Today's Special - - Creating the Castle with Nancy Northcott and Jeanne Adams

 

Nancy Northcott, Jeanne Adams and friends are back with another anthology set in magnificent Caynham Castle. While last year's Christmas at Caynham Castle treated readers to Christmas holiday revelry, this year's Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle immerses characters - and readers - into the spookiness of Halloween. Jeanne and Nancy join us today to give us a behind the scenes tour of the making of this ancient castle on England's Welsh border. 

Welcome, Jeanne and Nancy!

Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle

An Anthololgy by Jeanne Adams, Morgan Brice, Caren Crane, and Nancy Northcott

Publisher: Rickety Bookshelf Press

Release Date: September 23, 2020

Come to western England’s Welsh Marches and the wickedly, spookily fun Halloween Ball at Caynham Castle. Let the Earl of Caynham and his fiancée welcome you into Halloween fun.

Lovers from Cape May, New Jersey, take a Halloween holiday at the magnificent Caynham Castle in Secrets and Ciphers. As their love and trust deepens, they also stumble across and solve a 700 year old mystery! Enjoy this M/M Romance with Morgan Brice’s Erik and Ben from Treasure Trail.

Follow an archeologist witch from Idaho as she tangles with a sexy photographer from the witchiest town in America, Jeanne Adams’s Haven Harbor, Massachusetts. In Trouble Under the Tower, they discover a hidden chapel, fend off thieves, and help put a dark entity to rest. Somewhere in all that trouble, love sneaks in!

In Mr. Never Again, spies from Nancy Northcott’s Arachnid Agency come to Caynham Castle to guard a weapons designer and her family. When her son goes missing, her loyalty may be at risk. Hunting for him offers Blaine and Dana a second chance at love if they’re brave enough to take it.

In Caren Crane’s tale, Murky Waters, a landscape architect from Massachusetts finds much more than he expects, both in a floral designer from his friend’s shop, and in the woods south of Caynham Castle. Discovery of an evil waterborne spirit threatens the new love he has found, unless his lover figures out how to set him free.

Four spooky, witchy, spirit-filled stories set against the stunning background of Caynham Castle’s epic Halloween Ball and Bonfire Night!

 

Creating the Castle

by Nancy Northcott & Jeanne Adams

~

 

Thanks for having us, PJ, and hi to everybody! 

We’ve had great fun playing in our imaginary castle with our buddies Caren Crane, Seressia Glass, Donna MacMeans, Gail Z. Martin (a/k/a Morgan Brice), and Anna Sugden. All of us wrote novellas for last year’s Christmas at Caynham Castle. This year, we also have a Halloween anthology, Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle. Only Caren, and Gail, wearing her Morgan Brice hat, Jeanne, and Nancy had room in our schedules for Halloween, so we’re the only ones in this anthology. 

Creating the castle was a fun process too. It involved lots of back-and-forth, tailoring the place to the story needs. As we launch the Halloween anthology, we thought readers might enjoy a look behind the scenes of the castle’s birth. 

Nancy: At the Rust City reader event a couple of years ago, I saw a book on Amazon featuring holiday stories in a common location. I love holiday anthologies and have read many centered around events like balls or fairs or house parties. The common location, though, clicked with me in a way the others hadn’t. I don’t know any romance readers who don’t love castles, including me, so I naturally thought of a castle. 

Since Caren and Donna were also at that conference, I floated the idea by them. They were up for that. I also reached out to other writers whose work I enjoy. We ended up with a great group. Jeanne, being Jeanne, immediately offered to do maps and diagrams. 

Jeanne: It’s the former designer/draftsperson in me, Nancy! (Also because I’m a glutton for punishment.) Like Nancy, I adore castles, and the chance to literally create the design for this castle? That was too much fun to resist. Besides, we needed a common template from which to work. Between the basic outlines of the castle itself, we also needed to create common timelines so we all cohesively had something – the Halloween Ball, Bonfire Night, The Frost and Flame Ball, skating on the moat – happening at the same time. We wanted the reader to be immersed in the world with us. 

Nancy: I went to Ludlow, a castle I love, and took more photos than any sane human could possibly want. While we took Ludlow as our inspiration, we also built Caynham Castle from others we’d visited in person or in photos and tailored it to story needs. 

Below is the round chapel, which we all loved. It’s all that remains of the original chapel, which extended back in a rectangle from this circular part to the curtain wall.

 

 

Jeanne: We did all love Ludlow’s chapel, so that became a feature in Caynham Castle. This unique, freestanding, round chapel features in several stories in the Christmas at Caynham Castle anthology. I had to draw a map of just the chapel because…well there’s a ringing room, with bells. And gargoyles. Shades of Hunchback of Notre Dame, right? Had to draw that.

Nancy: The first two pictures below are the great hall of Ludlow. Note the stones jutting from the walls’ upper edges. Supports like that are common for a hammerbeam ceiling. The third photo is of the hammerbeam ceiling in Westminster Hall, site of medieval coronation banquets. I love the hall and its beautiful roof. Thanks to Hollywood (looking at you, Adventures of Robin Hood), I think we all expect a castle hall to be as big as the one at Westminster, the fourth photo below. In reality, most are much smaller.

 

 

Jeanne: I didn’t draw the ceiling, but drawing the hall has been super fun. Of course, we adapted the Great Hall in the stories to be the Caynham Castle Hotel’s main dining room. It has an amazing, ox-roaster-sized fireplace with dragons and foliate (green man) heads on the mantel and side supports. Adding in the necessary “modern” amenities for a restaurant in a 11^th century castle have been a fun challenge when it comes to the drawings, too!

Nancy: The definitely un-modern structure in photos below is the great hall of Middleham Castle (one with and one without Jeanne and me). The openings in the lefthand wall lead to what was the solar next door. Each had half of that level of the keep. See how much smaller it is than Westminster.

 

Jeanne: Nancy had to explain to the rest of us that a solar was where, in medieval times, the ladies would gather to sew because it had the best lighting. Virtually every castle has one, so Caynham had to have one too. Ha! In Caynham Castle Hotel, it’s an adjunct to the dining room and serves as sort of a lounge. It also houses the gift shop and can be closed off or used as an extension of the hall for special events, as it was in the Frost and Flame Ball for Christmas at Caynham Castle.

Nancy: At Middleham, the kitchen is below the great hall. This photo was taken from the kitchen, looking up at the platform that stands in for the floor of the hall. That placement made sense to us, so we gave Caynham Castle a kitchen below the great hall. We also added a terrace with parking underneath because modern hotel kitchens get deliveries via truck, not horsedrawn wagons.

 

 

Jeanne: That also gave us a chance to create hidden spaces beneath the castle – treasure rooms! – and add a more “modern” solarium to Caynham Castle. Every castle may have had a solar for the long-ago ladies, but not every castle has a Victorian glass-house solarium. I’ve always loved the one at Asheville, NC’s, Biltmore House, America’s Castle. So why not at Caynham too? 

Nancy: As you may’ve guessed, doing the maps meant Jeanne handled incorporating the features people needed for their stories. When you’re putting characters in a common space, it’s very important to have everyone visualize that space the same way in their heads and on paper. The diagrams have been invaluable for that. 

Jeanne: Of course I took great delight in mapping all the fun stuff people came up with into the castle as well. Secret rooms. Display rooms set up with set-piece displays a la Downton Abbey. Statues by the Folly (Yes, there’s a Folly!). And don’t forget the lucky gargoyles allllll over the castle! *Grins.* That said, Donna needed the Folly. Anna needed the Ringing Room. Seressia needed a shop in town. And everyone needed a room at the Castle! 

Nancy: We also created a town, Caynham-on-Ledwyche, to go with our castle. Ludlow is in the part of England bordering Wales, which is known as the Welsh Marches. The area is rich in history and legend, so we decided to site our town and castle there. We adapted features common to towns with long histories, including a mix of architectural styles spanning the centuries from half-timbered, thatched-roof buildings to modern British groceries like Waitrose. Jeanne did the diagram for the town, too. 

Jeanne: Drawing the town truly was a study in collaboration, I must say. We added businesses as we needed them for our stories – a bookstore, pubs, tea rooms, a flower shop, a curiousity shop, an old and quite haunted church and churchyard, a secondary hotel, a brewery, some B&B’s. Each has its own history and some of them come with a touch of magic in them! 

Nancy: Everybody contributed to the businesses, legends, castle features, and characters, and each of us used bits created by others. The overlapping was a lot of fun, but it makes for a very long copyright page! 

Jeanne: Yes, but who could resist that pub? When we created the Boar and Knight pub everyone added a bit. Gail contributed photos of pubs she’d been in. Nancy and I used the concept of the fireplace area from a pub we’d visited in Yorkshire. I don’t remember who contributed the idea of the signboard listing the owners/proprietors down through the centuries, but that’s there too. I wrote in a happy macaw who welcomes people in. 

Nancy: Here’s a photo of the fireplace at the Rose & Crown in Bainbridge, Yorkshire. The inn and its pub date back to the 15^th century.

So that’s a little about the fun behind the scenes of designing Caynham Castle. 

What’s your favorite book, TV show, or movie set in a castle? If you have any questions about the process of creating Caynham Castle or the anthologies, we’d be happy to answer them. 

One randomly chosen person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, September 26, will receive an e-book copy of Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle.

Excerpt, Q&A, and Giveaway - - Love is a Rogue

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was excited to learn that Lady Beatrice, bookish younger sister of Drew Bentley, Duke of Thorndon, the hero of Lenora Bell's last book, One Fine Duke, would be the heroine of the upcoming Love is a Rogue. I'm happy to report Beatrice's story is an absolute delight, filled with sparkling banter, sensual passion, and heart-tugging emotion. And Beatrice - and her hero - are everything I had hoped they would be. I adore her, want to be friends with her, and, along with her, fell head over heels in love with her Navy carpenter hero. These two stole my heart.

Lenora joins us today with a sneak peek excerpt of the upcoming Love is a Rogue, a Q&A, and a wonderful prize package that's open internationally. Thank you, Lenora! 

Love is a Rogue is available for pre-order at all online book buying sites. You won't want to miss this one!

~~~~~~~~~

Love is a Rogue

by Lenora Bell

Wallflowers vs Rogues - Book 1

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: October 27, 2020

They call her Beastly Beatrice. 

Wallflower Lady Beatrice Bentley longs to remain in the wilds of Cornwall to complete her etymological dictionary. Too bad her brother’s Gothic mansion is under renovation. How can she work with an annoyingly arrogant and too-handsome rogue swinging a hammer nearby?

Rogue. Scoundrel. Call him anything you like as long as you pay him.

 Navy man Stamford Wright is leaving England soon and renovating Thornhill House is just a job. It’s not about the duke’s bookish sister or her fiery copper hair. Or the etymology lessons the prim-yet-alluring lady insists on giving him. Or the forbidden things he'd love to teach her.

They say never mix business with pleasure. But when Beatrice and Ford aren't arguing, they're kissing. 

Sometimes temptation proves too strong to resist…even if the cost is a heart.

Excerpt from Love is a Rogue

Beatrice peered over the window ledge. Whispers and . . . smacking noises? Were they kissing? And, incidentally, what would a kiss from Wright be like? She stuck her head farther out the window.

Too far.

Her spectacles slipped off her nose and plummeted straight for his head. She dropped into a crouch beneath the window, cheeks flaming and heart thudding. She could only hope that he was too occupied to notice a pair of spectacles falling from the sky.

Silence from below. She risked a quick glance out the window. Egad. She dropped back to a crouch.

Wright had found her spectacles, and apparently he meant to return them to her. He was climbing straight up the rose trellis like a pirate scaling the rigging of a ship, making a beeline for the library window. He couldn’t climb the stairs like other people. Oh no, he must display his brute strength by climbing hand over hand.

Mortification. Noun. Late fourteenth century. From Late Latin mortificationem, “putting to death.”

Could she make a dash for the library door? Not without her spectacles. Nothing for it but to face him.

She’d faced humiliation before. Stared it down. Dared it to break her.

This would be a very brief interaction. He would hand over the spectacles; she would thank him, and then send him on his merry way back down the trellis.

“Greetings, princess.” His voice was velvet-wrapped gravel.

Beatrice rose on wobbly knees. He was fuzzy without her spectacles, a huge shape blocking out the sunlight, a hulking blur with azure eyes. A blue to drown in, she’d heard one of the upstairs maids say swoonily. Beatrice’s brain sank beneath water. Her thoughts went blub, blub, blub. Which wasn’t like her at all. Words were her stock-in-trade, were they not?

Apparently, when confronted by the sudden appearance of a far-too-handsome rogue at her window, she lost the ability to form words into sentences . . . or even to speak at all.

Pull yourself together. Not an ounce of ninny, remember?

He balanced easily on the trellis, gripping the wood with one enormous hand and dangling the wire loop of her spectacles from the fingers of his other hand.

“Good day, Wright.” She spoke in the most nonchalant and unconcerned tone she could summon. “Lovely day for climbing rose trellises, what?”

He dangled the spectacles closer to her. “I presume these are yours?”

“Er . . . yes. I lost them while”—trying to see down your trousers—“watering the roses.”

Ludicrous. If she’d been watering the roses, she would have poured water on his head.

“Really?” His voice dropped to a rough, conspiratorial whisper. “Because I thought you might have been spying on me.”

“Don’t be silly. I needed a breath of air. I opened the window and I . . . I don’t have to explain myself to you. Hand over my spectacles immediately.”

His laughter was low and intimate. “A lofty lady would never spy on a carpenter, is that it?”

“I wasn’t spying.”

“I see,” he said with a smirk.

“I don’t.” She held out her palm.

Instead of giving her the spectacles, he reached forward and set them on her nose, using one thumb to gently hook the wires over each of her ears in turn. She was so startled by his touch that she froze in place.

His thumb brushed her right ear. Somehow the tip of her ear was connected to the pit of her belly. Which was connected to . . . everything.

His face sharpened into focus.

She’d known his eyes were blue. What she hadn’t known was that his left eye contained an uneven patch of golden brown, like a sunflower silhouetted against a summer sky. His chin was hard-angled, and there was a cleft slightly to the left of center. Dark whiskers shadowed his strong jawline.

Don’t do it, Beatrice. Do not melt into a puddle of quivering ninnyhood.

She took a steadying breath. “You’d better climb back down before that trellis breaks under your prodigious weight.”

“Don’t worry about me, princess.” He winked. “Repaired this trellis myself. It’s built to last.”

“Do stop calling me princess,” she said irritably, the nonchalance she’d been striving for making a fast retreat.

“You’re imprisoned in a tower.”

“I’m here quite by choice. I’m writing, or I would be if you weren’t making so much noise.”

“Is it the noise that distracts you?” He flexed the muscles of his free arm. “Or the man.”

Beatrice gulped for air. Why must the man incessantly call attention to his physical endowments? “Such an ostentatious display might be efficacious where housemaids are concerned, but it has no effect whatsoever on female scholars.”

“You’re not fascinated by me.” His voice swirled from velvet to smoke. “You never watch me from behind the curtains.”

He caught her gaze and held it.

He’d seen her watching.

A fresh wave of mortification washed through her mind. “If I happened to glance out the window from time to time, it was due to sheer frustration. You’ve ruined what was meant to be a tranquil literary haven.”

“And here I thought I’d been inspiring you.”

“Inspiring? Hardly!”

“I was sure you were scribbling away at a romantic novel and needed inspiration for describing your hero. That’s why you were always gazing at me from the window.” He gave her a smoldering look. “I’d be happy to provide a more up close and personal study.”

“You conceited peacock!”

“Admit it. You enjoyed the view.”

“I’ll admit nothing of the sort.”

He plucked a single red rose and offered it to her through the open window. “For you, princess. It matches your cheeks when they’re flushed from my proximity.”

“You . . . you . . .” Beatrice sputtered.

“Scoundrel?” he suggested.

“Malapert rapscallion!”

He tilted his head. “That’s a new one.”

“Have you considered that your renovations might progress more swiftly, Mr. Wright, if you did more carpentering and less flirting? First Jenny and now me—don’t you ever exhaust your store of vexatious trifling?”

He propped his elbow on the window ledge and leaned closer. “I thought you weren’t spying on me.”

“I wasn’t. I was watering the roses.”

“I think you were watching.” His gaze dropped to her lips. “Because you wanted to see what a kiss from me would be like.”

Beatrice wasn’t accustomed to men perusing her with that hooded, hazy look in their eyes. She was no beauty. She never incited desire.

She never experienced desire.

And yet . . . the glow in her belly was spreading. She still felt the soft brush of his fingers along the edge of her ear.

“This conversation is over. Be on your way.”

“Not yet.” He wrapped his hand over the window ledge. “I have a question to ask you.”

“Well?”

“I don’t want anyone to overhear me asking it.”

“That doesn’t sound proper.”

“I’m never proper. Don’t even know what the word means.”

“It’s from the Latin proprius meaning ‘one’s own, particular to itself.’ It’s not until the mid fourteenth century that we see the usage meaning ‘by the rules’ or ‘correct and acceptable.’”

“I don’t play by the rules, either.” He slid one knee onto the ledge. “I’m coming in.”

“No. Wait—!”

Too late.

Her sanctuary had been invaded by a rogue.

Q&A with Lenora Bell

Welcome back to The Romance Dish, Lenora! I’m always excited when you visit as it usually means a new book for us to enjoy is on the horizon.

LB: Thanks so much for hosting me again, PJ. I always love visiting the Dish! You and your readers are such a warm and welcoming bunch.

Your newest novel, Love Is a Rogue releases October 27 and will launch your Wallflowers Vs Rogues series. What should readers expect from this new series, and from Love is a Rogue in particular?

LB: The Wallflowers vs. Rogues series is a spin-off from the School for Dukes series. Love Is a Rogue features Lady Beatrice Bentley, the duke’s sister from One Fine Duke. Several readers wrote to say they hoped Beatrice would have her own book and I was happy to be able to fulfill their wishes. Readers can expect more pop-culture references (Beauty and the Beast, Star Wars, HGTV…the list will go on as each book is finished) as well as lots of humor, emotion, and heat. 

I enjoyed Beatrice’s love of words and learned a few new ones while reading her story. Do you share that love? What’s your favorite “big word?”

LB:  I’ve always loved learning new words and languages. I grew up in a literary household where we were allowed to read whatever we wanted from the bookshelves. I devoured every Dickens book at a young age. I remember giggling over the word “excrescence” in A Christmas Carol: “What has he done with his money?” asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills of a turkey-cock.” Such a comic and descriptive word. I used one of my favorite “big words” in Love Is a Rogue. I was in a hand bell choir as a child and we were taught the word “tintinnabulation” meaning a ringing or tinkling sound. Beatrice remarks, “And then there’s tintinnabulation. What a word! Why you can hear the bells ringing within it!” 

This beautiful photo from Lenora's new homeland inspires lots of big words!

You’re currently living the ex-pat life in New Zealand. What’s that like?  

LB: We’ve fallen head over heels in love with New Zealand. It’s an absolutely gorgeous country that takes environmental regulation very seriously.

And the people have such a great sense of humor—think Taika Waititi. 

Beatrice’s arrival at the masquerade ball was one of my favorite scenes in this book. If you were attending a masquerade, what costume would you wear to best reflect your true self?

LB: I’ve always been bookish, so I suppose I’d dress up as Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë and come with quill in hand and manuscript pages in my pockets.

I loved the pairing of Ford and Lady Beatrice, especially as facets of their romance mirror your own personal life. Will you share the courtship story of Lenora Bell and her own carpenter hero with us? 

LB: I met my carpenter husband, Brian, at a party with mutual friends and shortly afterward I hired him to fix up the basement of my quirky Victorian farmhouse in Portland, Oregon. We worked side by side, knocking out old lath and plaster walls, laying new oak flooring, and installing light fixtures. I used a lot of that experience while writing Love Is a Rogue. Beatrice and Ford fall in love while working on an old house, just as Brian and I did. In the book, Ford gives Beatrice a leather tool belt to wear, which is taken directly from real life :-) 

Ford and Beatrice are one of my favorite Lenora Bell couples. In many ways, book-loving Beatrice reminds me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast but, in this story, Ford is the beauty. He won my heart because, unlike others, he doesn’t try to change or “improve” Beatrice. He sees her for who she really is and loves her exactly as she is. Did you intend for this to be a flipped Beauty and the Beast story when you conceived it?  (Or is that something I read into it?) 😉

LB: Thanks so much, PJ. I’m thrilled that you enjoyed Ford and Beatrice. I had a lot of fun writing their love story and you’re absolutely right — I pitched the book as “Gender-flipped Beauty and the Beast meets HGTV.” All six of my previous historical romances have had wealthy duke heroes. I decided to completely change things up and write a series where the heroes are all working class. Ford from Love Is a Rogue is a ship’s carpenter with the Royal Navy. They say to write what you know—and I know carpenters! My grandfather, father, brother, and husband are all carpenters and builders. 

It felt like you were dropping breadcrumbs for future romantic pairs during this book (and I am so here for that if the couples are who I think they are). Are you able to tell us anything about the other pairs who will take center stage in this series?

LB: The next book in the series will be a gender-flipped Cinderella story featuring Lady Henrietta Prince, the newest member of The Mayfair Ladies Knitting League, who is managing the vineyards on her father’s estate. I’m hoping that Viola Beaton’s story will be the third in the series. I was definitely dropping some bread crumbs for her story. Viola’s a musician and composer who is finishing her father’s symphonies because he’s nearly deaf. Viola is dear to my heart because my mother is a pianist, composer, and music teacher who taught me to sing and play several instruments. 

New Zealand has built a reputation for wonderful wines. Which one would you choose to pair with Love is a Rogue? What makes it a good match?

LB: The wine here is amazing, especially the Pinot Noirs. We have so many new favorites. I might choose the Madam Sass Pinot Noir from Central Otago for Beatrice because throughout the book she’s really learning to own her sensuality and power. The description for Madam Sass wine says “She is an homage to heroines from Central Otago’s gold rush era; when gutsy women held little regard for the establishment and relished taking risks.” 

What’s next? Do you have a projected release date for book two in the Wallflowers Vs Rogues series? Are you able to share anything about the story?

LB: I just submitted my cover ideas for Book Two and I have a tentative title that I can’t share yet, but that I’m very happy about. It’s a gender-flipped Cinderella story with a working class hero who unexpectedly inherits an earldom. I can’t wait to share more about the book soon!

Thank you so much for visiting with us, Lenora. Would you like to add anything or ask my readers a question?

LB: Thanks so much for hosting me, PJ! I can’t wait to “see” you at the Buns & Roses Virtual Romance Tea for Literacy in October. 

I’m wondering if your readers had to choose, would they prefer to read a romance loosely inspired by Sleeping Beauty, or one inspired by Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?

What do you think, readers? Will it be Sleeping Beauty or Snow White? Post a comment before 11:00 PM (Eastern), September 25 for a chance to win a prize package from Lenora that includes a signed ARC of Love is a Rogue, a $20 Barnes and Noble gift certificate, and assorted swag. 

*Must be 18

*Open internationally

 

Review - - A Heartfelt Christmas Promise

A Heartfelt Christmas Promise

by Nancy Naigle

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: September 29, 2020

Reviewed by PJ

 

Vanessa Larkin was supposed to be spending Christmas in Paris, France on a business trip she hoped to enjoy as a working vacation. Instead, she’s been assigned to Fraser Hills, North Carolina—home of the Best Fruitcake in the USA—to convert her company’s property into warehouse space and shut down Porter’s, the fruitcake factory. Offering retirement packages and selling locals on new job opportunities may not spread holiday cheer, but Vanessa believes she’s helping secure the town’s future.

Mike Marshall’s family founded Porter’s. For decades, the factory served as the lifeblood of the community until his grandfather sold the business to a Chicago corporation. The sale cost the town its independence—and the Marshalls their family ties. A horse farmer, Mike was never involved with his grandfather’s company, but still felt Fraser Hills lost part of its identity. And as a widower raising a teenage daughter, he’s suffered enough losses in one lifetime. News of the factory’s closing means losing another piece of the town’s legacy.

Far from the skyscrapers and rapid pace of the city, Vanessa finds herself enjoying the easygoing rhythms of rural living. With Mike as her guide, she learns to appreciate the simple pleasures found in shared holiday festivities among friends. Fraser Hills is a town she is growing to love—and Mike is someone she is falling in love with. Now all Vanessa needs is a Christmas miracle to give her newfound friends and home a gift they’ll cherish for many New Years to come.

PJ's Thoughts:

Much like the Hallmark Christmas Movies I fill my DVR with every winter, A Heartfelt Christmas Promise is a sweet, charming, small-town romance that had me dreaming of the scent of pine trees in the air and rich, sugary cookies in the oven. It's a story of life choices, starting over, forgiveness, slowing down enough to rediscover the joys that have been there waiting for you all along, and realizing it's never too late to give love a chance.  

Naigle has brought the town of Fraser Hills to life, along with her citizens. She has me wanting to drive into the mountains to try the banana pudding at the Blue Bicycle Bistro, pick up a bouquet of flowers at The Stalk Market, sing along at the Christmas Parade, hang out with an enterprising teen while sampling a piece of fruitcake at Porter's (and I don't even like fruitcake), snuggle an adorable, mischievous Lab puppy (with a very big best friend), share a cup of coffee with the goodhearted folks who call Fraser Hills home, talk Mike Marshall into a wagon ride pulled by his magnificent Percherons, and meet the woman who saved a town and discovered everything she didn't know she needed in the most unlikely of places.  

If you enjoy charming, heart-tugging, Christmas romances set in scenic mountain towns, with lively townspeople, adorable animals, a business in peril, more than one romance brewing, and, of course, happy endings all around, pick up a copy of Nancy Naigle's A Heartfelt Christmas Promise. 

Winners - - PJ's Birthday Boxes

 

The randomly chosen winners of a 

box of books and swag from my birthday are:

AmyD Avid Reader

and

regencygirl01

Congratulations!

Please send your full name and mailing address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Tour Review - - Beyond Power

 

Beyond Power

by Connie Mann

Florida Wildlife Warriors - Book 2

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: September 1, 2020

Reviewed by PJ

When your heart's involved...
If you dare venture beyond Disney's magic and Miami's high-rises, you'll find yourself in Florida's untamed wilderness. A bush pilot and officer for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Josh Tanner is one of the tough cops needed to manage these rugged areas. And the minute he finds Delilah Atwood deep in the woods without a good explanation, he knows something is very wrong...

All the stakes are raised...
Delilah barely escaped her ultra-fundamental militia family years ago. Now she's back to save her sixteen-year-old sister, and no government man is going to stop her. Josh isn't going to stand by and watch Delilah risk her life, but unless he can get her to trust him, she may end up being the next victim.

PJ's Thoughts:

This was my first Connie Mann novel. I'm not sure why I've waited so long to give her books a try but it only took this one story to hook me for good. I'm now over here scanning her back list and downloading like crazy. 

From beginning to end, Beyond Power held me in its power. Mann has created an intense, suspenseful, and emotional page-turner filled with so many twists and turns I was still guessing as to how everything would play out with only a few pages left to read. Her characters are so vividly depicted they leap from the pages, pulling me into their world. And let's talk about that world. It's clearly evident Mann knows the wildlife areas of Central Florida well. She created a sense of place that placed me smack dab in the middle of the overgrowth, rivers, forests, and wild animals that populate the undeveloped areas of this region then added characters who brought a sinister quality to the areas that our heroine once called home, adding to the intensity of the story and sense of urgency that continued to escalate.

My heart was with Delilah from the start and even more-so once her story began to unfold and the reasons for her return became clear. It's an emotional journey for her with significant personal issues to tackle. I admired her strength and fortitude. Josh won my heart right along with Delilah's. I adored his strength of character and nurturing heart. I also fell for his family and band of friends and co-workers. I'm already looking forward to more stories for this dedicated group. 

I love when I forget I'm reading a book and slide into the story instead. By the time I turned the final page of Beyond Power, it took me a minute to come back into myself. I could feel the sultry heat, touch the vegetation, hear the monkey chatter, smell the sweat of fear. It's a skilled writer who can pull me so deeply into their world that I forget I'm still in my own. 

If you enjoy intricately-woven romantic suspense with relatable characters, atmospheric settings, and hard-won happy endings, I highly recommend Beyond Power.

Birthday Giveaway

 

Today is my birthday! 

Some people may look at me and think, "Aren't you a little...um...seasoned to still be celebrating birthdays?" To that I say, "No! Any birthday spent on this side of the grass is worth celebrating." So, since I'm still on the right side of the grass, let's celebrate!

Gifts from my neighbor (she knows me well) and my out-of-state bestie. I'll open those during our FaceTime call today.

I kicked off my birthday weekend yesterday with a lovely, cool day that allowed me to open my windows and embrace the crisp freshness that fall air brings. It's my favorite season of the year.

A trip to the new bakery in the neighborhood elicited sighs of delight and a box of goodies to bring home. One should always have cake on their birthday. This year, I chose two gluten-free cupcakes: carrot and toasted coconut. Plus, a few macarons for a yummy bonus. ;-)

With treats in hand, I then stopped by the grocery for my weekly bouquet of flowers, a small kindness I began giving myself in May that I've continued through the summer and now, into the fall. They add a burst of color to my days and bring me so much joy. 

I was saving the bakery goodies for today but I needed something sweet for football watching Saturday, right? I mean, it is my birthday weekend. What's better for a crisp fall afternoon than fresh from the oven Apple Crisp with my favorite organic vanilla ice cream? Nothing! It was mmmm....mmmm...good.

This morning, I awoke to full-on fall: bright blue sky, 48 degree temperature, and the return of Canadian Geese. They're gathered right outside my patio, squawking (singing?) as if they had returned just to help me celebrate. ;-) 

Now, I'm back from a brisk, rejuvenating walk - honestly, I feel so much better when I walk in the morning - and ready to whip up a birthday breakfast. Have you noticed that my birthday tends to be centered around food? 😂 I'm thinking a ham and cheese omelet with sliced avocado and roasted tomatoes. That, plus a steaming mug of coffee, should keep my tummy happy and set the tone for the day.

That's how I'm celebrating in these weird times. Not exactly the norm but I'm finding the joy and grateful for the opportunity to greet another new year. 

How do you celebrate your birthday?

Do you have to have cake or is another dessert your go-to? 

Are you ready to embrace fall or hanging on to summer for all you're worth?

Are you looking forward to hot chocolate, snuggly blankets, and a good book? I am!

Because I believe birthday joy should be shared, two randomly chosen people who leave a comment on this post before 11:00 PM, September 21, will each receive a birthday box of books and swag from me. 

*Must be 18

*U.S. addresses only

Review - - The Prince Who Loved Me

The Prince Who Loved Me

by Abigail Sharpe

Just Add Peaches - Book 3

Publisher: Abigail Sharpe

Release Date: September 23, 2020

Reviewed by PJ

He loves her. ♥

She loves him not...yet.

Brandi Clayton spent years being a chameleon, trading on her looks for the security of having a man taking care of her. After all, being alone is what her mother taught her to fear. When her grandmother’s will surprisingly reveals Brandi inherited the family business, a new path opens up for her. She’s determined to take charge of Belle’s Medicinal Brewery and her own life. And if she can take that leap, she can find a man who loves her for exactly who she is. With her long-time friend Sebastien’s support, she’s bound to succeed, but she can’t take advantage of Sebastien forever.

A royal with no responsibilities, Prince Sebastien of Casagnes spends his days near Brandi, sketching, and helping his friend whenever she calls. His love for her is like his art -- safely hidden where it can't be rejected. But when Brandi uploads her profile to dating sites, Sebastien fears losing the one woman who is his everything. Can this loyal royal find the courage to put his heart on the line and paint a picture for Brandi of their life together?

The Prince Who Loved Me is a Just Add Peaches novel. Each book in the series is a stand-alone, passionate and playful contemporary romance, but you'll want more than one juicy bite.

PJ's Thoughts:

As with the first two books in Sharpe's Just Add Peaches series, The Prince Who Loved Me is filled with humor, charm, satisfying emotional depth, and a happily ever after. I love a friends-to-lovers story and have been anticipating this one. I couldn't wait to discover how Sharpe would navigate these two from firmly in the friend zone to a committed romantic relationship. She does it skillfully, with a few bumps along the way, but that just makes the end result that much more satisfying, no?

Both Brandi and Sebastien are fully dimensional characters with surprising depths. I really enjoyed their friendship. There's such caring and support between them and so much history. I could easily understand why it might be difficult to put that at risk by changing up the parameters of their relationship. One of the things I most enjoyed about their journey was the character growth for each of them, especially for Brandi. Her evolution was realistically portrayed over the course of the series, putting me firmly in her corner by the end of her journey (which was not the case at the start). Sebastien is such a sweetheart. I absolutely adored him and was cheering him on from start to finish.

Secondary characters once again brought added richness to the story without detracting from the main couple. Sharpe has a talent for bringing all the characters in her stories to life, both good and bad. There's a toxic character in this book who had me thinking decidedly unkind thoughts and got off way too easy for my taste. I was feeling a bit bloodthirsty. Kudos to the author for having the ability to create a character so vividly realistic as to generate that much emotion in me. The end of the book was exactly what I would have hoped for and this close group of friends once again had me cheering happy endings among the peaches. 

The Prince Who Loved Me can be enjoyed as a standalone but for a deeper appreciation of Brandi's character growth as well as evolving dynamics among the cast of characters, I recommend reading the three books in order. 

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Abigail Sharpe is currently running a Rafflecopter giveaway for The Prince Who Loved Me. You can access it here: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ecf776fd7/?