided that it is time for her to overcome her shyness and step out from the protection with which her siblings surrounded her. The holidays seem a good time to begin her self-improvement program, so she has declared the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas a time when each day she will challenge herself to do one thing on her list of Things Harriet Knight Wouldn’t Normally Do. Online dating is one of those things, but thirty minutes into her third bad date, she is doing another of those things—climbing out the window of the ladies’ room with the help of her new best friend, the loquacious Natalie the waitress. Unfortunately, the jump landing Harriet’s escape requires leads to a twisted ankle, which forces her to visit the emergency room, another thing Harriet doesn’t normally do.

Dr. Ethan Black is the attending physician in the emergency room. His father and his grandfather are primary care physicians, and his mother is a pediatrician—all happily practicing in upstate New York. But Ethan prefers the city and the excitement of leading a team in a busy trauma center. Harriet is not his usual patient. Her smile, her gratitude, and her normalcy all make her different from his usual emergencies. He thinks she is lovely and interesting, but Ethan is not looking for romance. He never expects to see Harriet again.

Is he ever wrong! When his sister Karen has to leave town because of a family emergency, she asks Ethan to dog-sit. He is not happy with the idea, but he loves his sister and his niece and can’t refuse the favor. Karen promises that Madi the dog will be no trouble and that with her regular dog-walker showing up twice a day to walk Madi, Ethan will have little to do. To his shock, he returns home the first day of life with Madi to discover the dog, who doesn’t cope well with change and loneliness, has trashed his apartment. Dr. Hot loses his cool, shouting his frustration and making Madi cower and Harriet, who arrived on the scene just before Ethan, stammer, a humiliation that sends her fleeing with Madi.

Abject apologies smooth things over, and when Ethan pleads with Harriet to become his live-in dog-sitter, she agrees, although not without reservations. The workaholic doctor discovers how pleasant it is to come home to Harriet’s serene, nurturing presence. She even nurses him through a bout with the flu. Harriet is cautious, but she finds Ethan irresistible. Soon romance is blooming amid the December chill. But Ethan, with a failed marriage behind him for which he blames himself and the demands of his job, is convinced that he cannot be what Harriet needs. Harriet, scarred from her relationship with a verbally and emotionally abusive father, will not allow herself to settle for less than a full commitment. The situation looks dire, but with a little help from their friends and family, these lovers may overcome the obstacles.

This is the sixth book in Morgan’s From Manhattan With Love series, and it is another winner. Harriet is a dear--genuinely sweet, vulnerable, and innocent to a rare degree. It is easy to root for her to gain self-confidence, to become more of a risk-taker, and to find the kind of happiness her siblings have found. Ethan is a bit more difficult because he will not allow himself to become emotionally open, but his love for his family and his friendship with his colleague Susan give hints of the caring man he is beneath the image he has constructed. His fears may be better hidden than Harriet’s, but they are no less a force in his life.

Morgan has a gift for creating characters who have depth and believability. She does it again in what appears to be the final book in an excellent series. I loved Harriet before I started the book, and I learned to love Ethan. Fans of the series will be pleased that Daniel and Fliss are a natural part of the story without taking attention away from the central romance. Ethan’s friend Susan is a scene-stealer and a wonderful addition to the book. And the conclusion left me smiling as I wiped a tear from my eye.

If you like contemporary romance that is sweet and sensual and with enough Christmas trimmings to make it a satisfying holiday read, you should add this one to your TBR. I’m always sad to bid farewell to a Sarah Morgan series, but I look forward to How to Keep a Secret, a multi-generational story set on Martha’s Vineyard and scheduled for release on July 10, 2018.

Winner - - Christmastime Cowboy

The randomly chosen winner of a copy of

Christmastime Cowboy by Maisey Yates is:

Eileen A-W

Congratulations!

Please send your full name and mailing address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Winner - - Victoria Alexander

The randomly chosen winner of a copy of 

The Lady Travelers Guide to Larceny with a Dashing Stranger is:

traveler

Congratulations!

Please send your full name and mailing address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Winner - - Maggie Robinson

The randomly chosen winner of a print or ebook copy of

Schooling the Viscount by Maggie Robinson is:

MsAwesome

Please send your full name and mailing address 

(for a print copy) or email address (for ebook copy) to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Winners - - Coming Attractions

The randomly chosen winners from the 

December Coming Attractions post are:

Pamela Devereux

(Kindle copy of Redeeming Lord Ryder)

and

Debbie Oxier

(Kindle copy of Call to Redemption)

Please send your email address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Winner - - Susan Sands

The randomly chosen winner of a 

signed copy of Christmas, Alabama by Susan Sands is:

PattyB43

Congratulations!

Please send your name and mailing address to us at:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Today's Special - - Berkley Bookmas: Marry in Scandal

The Romance Dish is tickled pink to be part of the exciting 2017 Berkley Bookmas!  I'm especially delighted to be hosting today's spotlight author, Anne Gracie with an excerpt from her upcoming April 2018 novel, Marry in Scandal. This is the second book in Ms. Gracie's Marriage of Convenience series and one I'm especially eager to read. If you haven't read the first book in the series, Marry in Haste, I highly recommend it. (Read our Just Between Us review here.) 

Berkley Bookmas is filled to the brim with exclusive content from authors like exclusive excerpts, deleted scenes, author recipes, and more! Check out the calendar of events below: 

Marry In Scandal ~ Anne Gracie

London, 1818

“I have secured a duke for the opera tonight,” Agatha, Lady Salter announced with an air of triumph. Bone thin and immensely elegant, her steely silvery hair intricately coiled, piled high and bound into a kind of turban, she fingered her lorgnette with long fingers and eyed her three nieces with a critical gaze.

Lily Rutherford, Lady Salter’s youngest niece, swallowed. She sat with her sister Rose on the chaise longue facing the old lady. George, technically a great-niece rather than a niece, lounged casually on the armrest of a nearby chair.

“Do dukes sing?” Rose idly twirled her fan. “I had no idea.”

“Don’t be facetious, Rose,” Aunt Agatha snapped. “You know very well why I have arranged this opportunity—it’s for you in particular.” She added, “As well, he is bringing two friends, one of whom—”

She broke off, her eyes narrowed. Lily tensed as the old lady raised her lorgnette. It was a warm day and Lily’s thighs were sticking together, but she didn’t dare move. Aunt Agatha despised fidgeting.

But her gaze came to rest meaningfully on George, who gave the elderly dowager a bland smile in return and stayed where she was, one leg swinging in an unladylike manner.

“Georgiana! Are you wearing breeches under that habit?”

George shrugged, entirely unrepentant. “We’re just back from our morning ride.”

The old lady closed her eyes in a ‘heaven-help-me’ expression, muttered something under her breath, took a deep breath and continued, “As I said, the duke is bringing two of his friends, and one of them might be interested in you, Georgiana—though not if you sit like that! Or wear breeches. No gentleman of taste—”

“And one of them might be interested in Lily.” Rose smiled warmly at her sister.

Aunt Agatha glanced at Lily. “Perhaps,” she said dismissively. She raised her lorgnette and raked it critically over the person of her youngest niece.

Lily, knowing what was coming, sucked in her stomach and held her breath. But it did no good.

“I see you have failed to follow my advice about the diet that was so effective for Lord Byron, Lily. You’re as fat as ever.”

“Lily isn’t fat,” Rose flashed angrily. “She’s lovely and rounded and cuddly. But not fat!”

“And besides, she did try that dreadful diet,” George said. “For two whole weeks and it made her quite sick for no result. Potatoes drenched in vinegar? Ghastly.”

“A small sacrifice for the sake of beauty,” Aunt Agatha said with all the complacence of a woman who had never had to diet in her life.

“Lily is beautiful as she is.” Rose squeezed her sister’s hand comfortingly. “We all think so.”

Aunt Agatha snorted.

“Better to be sweet-natured and cuddly than a nasty, well-dressed skeleton.” George gave a meaningful glance at Aunt Agatha.

Lily tried not to squirm. She hated this, hated people quarreling over her, hated it when Aunt Agatha examined her through her horrid lorgnette—as she did every time she visited. Under that cold, merciless gaze, Lily always felt like a worm—a fat, unattractive, stupid worm. And she couldn’t bear another evening of it.

“I’m sorry but I can’t come to the opera tonight,” she found herself saying. “I have a—a previous engagement.”

There was a short, shocked silence. Rose and George blinked and tried to conceal their surprise.

Aunt Agatha’s gaze, her eyes horribly enlarged through the lens of her weapon of choice, bored into Lily. “What did you say, gel?”

Lily swallowed but held her ground. “I said, I have a prior engagement.” She pressed her lips together. She was hopeless at arguing;, she always gave in eventually, so it was better to say nothing.

Aunt Agatha gripped her carved ebony stick in a bony grasp and stamped it on the floor. The floor being covered by a thick Turkish rug, the effect was rather lost. “Did you not understand me, you stupid gel? A duke and two of his friends have agreed to join our party at the opera. A duke! And two other eligible gentlemen. And you say you can’t come? What nonsense! Of course you will come!”

Lily eased her fingers out of her sister’s grasp. Now her hands were sweaty, as well as her thighs. She wiped them surreptitiously on her skirt and said with as much dignity as she could muster, “I was under the impression you had issued an invitation, Aunt Agatha, not an order.”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shy young heiress, Lady Lily Rutherford, is in no hurry to marry. She dreams of true love and a real courtship. But when disaster strikes, she finds herself facing a scandal-forced marriage to her rescuer, Edward Galbraith, a well known rake. 

Despite his reputation Lily is drawn to the handsome Galbraith. In the gamble of her life, she agrees to marry him, hoping to turn a convenient marriage into a love match. 

As heir to a title, Galbraith knows he must wed, so a convenient marriage suits him perfectly. But there is a darkness in his past, and secrets he refuses to share with his tender-hearted young bride. All Lily's efforts to get close to him fall on stony ground, and in desperation she retreats to his childhood home--the place he's avoided for nearly a decade.

Must Lily reconcile herself to a marriage without love? Or will Galbraith realize that this warm-hearted, loving girl is the key to healing the wounds of his past--and his heart?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only lucky person who enters the giveaway will receive a $100 Visa Gift Card

and one copy of each of the books below. 

Click to enter: http://bit.ly/2zlFxAq

For next week’s fun, head to one of the following blogs on December 11:

·         My Friend Amy

·         The Romance Studio

·         Booked & Loaded

·         Vampire Book Club

·         Coffee and Characters

·         Rantings of a Reading Addict

·         Diva Does 4 Good

·         Just Another Book Bitch

·         The Good, the Bad and the Unread

·         Literary Escapism

·         Reviews by Reds

·         3 Degrees of Fiction Book Blog

·         Novel Grounds  

Are you reading Anne Gracie's Marriage of Convenience series?

Do you enjoy a heroine with curves?

Are you as excited about Lily's story as I am?