Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Building a Dream - by Magdalena Scott

Do you love romantic comedy? I do! It's fun to watch the hero and heroine of a book or movie strike sparks off each other. A few of my favorite romantic comedy movies are YOU'VE GOT MAIL, ROMANCING THE STONE, SABRINA, ROMAN HOLIDAY, and AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS.

Chloe McClain and Greg Andrews 
have some of the best chemistry of my characters. 

For a limited time, I'm offering BUILDING A DREAM, Book 4 of The McClains of Legend, Tennessee Series, for just 99 cents. Want to know more about this book bargain?


Chloe McClain needs a classy art gallery, ASAP. She’s invested years of her life, and everything she owns, in the upcoming event that can make or break her career, and possibly give her beloved hometown a much-needed boost. Everyone says the handsome new builder in town is the best one to hire for the job. Once they meet, she wonders how his reputation is so good. The man's personality stinks.

Building contractor Greg Andrews thinks Chloe’s pile of bricks should be put out of its misery. But he's forced to take on the project, or get on the wrong side of the McClain family. His decision has nothing to do with the way Chloe’s eyes sparkle when she’s excited, or the view when she stomps away from him in her snug jeans. Women like her are bad news–he learned that the hard way.



Would you like to read the first chapter free?


Happy reading!
Magdalena



USA Today Bestselling Author Magdalena Scott writes sweet romance and romantic women’s fiction. A lifelong resident of Small Town America, she invites readers into her world to find out what’s hidden just below the surface of those tiny dots barely visible on the map. Romance, mystery, and the journey to be one’s best self are all part of a day in her neighborhood. Readers have commented that they’d like to move to the imaginary towns Magdalena writes about, which she takes as high praise indeed.

Magdalena is a practicing minimalist, having downsized from a 3,000 square foot house to a studio apartment, where her Giant Closet continues to resist taming. When not writing at home or spending time with family and friends, she loves to travel–carry-on baggage only–and is always pleasantly surprised at the kindness of strangers.

Visit her website: www.magdalenascott.com

And don't miss her Free Books page. You can download a series starter (The McClains of Legend, Tennessee and Serendipity, Indiana) from your favorite vendor by clicking here.

Remember to join all the authors of Sweet Romance Reads at the Sweet Romance Reads Cafe on Facebook!




Sunday, August 26, 2018

Autumn Is Coming by Mary Alford


There are 27 days left until autumn. Fall and all its beauty is just around the corner. Even though the local weathermen here in Texas are warning we have a long road ahead filled with many hot days still before we can enjoy those crisp cool mornings of autumn, I remain an optimist.
So today, I thought I'd share a little autumn beauty to get you in the mood. 







Are you feeling it yet?

 
 
Who's ready for pumpkin patches!
 
 
 
 
Pumpkin lattes.
 
 
 
 
Getting lost on a long walk.
 
 
 
And Pumpkin Bread!
 
 
 
I thought I’d share one of my favorite Pumpkin Spice Bread Recipe with you all.
Pumpkin Spice Bread Recipe
1 cup sugar
 1 cup brown sugar
 1/2 cup vegetable oil
 1/2 cup smooth applesauce
 3 large eggs
 1 (15 oz) can solid pack pumpkin
 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 1 1/2 cups wheat flour
 2 teaspoons ground cloves
 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
 1 teaspoon baking soda
 1/2 teaspoon salt
 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9x5x3 loaf pans or muffin tins. Beat sugar and oil in a large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs, pumpkin, and apple sauce. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions.
Divide batter equally among prepared pans (muffin tins). Bake until tester comes out clean, about 1 hour for loaves, 20 min for muffins. Transfer to cooling racks and cool for 10 minutes.
Turn out onto racks and cool completely.
 
And to get you in the mood for Christmas, which is just 120 days away, why not curl up with your favorite hot beverage and enjoy this sweet romance boxed set of 9 heartwarming holiday novellas from your favorite award winning authors that are sure to put you in the mood for Christmas.
 
 
Sweet Christmas Kisses 5 is now available for preorder for only $.99 for the complete collection. Your order will automatically download when the book releases on September 25th.
 



 
Publisher’s Weekly Bestselling Author Mary Alford loves to create characters and to throw them into situations that test their faith. A lifelong resident of Texas, Mary was inspired to become a writer after reading classic romantic suspense novels by her favorite authors. Writing her own novels is a dream come true. Mary Alford can be found at: www.maryalford.net or you can email her at maryjafordauthor@gmail.com.  Follow Mary on Facebook at "Mary Alford Author" and Twitter at "MaryAlford13".
 
 
And don't forget to stop by the Sweet Romance Reads Café for lively conversation and to find out what all your favorite Sweet Romance Reads authors are up to.     
 
 
 

Friday, August 24, 2018

Reunions Forever by Pat Simmons


The unofficial close of summer is less than two weeks away, and it wouldn't be August without our annual family reunions. Hundreds of Croft/ Sturdivants come together to celebrate family. This year’s theme was Back to Our Roots and took place in St. Louis. The attire was African garb. The vibrant colors of head scarfs, skirts, dashikis, and dresses formed a perfect rainbow. Family members who couldn't attend, missed a good time, including me. This year, I was away at Romance GenreCon in Kansas City, Missouri. I had a great time with authors and readers, but every chance I got, I spied photos posted on Facebook. Through those pictures, I was right there with them. I had a chance to see my husband sporting his outfit I sewed for him. Kerry looks like a king. He's posing with our cousin Debbie.


When our president of the St. Louis family reunion picked an African theme last November, we had no idea a few months later the movie Black Panther would be a blockbuster and inspire a movement across the world of people appreciating their ethnicity. So for a few hours earlier this month, my family entered the make believe world of Wakanda Forever.
 

A few years ago, Detroit hosted the reunion. The attire was hats for the ladies and bow ties for the boys/men. Again, it was great. Themes make the difference at the reunions.
Here's another theme reunion in 2013, in St. Louis again. As you can see everyone dressed for the "All White Affair" family reunion except for my son who waited until the last minute to show up. We loved on him anyway.

I can't begin to show you the many pictures from picnics and family members decked out in our T-shirts that boldly proclaim family unity and roots. How many family reunion T-shirts are in your stuffed in your closet, or have you worn them thin? 



Can't wait for next year! If it is the Lord's will, Kerry and I will attend a minimum of three reunions in 2019: Chicago (my mother's side); Buffalo, NY (my father-in-law's side); Atlanta (my mother-in-law's side). I'm also hoping to connect with my father's side too. Check out more family reunion pictures throughout the years on my website: www.patsimmons.net. Select a year and search for the months of July and August.

That it for now. Make your Labor Day a mini-reunion with family and friends.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pat Simmons has penned more than thirty-five titles. She is a self-proclaimed genealogy sleuth who is passionate about researching her ancestors, then casting them in starring roles in her novels. She is a three-time recipient of the Romance Slam Jam Emma Rodgers Award for Best Inspirational Romance. Pat describes the evidence of the gift of the Holy Ghost as a life-altering experience. She has been a featured speaker and workshop presenter at various venues across the country. Pat has converted her sofa-strapped sports fanatical husband into an amateur travel agent, untrained bodyguard, GPS-guided chauffeur, and administrative assistant who is constantly on probation. They have a son and a daughter. Pat holds a B.S. in mass communications from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Visit her at www.patsimmons.net.

***
Her latest release is DRIVEN TO BE LOVED. Three sisters who pray together, stay together. Dr. Brecee Carmen is going to need backup when she meets Adrian Cole.

It doesn’t matter how many years go by, love will always find a way….

On the surface, Brecee Carmen has nothing in common with Adrian Cole. She is a pediatrician certified in trauma care; he is a transportation problem-solver for a luxury car dealership (a.k.a., a car salesman). Despite their slow but steady attraction to each other, neither one of them is sure that they're compatible. To complicate matters, Brecee is the sole unattached Carmen daughter when it seems as though everyone else around her—family and friends—is finding love.


Through a series of discoveries, Adrian and Brecee learn that things don't always happen by coincidence. Generational forces are at work, keeping promises, protecting family members, and perhaps even drawing Adrian back to the church he had strayed from. Is it possible that God has been playing matchmaker all along?



If you like family sagas, then join the wait list for Book 9 of the Jamieson Legacy: The Guilty Generationhttps://goo.gl/forms/0wxWyXpfo5ieE9Tl1



Wednesday, August 22, 2018

#SweetRomance Bargain Books for #99cents


It's always fun to find a bargain. Grab the second book in Merrilee Whren's Front Porch Promises series while it is on sale for 99 cents. You will find the buy links for all vendors below.

iBooks


~  ~  ~  ~  ~




Here's another bargain for you! This 2-book bundle is on sale for $0.99 at Kindle for a very limited time. The bundle usually sells for $6.99. Grab it while you can!





~  ~  ~  ~  ~


Here's another bargain! 99 cents for Journey to Respect!

Some call him half-breed; all call her a lady, in 1825 few would judge them equals~



Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Tea Time in the Garden by Milou Koenings


I had dinner outside last night, on my terrace, by candlelight. It seemed a fitting end to the summer. Tonight, my kids come home from a month-long visit to their grandparents in Chicago and in a few days we’ll all be adjusting to new routines, early morning bustle, making school lunches and hustling everyone out the door on time.

But last evening, lulled by the song of crickets in the darkness, I reflected on how eating outdoors evokes such wonderful late summer memories.


unsplash-logoLiana Mikah

Sure, I’ve been blessed with many picnic memories. Some were delightful, like the one at the edge of a remote lake in Africa where various wildlife popped in to say hi, or the day I cooked breakfast, wrapped it up and took everyone down to the still-empty park to eat on the dewy grass. Others were disasters, like the time the extra gas canister in the back of the jeep sprang a leak and flooded all our food for the trip over and past the Mountains of the Moon, and that was before we got mired in mud ­— fortunately we can all laugh about it now, but it sure wasn’t funny at the time!

But the image that most comes to mind in the late summer if of my visits to my godmother. Every year of my earliest childhood, my parents shipped me off to spend two weeks with my godmother. 

She and her husband lived in Brussels, in a big house so removed from the boulevard that was its official address that one could pretend to be out in the country. It was a magical place to me. There was actually a library in the house — the kind with the rolling ladders to reach the highest shelves. There was a grand piano that I was allowed to “play” for hours. There was a dovecote, with the attendant cooing playing the background melody of each day. There was only one telephone and it was the candlestick kind that you need both hands to use — one to hold the little hearing piece to your ear and one to hold the base. It had been installed in the 1920s by my godmother’s parents, and sixty years later, she didn’t see any reason to replace it — it worked just fine.

One of my godmother’s passions was her rose garden, a wild, rambling thing that overtook the front alley with heady scents and glorious colors. At the edge of it, off to the side of the house, was a clearing with a gnarled old tree. There was a bench beneath it that had been there so long that the tree had grown through and around it so that the two were now one being.

My godmother had set a table and chairs before the bench, and every afternoon in August, she served tea under the tree.  And I don’t mean toss-a-tea-bag-in-a-mug kind of tea.  It was a ceremony planned for from early morning, when her first task after breakfast was to bake the pastry of the day. (My favorite was boterkoek, a Dutch pastry made with candied ginger.) Then, in the afternoon, there was laying out the tea tray: setting out a lacy cloth over the tray; stacking delicate saucers and cups and cake plates; the sugar bowl with its silver tongs; the creamer; the teapot, the plate of thinly sliced lemon.


unsplash-logoAnita Austvika

At four, we’d go sit under the tree and my godmother would pour. This was the time that their friends knew they were welcome to come by. So, each day was different — on rare occasions it was just the three of us, but most of the time one or two of their friends would join us.  My godmother was a pianist. Her husband was an archaeologist. Among their friends were not only colleagues, but also artists and college professors in other fields.

There I was, a quiet child sitting under the tree, sipping my tea and nibbling my slice of boterkoek, imbibing the most fascinating conversations. I learned more esoteric things on those lazy August afternoons than I ever did at school — not least of which was the existence of Disney World in Florida. One of the friends, an engineer, had just returned from taking his family there. He explained in detail not only the rides, but also the ingenious ways in which they were constructed. It sounded so out-of-this-world, that to this day I fear a visit to Disney World would pale in comparison to the vision he described to us that day. (I have taken my kids to Disneyland in Paris, though, and admit I was not disappointed in the least!) I also now associate engineers with Disney magic, which is probably why I’m so fond of them.


unsplash-logoAnita Austvika


My grown-up life is so hectic, there’s little room for this kind of genteel ritual. But if I need a little end-of-summer vacation, I’m grateful I can slip into my memories and still enjoy this one. 

And if an intertwined tree and bench or a gracious teatime make an appearance in any of my books, you’ll know where it came from.



Milou Koenings is a USA Today bestselling author. She writes romance because, like chocolate, stories with a happy ending bring more joy into the world and so make it a better place.





Her other Green Pines sweet romances, I Love You Three, Reclaiming Home, The Kampala Peppermint Twist and Sweet Blizzard are available on AmazonAmazon.uk, iBooks, Nook, Kobo and all your favorite e-book retailers.








Sign up for her newsletter, so you'll be first to know about new releases - and get a free book!

Monday, August 20, 2018

Nominate your friends for a free e-book!

Today, you can make someone happy! Just tag five friends who love to read romances in the comment section of our Sweet Romance Reads Café on Facebook, and the nine authors of the upcoming Christmas bundle will pick out five winners! Here's a chance to get your friend a free e-book from one of our successful authors.

This is the link to the Sweet Romance Reads Café on Facebook

Maybe you've already seen it - our new book bundle, an anthology with nine heart-warming Christmas romances from bestselling authors, is now available for pre-order! You can order it here:
books2read.com/SweetChristmasKisses5

And these are the authors you'll meet in the bundle:

Milou Koenigs - www.miloukoenings.com. Because stories with happy endings made the world a better place.

Mary Alford - www.maryalford.net. Endless Suspense, Infinite Romance.

Roxanne Rustand - www.roxannerustand.com   Faith, family & four-footed friends...as life in the country

Beate Boeker - www.happybooks.de - Mischief & Humor from Page 1

Liwen Y. Ho - www.2square2behip.com - Sweet & inspirational romance infused with heart, humor, and a taste of home (Liwen's Asian roots).

Josie Riviera - http://josieriviera.com/   - The hallmark of sweet romance.

Christine Bush  www.christinebush.com - Stories that celebrate love, laughter, hope and happily ever afters.

Jean C. Gordon - www.jeancgordon.com - Coming Home to Love and Hope

... and Kristin Wallace!

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Country Girl, by Jeanette Lewis

Hello, everyone! I'm so excited to belong to this wonderful group. My name is Jeanette Lewis and I have been writing and spinning stories for as long as I can remember. I made storytelling my full-time job in 2016 and have published thirteen books, with more on the way. I love writing sweet romance, but I also play around with YA, fantasy, and historical fiction.

I live in Utah with my husband, four kids, and our silly blue-eyed cat named Millie. Along with writing, my other favorite things include family, friends, having adventures, crisp Autumn days, and frozen gummy bears.

I grew up on a dairy farm and spent my summers moving sprinkler pipes, driving tractors, and tending animals. Last weekend, I visited home and took some time to wander around the farm. I will always be grateful for the lessons I learned from my parents and the farm, including self-reliance, hard work, and a deep appreciation for nature.



To see more farm pictures, go to my Facebook album.

A lot of my farm experiences have found their way into my writing, particularly in my four Snow Valley books. (Yes ... the goat wrestling in Feels Like Love.)

My Snow Valley Collection is available now on Amazon. Get all four sweet romances for only $5.99, or free if you are a KU member.




You can also get a FREE copy of my ebook The Passionate One, Book 1 in The Billionaire Bride Pact when you join my reader's club. As a subscriber, you'll be among the first to know about new releases, works in progress, special contests, sales, and parties. I typically send one email per week.



I'm glad to be here and excited to get to know you all!

Amazon Author Page: JeanetteLewisBooks
Twitter: @JeanetteLBooks
Instagram: JeanetteLewisBooks

Saturday, August 18, 2018

~New Release~ Love’s Light by Raine English


Will love be enough to lift two wounded hearts from darkness?

Serenity Wright has spent her life taking care of others, putting her life on hold. And at twenty-six, with a sister in college, another in high school who’s headed down the wrong path, and a father addicted to pain pills, she’s the only one keeping the family together. However, part-time waitress and weekend honky-tonk singer was hardly the life she’d envisioned. Her chances of ever performing at the Grand Ole Opry were diminishing with each family crisis. Until Axel Scott, songwriter to Nashville’s finest, enters her life.

Sweet Grove, Texas seems like the perfect place for Axel to clear his head and overcome a year-long writer’s block. But he never expects to find his muse there or fall in love with a woman whose problems run deeper than his own.

Will love’s light be enough to heal their hearts?



~*~




USA Today bestselling author Raine English writes sweet small-town contemporary romance, along with paranormal and romantic suspense. She’s a Daphne du Maurier Award winner and a Golden Heart finalist. To receive information on all her new releases, you can sign up for her newsletter, visit her website, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Getting in the Christmas Spirit & A Free Book by Liwen Y. Ho

In case you were wondering, there are 130 days left until Christmas! If that sounds really soon to you, you're not alone. The summer flew by for me, even with my kiddos at home, and now that school has started, I'm sure the weeks and months will pass by even faster. So what does that mean? December 25th will be here before we know it.

As an author, I've actually been thinking about Christmas for many months now. I wrote one story set in winter back in May and am finishing up another Christmas story. I confess it does get a little tricky thinking about cold weather when I have a T-shirt and shorts on. One of these days I'd like to write a book in the season when it's set. We'll see if that ever happens!

I know many readers like to read holiday stories year-round, so you may already be in the Christmas spirit. In case you're not though, let me give you some inspiration with the photos below.








And here's one more thing to get you in the Christmas spirit ...


A set of nine brand new Christmas stories available for pre-order today! Release day is September 25th, so you'll have plenty of time to read these stories before Christmas.

Pick up your copy for only 99¢ at your favorite retailer: https://books2read.com/SweetChristmasKisses5

My story from Sweet Christmas Kisses 5The Love Clause, is a fun office romance between two colleagues who agree to a fake relationship with one clause—no one can fall in love.



Divorce attorney Phillip Wong is on his way to making partner in his law firm. His only obstacle? He must show his boss he has a support system—namely, a devoted woman—to aid his work-life balance.

Vanessa Lim needs to find a date to her cousin’s wedding, before her mom arranges one for her. She agrees to accompany her colleague, Phil, to their company’s Christmas party on one condition. He acts as her doting boyfriend for a day.

Romance is forbidden in this contractual relationship, a clause Phil and Vanessa are sure they can keep. He thinks she’s ditzy, she finds him overbearing, and they’re both married to their jobs. However, their time together reveals that hearts don’t always follow the rules.

Philip Wong actually made an appearance in my Valentine's Day rom-com, Puppy Dog Tales. You can pick up your Kindle copy of Puppy Dog Tales for FREE here (today only): Amazon

Then pre-order Sweet Christmas Kisses 5 to find out how Philip gets his own happy ending!




Be sure to join us over at the Sweet Romance Reads Cafe on Facebook for a great community of like-minded readers who enjoy reading sweet/clean romance!