Virtual Book Tour: The Cowboy Catches a Bride by Cora Seton

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Cora will award a $100 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour--the more you enter, the better your chances of winning!

When county sheriff Cab Johnson gets a hunch, he's learned to trust it, and his hunch tells him Rose Bellingham is in a peck of trouble. Bad enough he's in love with her, bad enough she's already engaged to Jason Thayer. He's got to figure out what she's hiding before he loses her for good.

Rose can't stand one more person meddling in her business, even if that person is a handsome, eligible sheriff. She's been controlled for far too long. But since her fiancé's father is both her boss and landlord, she can't dump Jason until she's got somewhere to run. She's found the perfect place: a patch of forest outside town. But with Cab watching her every move, she's hard pressed to finish her hideaway so she can make her escape. Meanwhile, she's not the only one with problems. Can she find a way to help her friends, too?

Just when Cab solves one mystery, more pop up. Where does Rose keep disappearing to? What's wrong with Mia Start? Why is Hannah Chatham lying to her fiancé? At least he's let Rose know he's interested. And if he's not mistaken, she's interested, too.

Rose's hideaway is perfect, until her friends invade it to escape their own troubles. Can she trust them to keep its whereabouts a secret? Does she want to hide from Cab anymore? Now that Jason's out of the picture, is it safe to follow her heart?

When two unexpected visitors arrive with secrets of their own, Chance Creek must brace for its deadliest night ever. Can Cab figure out the connections between all the mysteries fast enough?

Or will Rose and her friends pay the ultimate price?

Enjoy the excerpt:

“Rose,” Jamie said. “Pull out that one, would you?” He pointed to the ring Cab was staring at.

Rose reached in and pulled out the tray. She angled it toward Cab and he picked up the ring, curious to see it without the intervening glass case. Just as he thought, it was a work of art.

“You can’t see it that way,” Rob said, grabbing it from his fingers. He snatched up Rose’s hand, drew her own ring off her finger and jammed the one Cab picked out in its place.

“Rob!” Rose snatched her hand away and held it up, shock on her face. She stared first at the ring, then at Cab, then back at the ring again. When her free hand grabbed for the counter, and her knees buckled, Cab reached over the case to steady her.

“Rose? You okay?” She looked like she was about to faint.

“Told you,” Rob said, grinning at Ethan.

“Son of a gun,” Ethan said, “You were right.”

“What are you talking about?” Cab was annoyed. “Get her some water, for crying out loud. Rose, do you need to sit down for a minute?” In a horrible flash he wondered if she was pregnant. She’d been Jason’s fiancée a long time. Maybe they hadn’t always been careful.

Rose stared at him wide-eyed. Growing worried, Cab tightened his grip on her arm and came around to her side of the case. “I think you need to sit,” he said again.

She shook her head and seemed to come back to herself. “I’m… fine.”

“Really?” Jamie said. “Because you look like you’ve seen your hus—”

Ethan whacked him on the arm.

Rose blushed furiously, peeled the ring off and thrust it back into the tray. Understanding dawned on Cab and he felt heat creep up his own neck at the trick his friends had played. They’d gotten him to choose a ring. They’d put that ring on Rose’s finger.

They’d waited for her reaction.

Everyone knew about Rose’s hunches—the ones she got when a couple chose their engagement ring. Somehow she could predict their future—if their marriage would be successful or not. If they were meant to be together. She’d given her approval to Ethan, Jamie and Rob when they’d bought their rings during the past few months, and since all of them remained happily married they believed her hunches were real.

So what did they think they were proving now?

He wanted to let go of Rose’s arm. Wanted to apologize for his friends and get the hell out of there, but he couldn’t seem to turn away.

About the Author:

Cora Seton loves cowboys, country life, gardening, bike-riding, and lazing around with a good book. Mother of four, wife to a computer programmer/eco-farmer, she ditched her California lifestyle nine years ago and moved to a remote logging town in northwestern British Columbia.

Like the characters in her novels, Cora enjoys old-fashioned pursuits and modern technology, spending mornings transforming a neglected one-acre lot into a paradise of orchards, berry bushes and market gardens, and afternoons writing the latest Chance Creek romance novel on her iPad mini. Visit www.coraseton.com to read about new releases, contests and other cool events!

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Buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords.

Book Blast: More than a Feeling by CJ Carmichael

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding an E-copy of "Frost Family Christmas Anthology" - which includes the first 3 books in the Frost Family & Friends Series as well as a bonus short story - to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour. Remember, the more stops you visit, the more chances you earn to win.

NOTE: More Than a Feeling is on sale for only $0.99 at Amazon! Pick up your copy today by clicking here.

A dangerous twenty-year-old secret is about to be uncovered in the quaint Vermont town of Carol Falls, where not everyone is who they seem to be.

At first meeting, Spencer Frost appears to be a simple farmer who enjoys reading and quoting poetry. In fact he’s a criminal law attorney from Boston on sabbatical at Frost Family Farm. When he meets Robin Redmond, the lovely new sales clerk at the local independent bookstore, he has no idea he’s about to step into a drama to rival even his toughest legal case.

Robin moved to Carol Falls in pursuit of the man who destroyed her sister’s life. Driven to face him—as well as her own guilt about her sister--falling in love with Spencer is not part of her plans. But as they partner up to unravel the twisted truth behind the crime, she discovers love is the strongest weapon of all.

This is the fourth book in a small-town romance/cozy mystery series that began with The Frost Family Christmas trilogy. These three titles are:

Book 1: What Child Is This by C.J. Carmichael

Book2: Home For Christmas by Roxy Boroughs

Book 3: The Holly & The Ivy by Brenda M. Collins.

Now enjoy an excerpt:

Robin turned on the radio. Loud.

She did not want to think about the magical evening she’d just had. The wagon ride, the stars, the nice Frost family, Spencer whispering poetry in her ear, then looking at her like he wanted to kiss her when they were finally alone.

Worst of all had been the seedling of hope that had awoken in her heart. That she could be happy. Maybe even, one day, loved. And, most of all—normal.

It was like an early April Fool’s joke. She’d been completely taken in. Despite the signs to the contrary—his upper crust accent, his unhardened hands—she’d thought Spencer was a poetry-loving farmer, a modern day Robert Frost.

Only to find out he was an advocate for the sort of criminal who had stolen her family from her. He defended the bad guys, getting them off, twisting the evidence to try and make victims look guilty, fighting for shorter sentences and arguing mitigating circumstances.

He was the champion of men like the one she hated most in the world.

Robin pulled over to the side of the road. She must have been driving in autopilot. Somehow she’d passed the heart of Carol Falls, traveled over the covered bridge and a mile down Red Bridge Avenue to the Fix-It Shop.

It was a narrow, two story wooden building, hemmed in on one side by a pawn shop and a vacant building on the other.

This was not the cute area of Carol Falls where she worked. No, this was where people who couldn’t afford luxuries like ambience or street appeal lived.

She’d already figured out that there was an apartment over the Fix-It Shop where the McGuires lived. The main floor shop was dark now, but at least one lamp glowed in the upper apartment. She could imagine Alistair in an overstuffed chair, feet up on a stool, reading The Brothers Karamazov. Maybe he’d be sipping a cup of tea, or a brandy, with classical music playing softly in the background.

But what about his brother?

The other McGuire, she simply could not imagine. Since she’d arrived in Carol Falls, she hadn’t caught a glimpse of him. Did he ever leave the apartment? She was starting to doubt it. She knew for sure he was there. As the last surviving relative of his victim, she’d been notified when he’d been released from prison and told that he was planning to go live with his brother in Carol Falls.

She wished she could have filed the information under “better off forgotten” and gone on with her life. Not that she’d had much. Since her mother’s death in September, she’d been barely hanging on to her job, let alone doing what she knew she needed to do.

Get new interests. Make friends. Start living.

Instead, the idea of Allan McGuire, free to start over when her own family had been destroyed, had festered in her brain, until finally she’d decided she’d never be able to let this thing go until she’d seen him again and made sure that he would never do to another family what he’d done to hers.

She’d had enough counseling over the years to know this wasn’t healthy. Her obsession with the tragedy had stunted her life and cost her her marriage. Brad had been more than patient with her at first, certain that she would eventually learn to let the past go.

But the seeds had been planted early. She’d only been six years old. Twenty-two years later, the garden that should have been her life had been completely overgrown with weeds.

Robin waited, for what seemed like an hour, until finally the lights in the apartment went out. She stayed an extra twenty minutes, checking to make sure that no furtive figure snuck out into the quiet darkness. Only then did she feel free to make her way home.

National bestseller, CJ Carmichael, has published over 35 novels and has twice been nominated for a RITA award. She likes to write stories about romance, family and intrigue, usually in small town or rural settings. She’s currently working on the next book in “The Carrigans of the Circle C” trilogy for Tule Publishing, as well the next “Frost Family & Friends” cozy mystery/romance for a multi-author series set in Carol Falls, Vermont.

When it’s time to take a break from the computer, she heads to the Rocky Mountains near her home in Calgary where she lives with her partner Michael. If you’d like to learn more about her books, sign up for her newsletter on her website: http://cjcarmichael.com . (C.J. likes to reward her loyal readers on this list with regular draws for free, autographed books.)

Facebook: authorcjcarmichael

Twitter: cj_carmichael

Amazon Kindle Edition: http://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Feeling-Family-Friends-ebook/dp/B00J6NGPIS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397035113&sr=1-1&keywords=more+than+a+feeling

The Writer's View: Kristen Taber

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kristen will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour as Grand Prize and an audiobook will be issued to 10 runnerup commenters. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The Writer's View

I’m more for function over form when I write. I can write anywhere, provided I have no loud distractions (ambient noise, like in a coffee shop, is fine). When I do write at home, I have an office, but prefer to use a small desk in a tight space. It’s a comfort thing, though I can’t explain why. My husband, Joe, finds it hilarious and calls it my “Hobbit Hole”. As a Tolkien fan, I’ve whole-heartedly adopted the name. I might use 20% of my room for actual work, and the rest serves as a library. I’m not sure if being surrounded by celebrated and bestselling novels is an inspiration or an instigation for depression, but I love the smell of paper and seeing colorful spines lined up in perfect order, so I’ll go with inspiration.

As you can see from the picture, my desk is glass. It’s not as difficult to keep clean as you might imagine. I didn’t choose it for looks (though I do love it); I chose it because it was on clearance. I’m a bargain shopper through and through. The two monitors above my desk are courtesy of my husband’s ingenuity. He felt they’d help while I edited and he’s 100% right. I hand edit on an iPad app, then feed that into one monitor, open the word doc on my other monitor and off I go!

My calendar is made out of Legos. The mini-figures on the shelf above my desk are solely for the calendar. I rotate out the two figures every month. Mood determines what’s selected, though I do have some figures that match holidays: Abe Lincoln for President’s Day, a scarecrow for Halloween, and a gingerbread man for Christmas. This month, Shakespeare represents an important writing month (my first Book Festival and my first blog tour) and a man in a chicken suit reminds me to be brave.

At the moment, the bookshelf is all I have above my desk (see the picture of the cutie with the bunny? That’s my amazing daughter). I moved last July and have been a little slow to unpack (an infant and two jobs will do that to a person), but I usually have a great For Better of For Worse comic strip (pictured) hanging where I can see it. It ran on my birthday (August 10), so I took that as a good sign…lol.

To the left of my desk, I’ve attached self-adhesive white board paper to the wall. I use this to keep track of story lines for the Ærenden series. I detail out characters who need to reappear, color code subplots and “Easter eggs”, and line item side projects I want to complete for the series (such as designing the cards for Palidane and writing a series of short stories). Don’t bother blowing up the picture to try to read it. I blurred out the words to avoid spoilers.

The window on my right doesn’t provide much of a view. I live in a townhouse and my office faces a cul-de-sac parking lot, but I don’t tend to look outside often when I write. I’m too busy travelling the forests of Ærenden and Zeiihbu to notice what’s on Earth. Spring does offer one pretty bonus, though, that I wanted to share with you. The tree by my front door is in full bloom! I love this time of year.

Book One: The Child Returns

Seventeen-year-old Meaghan has no idea her perfect life has been a lie — until she witnesses her parents’ brutal murders at the hands of red-eyed creatures.

After nearly sharing their fate, she escapes with her best friend, Nick, who tells her the creatures are called Mardróch. They come from another world, and so does she. Now that the Mardróch have found her, she must return to her homeland of Ærenden or face death.

Left with little choice, she follows Nick into a strange world both similar to Earth and drastically different. Vines have the ability to attack. Monkeys freeze their victims with a glare. Men create bombs from thin air. Even Meaghan’s newly discovered empath power turns into a danger she cannot control.

But control becomes the least of her worries once the Mardróch begin targeting her. When Nick confesses he knows the reason they want her, she learns the truth behind the kingdom's fifteen-year civil war — a long-buried secret that could cost Meaghan her life.

*****

Book Two: The Gildonae Alliance

Several months after Meaghan’s return to Ærenden, the kingdom’s war has taken a turn for the worse. The Mardróch army hunts the new King and Queen, destroying villages in its wake. And Meaghan and Nick, training for battle in their remote section of wilderness, are far from safe. Danger hides in shadows and behind innocent faces. Allies become foes. Each day is a fight to survive. But in the end, only one threat matters. And it’s a threat they never see coming.

*****

Book Three: The Zeiihbu Master

Separated and on opposite sides of the kingdom, Nick and Meaghan face different pursuits which could change the balance of power in Ærenden forever.

While Nick trains the villagers to be soldiers, Meaghan and a small rescue party venture into Zeiihbu to find Faillen's young son, before Garon can use the boy's power to destroy those still fighting against his rule.

Everyone knows Meaghan could be on a suicide mission, but when Nick stumbles upon a secret concealed in one of the southern villages, he realizes that Garon might not be Meaghan's greatest foe. The enemy most likely to kill her is someone who has also promised to keep her safe.

About the Author:

Kristen spent her childhood at the feet of an Irish storytelling grandfather, learning to blend fact with fiction and imagination with reality. She lived within the realm of the tales that captivated her, breathing life into characters and crafting stories even before she could read. Those stories have since turned into over a hundred poems, several short tales, and five manuscripts in both the Young Adult and Adult genres. Currently, Kristen is completing the five-part Ærenden series from her home office in the suburbs of Washington D.C.

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Buy Links for Book 1

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Buy Links for Book 2

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

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