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VBT (&Giveaway) – A Marriage of Inconvenience by Christine Young

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!

Today we are welcoming Christine Young to the blog! She is the author of A Marriage of Inconvenience and is touring her book with Goddessfish Promotions. She’ll be giving away a $25.00 Gift Card to a commenter from the tour. If you want to increase your chances of winning, click HERE for the list of blog to leave more comments 🙂

I hope you enjoy what Christine is sharing from her book. Be sure to leave a comment in order to win!

A Marriage of Inconvenience

by Christine Young

 

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BLURB:

 

A REGAL BEAUTY

 

When the duchess decides to wed her to a wastrel and a fop, Ravyn Grahm takes matters into her own hands and declares her engagement to another man. Instead of fessing up and telling her great aunt what she has done, she goes through with the pretense. Aric Lakeland is the bastard son of an earl and has a dangerous reputation. But Ravyn is willing to do most anything to keep the duchess from discovering the lie.

 

A DEVIL-MAY-CARE SMUGGLER

 

He’d bought land in America, looking to put down roots and end his life of adventure, but Aric Lakeland got more than he bargained for when he encountered a beautiful heiress who made a promise she didn’t want to keep. But the promise could not be undone and standing between them were more obstacles than either ever dreamed. Aric had made plans to spend the rest of his life in America and that was at odds with Ravyn’s plan of living in England and running her father’s estate. Now, he’ll have to choose between his dreams and the woman he loves more than life.

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EXCERPT:

“Well, I can see that marriage hasn’t trimmed Amorica’s tongue one bit,” Aric said wryly as he undid the saddle cinch. “She can still tear a mean strip when she has a mind to. Only thing she does better than make biscuits.”

 

“Of course,” Damian said, lifting the saddle one-handed from the horse’s back, “the fact that a man knows he has it coming tends to make it sting all the worse.”

 

Aric spun around, ready to vent his frustration, furious with Damian’s calm words, but the other man had already turned away. Saddle balanced on one shoulder, saddlebags and bedroll slung over the other, Damian was walking through the barn door, whistling.

 

Letting out another long breath, Aric made another stab at reining his temper. The whole point of bringing Ravyn to the farm had been to show her how completely unsuited to this lifestyle she was. It had not been to point out what a beast he had been to her. He knew that already. And he felt guilty as hell. He didn’t need Damian to make those feelings grow.

 

Just as he knew his plan to make Ravyn cry annulment was working. Slowly, surely, day-by-day, hour by hour, minute by minute, he was wearing her down. He could hold out longer than she could.

 

I shall not say the word.

 

Yes you will.

 

Every moment brought Ravyn closer to that time when she would have to admit defeat and free both of them from the cruel trap they had entered into that fated day in England. They needed to be free of a marriage that should have never happened, no matter how promising it had seemed at first.

 

Aric hoped Ravyn would give up soon. Each day with her became harder to endure. Her scent, the memories of how she felt in his arms and the knowledge of what they might have had tormented him. He didn’t know how much longer he could go on grinding a beautiful little imp into the dirt. He had never felt another person’s anguish so completely. He would rather suffer a thousand deaths than put Ravyn through this. He would rather be hurt himself than to inflict the pain on Ravyn. Long ago he had learned how to endure pain, how to control it. When he had learned he was a bastard and had suffered insult after insult from the very people who embraced his brother with respect and love, he had learned to hide the anguish and the loneliness.

 

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Born in Medford, Oregon, novelist Christine Young has lived in Oregon all of her life. After graduating from Oregon State University with a BS in science, she spent another year at Southern Oregon State University working on her teaching certificate, and a few years later received her Master’s degree in secondary education and counseling. Now the long, hot days of summer provide the perfect setting for creating romance. She sold her first book, Dakota’s Bride, the summer of 1998 and her second book, My Angel to Kensington. Her teaching and writing careers have intertwined with raising three children.  Christine’s newest venture is the creation of Rogue Phoenix Press. Christine is the founder, editor and co-owner with her husband. They live in Salem, Oregon.

 

http://christineyoung-romancewriter.blogspot.com/

 

 

To Wed A Wild Lord by Sabrina Jeffries

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!

sugarbeat's books romance novels romance book reviewsWelcome also to Series Sunday!

Series Sundays is the day when I celebrate books written in series.  For the past few weeks I have been posting reviews for Sabrina Jeffries‘ latest series – The Hellions of Halstead Hall. This series started quite some time ago – don’t we always wish that our favorite authors could write faster – and publishers publish books faster – anyways, it is nearing an end.  Today I’m posting my thoughts on the 4th book in this 5 book series.  I have to admit, I’ve finished the 5 th book – I had to haunt the bookstore on release day – but that’s another story 🙂  The 5th book, as you’ll find out next week is a wonderful conclusion to this latest series.

Today’s topic is Gabe – the youngest male in this interesting group of siblings – and the woman who can challenge him!  Enjoy!

To Wed a Wild Lord by Sabrina Jeffries
ISBN: 978-1-4516-4240-7
Publisher: Pocket Star Books
Release: 2011
Source: I purchased a copy of this book to read and review

sugarbeat's books romance novel romance book reviews interviews guest posts historical contemporary author promotions To Fulfill his grandmother’s ultimatum, Lord Gabriel Sharpe pursues a spitfire he believes desperately need him. Then the tables are turned….

Like everything daredevil Gabe Sharpe does, wooing Virginia Waverly is a high-stakes game. Ever since her brother, Roger died racing Lord Gabriel, Virginia had yearned to take her revenge on the reckless lord by beating him at his own sport. But when she challenges Lord Gabriel to a race, the hellion called the “Angel of Death” counters with a marriage proposal! Gabe knows Virginia is in dire financial straits – so why not marry her and solve both of their problems? She claims to be appalled by his proposal, but her response to his kisses says otherwise. And when the two of them begin to unravel the truth behind Roger’s death, Gabe takes the greatest gamble of all, offering the courageous beauty something more precious than any inheritance: true love.

 

To Wed a Wild Lord is the fourth book in Sabrina Jeffries’s The Hellions of Halstead Hall series. This series is about a group of siblings who lost both of their parents in what was assumed to be a murder/suicide many years ago. These siblings – the Sharpe siblings were brought up by their maternal grandmother – a brewer and a commoner. Hetty Plumtree, the grandmother is getting on in years and none of her grandchildren show any signs of settling down and providing her with grandchildren. She decides to take matters into her own hands and announces that none of her grandchildren will get a penny of her considerable estate if they don’t ALL marry within the year.

To not giveaway any of the details of this delightful series, we have had the pleasure of reading the stories of 3 of the siblings, and there are two more to go. To Wed a Wild Lord is the story of Gabe, the youngest of the boys. He is a hellion in his own right, gambling and horse-racing to keep him in pocket cash. One unfortunate accident several years ago saw the death of his friend, Roger Waverly during one of these races. Since then, Gabe doesn’t seen to care if he lives or dies and races one risky race after another to the extent that he is referred to as the “Angel of Death”. When he is challenged to a race by Virginia Waverly, Roger’s sister, he sees a solution to the ultimatum from his grandmother. He figures if he courts and marries Virginia, he provides for her financially because her brother can no longer, and he makes his grandmother happy. Convincing Virginia to marry the man she holds responsible for her brother’s death is a stretch, but Gabe is up to the task.

I found this book to be another delightful installment in the story of the Sharpe siblings. Starting with the first book, the story of the parent’s supposed murder/suicide starts to be investigated and the information that is uncovered in this book takes us one step closer to finding out the truth. There are alot of the aspects of the story that weave themselves through each part of this series. I’m not certain each book could be read as a stand-alone. Read in order, the books form a cohesive group. I like the different view of the siblings in this book. I found this book somewhat darker than the rest, I think because of Gabe’s fatalistic attitude. Sabrina Jeffries does such a wonderful job of creating characters. Each book of her’s allows us insight into a new set of main characters as well as a continuing look at the characters that have already been talked about. What was particularly interesting is that Hetty gets a potential love interest in this book. I’m looking forward to reading more about that hopefully in Celia’s story which is due in the spring.

Sabrina Jeffries has the ability to create a world in which the reader immerses themselves and just experiences that story as it is unfolded before them. Time passes without notice, and the story is weaved like a tapestry with all the connecting threads.

Although I am a long time lover of Ms. Jeffries work and quite biased, I am really enjoying this latest series, and recommend it highly! I’m looking forward to Celia’s story!

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Guest post with Caddy Rowland, author of the Gastien series

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel

Today we are welcoming Caddy Rowland to the blog!  She is here to talk about her  work.  She has written two books that are part of a series.  This series is called the Gastien Series.  These books sound pretty interesting, but I’ll let her tell you about them!

Grab a coffee and a comfy chair, relax and enjoy what Caddy is here to share with us!

The Gastien Series (How I Allowed Gastien To Write His Story)

Do you believe fictional characters have voices? When I sat down a little over a year ago, I simply had an idea about the main character (Gastien) and a few ideas about who I wanted him to be. Although I am female, Gastien is male. However, we have some similarities. The biggest one is that we are both artists.

I committed to writing Gastien one hour per day, Monday through Friday as soon as I was done with work. Since I sold recruitment advertising at home, I did not have commute time. I decided I could use the hour many people spend on the road to write my novel. I did not let anything take that hour away from me. If I had a doctor appointment or something like that, I simply wrote for an hour as soon as I got home. Dinner, laundry, fun, and everything else would have to wait. My husband had the patience of a saint.

I began the first day by sitting down and simply thinking about Gastien and how I “saw” him. Becoming very quiet, I simply waited. Soon, the words started coming and I began to type. It was the strangest thing. Most days I had no idea what would be written. I fully believe that the character told the story. Gastien even gave me the descriptions of the other characters. When I needed names, I went to French name lists online and my gut would tell me which name to use.

The hour flew by each day that I wrote. By the time the story was complete, I had over 1,000 pages. It took me four months. Knowing this was too long for a book, it got divided into two books. The result was that I had the start of a series. I put part two aside and began polishing and editing part 1. The polishing and editing took the work of 6 beta readers and me. It also took 5 months. I read that baby a good dozen times, once out loud. Each time, I worked to make the soft “hum” louder, until I finally had a story that was “singing” at full voice. Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream was born.

Much of the time spent on my books was research after writing what I had been “told”. I researched online to make sure the things that had been typed could have happened in nineteenth century France. I wanted to make sure I used places that had existed (and some still do, although for some I took literary “leniency” in describing their size, etc) and that items were referred to be the correct terms for the times. For instance, men did not wear “pants”, they wore “trousers”. Taxicabs did not exist, but cabriolets did.

I am an indie author, so I released Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream on August 1, 2011 to Kindle (Amazon) and Nook ( Barnes&Noble). The paperback was released in mid September and is also on Amazon and Createspace.com.sugarbeats books romance novel romance book reviews

This is a series that is in the historical fiction/saga genres. Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream is about Gastien leaving the farm and an abusive father to pursue dreams of becoming a great artist and even greater lover in late nineteenth century Paris/Montmartre. This was during the time that bohemianism was at its peak, Impressionism was happening, more abstract styles were mostly being thought about; and drugs, drinking and sex were the norm in these circles. It was one of the most wild, free and creative times in the history of the world. There is graphic sex in the book for sure. A story of a bohemian lifestyle without it would not be a believable story. His struggles to get to bohemia are dark and troubling. Many reviewers say this book made them feel more emotions in one story than any they can think of being written recently. You will find reviews, synopsis and ratings on the links below.

sugarbeats books romance novel romance book reviewsGastien Part 2: From Dream to Destiny just came out in mid-December. This story is about Gastien’s life as an artist and features the “big” romance of his life…but don’t expect it to be predictable in any sense of the word! Nor is it categorized as a romance. It is still historical fiction and a saga. It is also a very powerful love story. You will have to read it to find out if he turned his back on love, or loved the best that he could, after all of the abuse he went through. If he did love, was it enough to keep that love alive?

There will be at least four books in the Gastien series. I do advise you to read them in order, from the beginning, so that you get the full impact of what this man went through and how strong his drive was to see his dreams become reality. I hope you enjoy the Gastien series. I would love to hear from you about your thoughts. You will find buy links and contact information below. I want to thank Barb for allowing me to tell you a little bit about my historical fiction/saga series about Gastien Beauchamp.

Thank you and happy reading!

Caddy Rowland

My Blog

My email: caddyauthor@yahoo.com

Gastien Facebook Fanpage

Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream:

For Kindle   *    For NOOK    *    For Paperback

Gastien Part 2: From Dream to Destiny

For Kindle    *    For NOOK

Paperback coming to Createspace.com and Amazon.com! Search by my name/title.

 

I’d like to thank Caddy for dropping by and sharing today!  If this book sound like something that you would like, click on one of the links above and pick up a copy!