New Release and A Giveaway ~ The Memory of Butterflies

Welcome to Sweet Romance Reads! I’m Grace Greene and I have a new release coming out in seventeen days!!! THE MEMORY OF BUTTERFLIES will be released on 9/5 and you can preorder it HERE and get the Amazon low price guarantee on all formats. If you order the ebook, it will conveniently show up on your Kindle on release day!

You can also take advantage of a Goodreads opportunity. Lake Union Publishing is offering 100 Kindle copies of THE MEMORY OF BUTTERFLIES as part of a Goodreads giveaway (US only). Enter the giveaway HERE.

Here’s a short description:

A young mother lies to keep a devastating family secret from being revealed, but the lies, themselves, could end up destroying everything and everyone she loves. 

Hannah Cooper’s daughter, Ellen, is leaving for college soon. As Ellen’s high school graduation approaches, Hannah decides it’s time to return to her roots in Cooper’s Hollow along Virginia’s beautiful and rustic Cub Creek. Hannah's new beginning comes with unanticipated risks that will cost her far more than she ever imagined—perhaps more than she can survive. When a confrontation forces Hannah to expose her secret, she is prepared to sacrifice everything to protect her family, but can their lives and their bond withstand the seismic shift that’s coming?

Editorial reviews say: 

“The Memory of Butterflies is an emotionally gripping tale of a mother’s love and the secret so great it threatens to destroy her world. Grace Greene masterfully captures the beauty and isolation of Cooper’s Hollow and enriches it with deftly created characters that tug at your heartstrings. A beautiful story, beautifully told.” —Bette Lee Crosby, USA Today bestselling author

“Brimming with heart-rending choices, The Memory of Butterflies celebrates the unshakeable bonds of parental devotion in an uplifting tale of love’s ability to heal the deepest wounds and silence the darkest regrets. Highly recommended.” —Christine Nolfi, author of Sweet Lake, and The Comfort of Secrets.

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Grace Greene writes Stories of Heart and Hope from The Outer Banks to The Blue Ridge and is a USA Today bestselling author of women’s fiction and contemporary romance set in her native Virginia (Kincaid’s Hope, Cub Creek, Leaving Cub Creek, A Stranger in Wynnedower, The Happiness In Between, The Memory of Butterflies) and the breezy beaches of Emerald Isle, North Carolina (Beach Rental, Beach Winds, Beach Walk, Beach Christmas). Her debut novel, Beach Rental, and its sequel, Beach Winds, were both Top Picks by RT Book Reviews magazine. For more about the author and her novels, visit www.gracegreene.com or connect with her on Twitter @Grace_Greene and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GraceGreeneBooks.

Spring ~ Ready or Not

Welcome to Sweet Romance Reads! I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been thinking about spring. Wishing for spring. We experienced it briefly and it seemed like it was the real thing. I made plans to have landscaping done, including transplanting some existing shrubs and planting a new tree even though people warned us winter wasn’t finished with us yet. And they were right. Here in Virginia it’s very cold (as I write this on Thursday the 16^th). To the north, snow fell this week. For some, it was a bunch of snow. And yet, March 21^st is only a few days away. Spring will officially arrive and soon the warmer temps will be here to stay – for a while at least – and then it will be hot and humid and we’ll be wishing for autumn. It’s just a truth of life and how we are as people. We tend to want what we don’t have. Somehow our futures seem so much more promising and interesting than our reality such that we wish away our present. Instead of living in the NOW, we dream of the future. I’m guilty of that and I know many other people who are. Are you?

We save for a future vacation while we rush through each ordinary day. We are anxious for our infants to teeth or crawl or walk because others of the same age already are. We struggle through the present working for the future and one day we realize the future has arrived and we don’t know how to embrace it and enjoy it. We look back and wonder why we didn’t see the beauty in the present, in the memories we were crafting at the time, during those ordinary days.

 In my most recent release, THE HAPPINESS IN BETWEEN, Sandra Lovett wanted happiness and it eluded her. If she’d found the happiness in each day, perhaps her future would’ve been better sooner. In BEACH RENTAL, my debut novel, Juli lived very much in the now and considered self-reliance to be the most important ideal. Happiness was something she didn’t expect and it didn’t figure into her life, yet when she began to hope for the future, and took steps toward making a more promising future happen, she found joy, unexpected and overflowing.

What does all that mean? I don’t know. Maybe it means that the tree the landscapers just planted for me and the bushes they transplanted, should’ve been allowed to wait until the weather was more favorable to their rooting and future survival? Perhaps. Only time will tell. If they fail to thrive I’ll be sad, but I’ll try again and hope to get it right next time. Because, as humans, we may be impatient, but we’re also persistent. It’s who we are. Somewhere along the way we need to be sure to appreciate and embrace the present because, like spring, the future will arrive all on its own and become reality, and we need to understand how to live in it.

Please visit me over at www.GraceGreene.com  I write sweet romance and women’s fiction. My Emerald Isle, NC books are romance and sweet inspiration (BEACH RENTAL and BEACH WINDS) and my Virginia Country Roads novels (CUB CREEK, LEAVING CUB CREEK, KINCAID’S HOPE, A STRANGER IN WYNNEDOWER) feature more mystery and suspense, as do THE HAPPINESS IN BETWEEN, my most recent release, and THE MEMORY OF BUTTERFLIES, currently available on preorder and due to be released on September 5^th. I hope you’ll sign up for my newsletter. You’ll also find me here:  Twitter  Facebook  Goodreads  Pinterest  Author Central

If you don’t already subscribe to our Sweet Romance Reads newsletter, please be sure to do that while you’re here. You’ll find the signup on the right side of this page. 

Happy Spring! I'm glad it's coming whether we're ready or not!

Relaxation and Temptation

Ah, sweet relaxation. Feet up, head back against the chair, and even a thin pillow behind the small of my back, with a glass of something cold waiting on the end table. Maybe a small plate with a couple of cookies within reach. All in all, this gal is kicked back, and reading or watching a movie, or even just picking daisies. A lovely dream.

 

What do you do to relax? I could use some good suggestions for when this current manuscript is finished. I'll need it. 

 

Writing novels is <fill in the blank> and sometimes I <fill in the blank> it.

 

 

There are high moments, wonderful times when the plot flows and the characters amaze me. There are the depths of despair when I know I’m writing junk and I’ve been fooling myself about this whole writing gig. Then via persistence and occasional moments of brilliance, the first draft reaches its end and I scream in joy and run around the house looking for someone to celebrate with.

 

Then the editing begins. It goes on and one until I feel like I can recite the doggone book by heart. That’s where I’m at right. I’m on the cusp of sending my beautiful/awful/brilliant/boring manuscript to the real editor. I am both sad and happy. Mostly I’m relieved. Until the editor sends it back ~ but that’s whole new post and a different dance of torture and jubilation.

 

 

So, back to relaxation. I’m entering that halcyon period where the editor finds the flawed threads of my book and works some magic. Until I get it back from her I have time to kick back, relax and recharge, but how? The irony is that even though my feet are propped up and the ice hasn’t had time to melt in my glass, I’m already thinking that this is a good time to start the next book ~ another beach book set in Emerald Isle. The story is in my head, stretching and twisting, wanting out. While I’m sitting here, I could pull that laptop over and maybe just start pecking at the keyboard. Just a few words. And there I go ~ the craziness starts again.

So please suggest some relaxation options that trump the start of that next book. Go for a walk? A bike ride? Date with hubby? Sleep? Sleep sounds very good, I admit. Especially if it's on a cruise ship.

 

But first, I think I’ll type a few words while that opening scene is playing in my head, and then I’ll get around to doing something fun and relaxing, because right now Maia is down at Emerald Isle, NC and a handsome guy has just slipped a big shiny rock of a ring onto her finger...  She needs me.

 

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You can pre-order here now: Amazon: http://indi.uno/1i9UeJv

Barnes & Noble: http://indi.uno/1JsnLXM     Kobo: http://indi.uno/1ErAkUy

iTunes: http://indi.uno/1NFPAA5      Google: http://indi.uno/1Ep9cp2
 

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Grace Greene writes contemporary romance, mystery and suspense. The beach books are part of the Emerald Isle, NC Stories series ~ Beach Rental, Beach Winds and the two Christmas novellas, Beach Christmas and Beach Walk. Beach Walk is Grace's contribution to the Sweet Christmas Kisses 2 Set of 19 Heartwarming Christmas Novellas which is available for pre-order and will be released on 9/29. Grace's Virginia Country Roads novels are Kincaid's Hope, A Stranger in Wynnedower, and Cub Creek. Coming later in 2015 is the sequel to Cub Creek, Leaving Cub Creek. Stay in touch with Grace via her website: www.GraceGreene.com and please sign up for her newsletter.