Book Blast for A TIME FOR EVERYTHING by Mysti Parker

Welcome to my stop on the virtual book blast tour for A TIME FOR EVERYTHING by Mysti Parker, a Historical Romance available July 7 from EsKape Press. This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions.

 

BLURB

After losing her husband and only child to the ravages of the Civil War, twenty-five-year-old Portia McAllister is drowning in grief. When she sees an ad for a live-in tutor in another town, she leaves everything behind in hopes of making a fresh start. But as a Confederate widow in a Union household, she is met with resentment from her new charge and her employer, war veteran Beau Stanford.

Despite their differences, she and Beau find common ground and the stirrings of a second chance at love—until his late wife’s cousin, Lydia, arrives with her sights set on him. Burdened with a farm on the brink of bankruptcy, Beau is tempted by Lydia’s hefty dowry, though Portia has captured his heart.

In another time and another place, his choice would be easy. But love seems impossible amid the simmering chaos of Reconstruction that could boil over at any moment into an all-out battle for survival. Will Beau and Portia find their way into each other’s arms, or will they be swept away by raging forces beyond their control?

EXCERPT

Brentwood, Tennessee — December 25, 1865

The angels are coming.

Portia lay on the frozen ground between her husband and daughter. Snow fluttered softly toward the earth in delicate flakes, each one melting on her face with a pleasant sting. She wouldn’t have to wait much longer.

The sunrise, hidden by snow-laden clouds, gradually lit the gray sky. With numb fingers, she traced her husband’s name, carved into the stoic slate. Jake McAllister, but let her hand drop to the ground before she touched that wretched date. December 16, 1864 — the day her whole world began to fall apart.

It had been a day as cold as this one when Jake returned. Portia had stood on their porch, holding Abigail, both of them wrapped in shawls and a quilt. Yet the cold had managed to seep inside, wrapping icy fingers around her heart. Her husband lay lifeless in the back of a wagon. His once-rosy face had turned ashen. Blood caked his Confederate jacket. His hands, large and strong, yet once so gentle, were posed across his belly. His fingers were stiff and claw-like, wrapped around a phantom gun. He did not look like Jake. It had to have been a mannequin with a wig the same dusty red shade of his hair.

“That’s not him,” she’d repeated to the men who’d so methodically carried him into the house. Jake would pop out from somewhere, still the jokester he had always been, and she would slap him for playing such a cruel prank. Then she would laugh with him and hold him tight because he had finally returned to her and Abby.

But the longer her eyes absorbed the wretched sight, the more evidence she had discovered. Little freckles and scars she knew so well. The pea-sized patch on his jaw where his beard never grew. The missing end of his middle finger, taken by a vicious dog when they were children.

It wasn’t a joke. Jake was dead.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Mysti Parker is a wife, mom, author, and shameless chocoholic. She is the author of the Tallenmere standalone fantasy romance series and The Roche Hotel romantic comedy series. Her short writings have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. Her award-winning historical romance, A Time for Everything, will be published this summer by EsKape Press.

Other writing pursuits include serving as a class mentor in Writers Village University's seven week online course, F2K. She has published two children's books (Quentin's Problem & Fuzzy Buzzy's Treasure) as Misty Baker.

When she's not writing fiction,Mysti reviews books for SQ Magazine, an online specfic publication. She resides in Buckner, KY with her husband and three children.

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Everything-Mysti-Parker-ebook/dp/B00ZFUKEC4

Author Links:
http://www.mystiparker.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mysti-Parker/103786449704221
https://twitter.com/MystiParker

GIVEAWAY

The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn commenter via Rafflecopter

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Return to Me by Melissa MacKinnon: $25 GC Book Blast

Welcome to my stop on the book tour for Return to Me by Melissa MacKinnon, a historical romance with a strong fantasy element released August 19, 2014 by EsKape Press.

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Melissa will be awarding $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $10 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn host. Please click the banner to see additional stops on the tour.

Archaean bounty hunter Marek Coinnich isn't particularly fond of Engels. In fact, he prefers them dead. But to save his injured brother, he must enter the manor of an Engel enemy. Marek finds himself enthralled by the slave girl nursing his brother back to health. When his enchantment with her lands them in a compromising position, he refuses to let the young beauty pay for the misunderstanding with her life.

Brynn of Galhaven prefers to keep to the shadows. When she is ruined by an outsider, she barely escapes with her life and finds herself left alone in an unforgiving land. Through her struggles to survive, Brynn discovers a world she never imagined and never forgets the enemy Archaean who stole her heart.

Marek can’t deny his desire for Brynn, but these are wartimes, and she is the enemy. And though love knows no prejudice, the world in which he lives isn’t nearly as forgiving.

Now enjoy an excerpt:

Three black ravens circled above her, eagerly awaiting her death.

Crimson spilled from her nose and mouth, cascading to the powdery blanket of snow below. It pooled around her toes, congealing into pale red clumps on her boots and carelessly staining the front of her pretty gown. Her breath crystallized in the air before her, but yet, she felt no cold.

A great sense of foreboding overtook her body then, paining her insides, and she reached up toward the ravens, searching the heavens for strength. She had been there before. She paused to twirl her palm in the air and watched it intensely as it slowly rotated. It felt disjointed from her body, as if it didn’t belong to her. She felt no immediate pain from the deep laceration on her palm. She gaped at the gash as it wept bloody tears — watched as they dripped in steady rhythmic beats to the perfect white earth.

There were others surrounding her — faceless, lifeless beings standing where hearts once beat to the tune of life. Blood trickled from their burning eyes and spouted from their fingers as if some strange death spell had been cast over their unmoving bodies. It kept them erect but frozen in time as swirls of white and crimson danced around their corpses in victory.

So much death.

Had she caused this?

No, the death swirl surrounded her as well.

It wanted her.

It took her.

Melissa grew up surrounded by dragons, fearsome creatures, and damsels in distress from the wonderful world of make believe. She soon found her ideas on paper, littering her desk with world maps and character biographies. Study hall was used not for homework but for writing. Although she pursued a career in theater, the written word never left her. Melissa now leads a full life with her husband and children (five amazingly adorable clones to be exact), though she still finds time to write in her “spare time”. She sports a Military Wife badge of honor, and is lucky enough to have her own knight in camo armor.

Melissa enjoys writing everything from sexy, sword-toting heroes to spit-out-your coffee funny romantic comedies. Her passion lies within the ancient walls of fantasy and historical romance, where anything is possible.

Melissa MacKinnon: http://melissamackinnon.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelissaMacKinnon602?fref=ts

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/melissa.mackinnon.author

Twitter: https://twitter.com/M_MacKinnon

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