Today's Blog Tour will include a Review, Excerpt, and Giveaway. First, let's get to know the Author!
I laughed when my husband suggested I write a book. Me? What did I know
about writing?
Yet the notion held possibility, so I hatched a plan. A year later, I sent off my first completed
manuscript and promptly received a score of polite rejections. Bruised but undaunted, I forged
ahead, new plan in hand. Later, armed with the knowledge acquired from writing classes,
seminars and the help of fellow writers, I finished my second story. Eliza is that story.
Posing as a widow, Eliza Danton flees an abusive marriage determined to bury the past and live a solitary life on the Minnesota frontier. When she finds herself homeless, her livelihood threatened and her safety compromised, she relies on her only resource, a man who stirs a forbidden longing and rocks the very foundation of her well-laid plans. As her world shrinks with lies and deception, the only way out is the truth, but the truth may strike a deadly price.
Haunted by a tragic past, Will Heaton hides his scarred heart and vows never to love again. But a chance encounter with a mysterious widow awakens painful memories and a yearning he can’t ignore. When she’s harassed by the same man he believes killed his wife, he grabs at a chance to resolve past mistakes and possibly find love and redemption in the process.
As Eliza and Will struggle to trust again, the past returns with a renewed vengeance, testing them in ways they never thought possible.
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My Review
I don't get to read near as many Historical Romances as I would like, but I'm glad this one made it into the few that I have read this year.
Historical Romances with a battered woman always prove to have an added depth of emotion to them. Eliza and Will's story is no different. The added fact that Will has a past with the very many Eliza is running from adds another level to this story.
I loved the development of Eliza and Will's relationship. Their chemistry was very believable and the relationship they build while both battling demons from their pasts was a beautiful one.
Excerpt
Eliza
frowned at Will’s hesitation. “It’s an excellent opportunity.”
“This is a pretty sizable printing
press,” Will explained, “A person needs experience not to mention writing the
sorts of pieces required of a newspaper.”
Eliza relaxed and simmered with
satisfaction. “As fate would have it. I have just the experience.”
Will had the audacity to look doubtful.
“I do,” she blared defensively. “My
mother has a printing press and publishes the local paper. I helped her with it
all the time.”
The frown in Will’s face eased some.
“It’s true. And the money I’m carrying,”
she placed a hand at her waist where she kept her money pinned to her
petticoat, “is the money I earned publishing articles.” She held off mentioning
her mother also gifted her some cash.
“I’m impressed,” he admitted and the
light shining in his strong face confirmed that.
He grew serious. The edgy drumming of
his fingers on the table kindled new worries and made her frown. “Then what’s
the problem?”
He hitched a lanky shoulder, uneasy.
“Come on, spit it out.”
“Well,” he waved a hand in her
direction. “You’re a woman.”
Her brows lifted in mock surprise. “Hmmm.
Isn’t that a surprise. I hadn’t thought you noticed.”
His mouth thinned dangerously.
“Frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other
way.” It sounded cocky, and she jutted her chin in the air.
Will made a noise low in his throat,
clearly exasperated. “I think you know what I mean. Being a woman presents a
problem.”
Eliza blinked. Being a woman is a problem?
In
her bleakest moments, she’d often thought being a woman had more than enough
disadvantages. But she could hardly admit such a thing to him. Not now. Not
when she needed to stand alone and be totally independent.
“How so?” She had a hunch what he might
say – all the societal objections to women working outside the home. She’d
heard it all before but for some odd reason, she wanted him to spell it all
out, so she could gloat with smugness at his small-minded male prejudices.
He ran long fingers through his shiny,
clean hair and swished his mouth aside in wariness. “People around here are old
fashioned. They aren’t accustomed to a woman running her own business, at least
not a business with influence. You don’t know the community so they might be unwilling
to talk to you. It’ll be tough going. Besides, you’ll need staff, someone to
help.”
With every objection, her anger
intensified and she couldn’t help but glare at him. He gawped back with a
withering stare as if she were a toad and sat upon his dinner plate. “It’s a
bad idea – a woman living alone in that property, running her own business.”
She bristled and hoped she’d heard the
worst and last on the matter of her future. If she could just bite her tongue a
moment longer, she might gracefully make an exit from his house. Then he said
something and all but forced the next words from her lips.
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