Go With the Spirit by Caroline Clemmons

I’m Caroline Clemmons and I’m so pleased to be here today. This is my favorite time of year! Everything seems to remind me of happy past holidays. However, like Joan Reeves, I prefer my snow in Hallmark movies rather than in my yard. Snow is lovely to see from your living room window, but most Texans don’t know how to drive on it.

To celebrate the season, we drive around to look at Christmas lights on homes, go to Interlochen—a housing area with astonishing light displays on the homes, send cards, and chuckle over how surprised family members will be with our gifts. Anticipation fills the air. How many days until Christmas?

One of the pleasant memories is of the first Christmas Eve that my sister in-law’s in-laws (Mr. and Mrs. joined our family celebration. My sister-in-law’s husband had never been allowed to celebrate Santa or receive gifts. His mother—Mrs. Scoffer—believed that exchanging gifts, having Santa, destroyed the real reason for the holiday, which was the birth of Christ.

My in-laws and my mom and Mr. and Mrs. Scoffer were in the same Sunday School class, so this belief wasn’t something Mr. and Mrs. Scoffer had heard in church. Not at all. My mother-in-law had promised to show the doubting couple that exchanging gifts could be a part of respectful worship. My husband and I didn’t know about the Scoffers before we arrived on Christmas Eve. It was our turn to stay with my parents, and we’d brought them from their home a couple of miles away to join the festivities. (I admit I preferred staying at my parents’ place.)

I remember that the doubting and defensive Scoffers sat together at the end of the couch nearest the door. The woman had her arms crossed over her chest, a clenched jaw, and an Oh, yeah? expression on her face. Slightly more reasonable, Mr. Scoffer leaned forward, as if not wanting to miss a detail. We had snacks about 6:30. At 7:00, my father-in-law read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke. A prayer followed for those present, our friends and families, and all those who needed help, and for peace on Earth.

At “Amen,” the children cheered and my husband (his parents’ eldest child) passed out the gifts from under the tree. There were a lot!—even something for the two Scoffers. When the frenzy concluded, Mrs. Scoffer said, “I didn’t know it would be like that. You didn’t ignore the reason for Christmas at all. We could do this next year.”

Think of my poor brother-in-law and his sister all those years they didn’t receive gifts at Christmas. Boggles the mind. I do not intend to launch a debate about how we should celebrate Christmas. Lighten up, folks, and go with the spirit.

We give gifts with love to those we love. We receive pleasure by giving pleasure. We rejoice in the ability to share our love in a tangible way at Christmas. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with the spirit of peace on Earth in your heart.

                                   

Through a crazy twist of fate, Caroline Clemmons was not born on a Texas ranch. To compensate for this illogical error, she writes about handsome heroes, feisty women, and scheming villains in a tiny office surrounded by research books and mementos. She and her Hero live in North Central Texas cowboy country where they ride herd indoors on their two cats and two dogs as well as providing nourishment outdoors for squirrels, birds, and other critters.

The over sixty books she has created have made her a Top 100 Amazon historical author, a bestselling author, and won awards. She writes sweet to sensual romances, both historical and contemporary as well as time travel and mystery. In addition to her series she has written single titles and contributed to multi-author series and box sets. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, reading her friends’ books, dining in restaurants, browsing antique malls, delving into genealogy, checking Facebook, and taking the occasional nap.

Find her on her blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest.

Join her and other readers at Caroline’s Cuties, a Facebook readers group for special excerpts, exchanging ideas, contests, giveaways, recipes, and talking to like-minded people about books and other fun things.

Click on her Amazon Author Page for an almost complete list of her books and follow her there.

Follow her on BookBub.

Caroline Clemons

Christmas Confession by Joan Reeves

If you’ve ever watched a Hallmark Christmas movie, you know what to expect in the background—a snowy winter wonderland. The camera pans out, and you see the exterior of a beautifully decorated home—almost covered with twinkling colored lights—with fluffy white snow falling softly to the ground.

Who wouldn’t love that? Well…me.

Seriously, I do love snow—as long as I’m looking at it in pictures, on television, or in movies like the aforementioned Hallmark Christmas offerings. I attribute my distaste for the real life cold white stuff to the year I lived in South Dakota. Ah, yes. That was an eye-opening experience for this southern girl who longed for a White Christmas every time I heard Bing, Elvis, or any of the dozens of other singers who crooned that holiday song. Instead of snow boots, a heavy parka, a ski mask, thick leather gloves, and long Johns (or Janes), I had high heel fashion boots, a beautiful red wool coat, leather driving gloves, and sexy lingerie.

When I arrived in South Dakota in April, and it was snowing. Of course, this was spring snow which I was foolish enough to believe was what winter would be like.

 I worked in finance at the air force base and had a brand new Mazda rotary engine car we’d shipped from Japan. (Rotary engine vehicles? Yes, that was a thing. Sadly, my car was as unsuitable for the climate as its owner.) I was ready to enjoy being back in the States and in a state that had four distinct seasons.

In South Dakota, nights were cool to cold. Even in August, I wore a jacket to work every day. The temperature began dropping in September, but it wasn’t bad. I decided reports of horrible winters in the Dakotas were greatly exaggerated.

In early November, a winter storm blew in. The temperature dropped, and snow began falling on a Sunday. It was beautiful. I stared out the window and marveled at how it transformed the landscape. The next morning, I discovered the questionable joy of shoveling a driveway in order to get the car out of the garage and onto the street to drive to work. The snow kept falling and falling and falling. I spent a small fortune on the necessary clothes and boots to survive life in what seemed like the Arctic Circle. I also developed skills essential to survival like knocking down the frozen barrier across the end of my driveway created each time a snowplow came down the street and learning which tow truck to call when my car wouldn’t start at five o’clock when I left work. Ah, yes, the good old frozen days.

That November, the temperature continued dropping. In fact, there was a two-week period when the temperature was so far below zero that when it warmed up to zero, everyone went outside in shirt sleeves. From Thanksgiving until the following spring, not a week went by that it didn’t snow—some days very light, some days excruciatingly heavy. When we moved away the following April—surprise!—it was snowing.

In conclusion, let me say I do love snow at Christmas—in movies and photos, but never in real life.

Wishing you all delightful holidays with the weather you love best—whether that’s ice and snow or palm trees and a beach. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Joan also loves Christmas songs by popular rock groups like Last Christmas by Wham with George Michael on vocals. That song inspired her Christmas Romance of the same name.

“Last Christmas is such a sweet story that takes place in a small town. And, how could you resist a book with a dog named Friday that saves the day? Really enjoyable read from beginning to end.” —Denise Reviews

Love at first sight, heartbreak, revenge, redemption, and second chances—Last Christmas has all that plus a dash of humor and a pinch of mystery.

Annabelle gave Rick her heart last Christmas. He stomped on it. This Christmas, Rick’s going to pay!

Last Christmas is a Kindle Unlimited selection.

Joan Reeves—Writing Romance...One Sexy Book at a Time—is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary Romance. All of her books have the same underlying theme that it’s never too late to live happily ever after.

Joan lives her Happily Ever After with her hero, her husband. They divide their time between a book-cluttered home in Houston and a small house at the foot of the Texas Hill Country where they sit on the porch at night, gaze at the star-studded sky, and listen to the coyotes howl.

Joan Reeves

The Ghost Mountain Ranch by Jan Scarbrough

Ghost Mountain Ranch Box Set

Will the revelation of more shocking secrets from the past destroy their hopes for the future?

The Ghost Mountain Ranch series is a good blend of mystery and romance.

DARBY: What is the truth behind the death of Darby’s mother? When the past once again intrudes on the present, will Darby do what she’s always done—what her mother did—and run away? Grief and secrets had torn Darby and Hank apart once. Given a second chance at love, will the revelation of more shocking secrets from the past destroy their hopes for the future?

SLADE: Someone knows the truth about the part Ghost Mountain Ranch played in Laurie’s life, and the terrible consequences of that past. But when the ghosts of the past threaten the lives of the living, will their growing attraction be enough to protect Slade and Laurie?

KELSEY: But something dark is happening at Ghost Mountain Ranch, where the past is reaching out in dangerous ways to haunt the living. Max is not only stirring up old feelings in Kelsey, but old secrets of the ranch’s inhabitants. Secrets someone might be willing to kill to keep. Can they finally lay the old ghosts to rest, or will the echoes of a decades-old murder destroy their second chance at love?

"Kudos to Jan Scarbrough for keeping the characters interesting and the plot twists intriguing from the first book to the last."

Buy links:

Amazon https://amzn.to/3WGF9Tw
Books2Read: https://books2read.com/GhostMountainRanch

Biography of Jan Scarbrough

The author of two popular Bluegrass romance series, Jan writes heartwarming contemporary stories about home and family, single moms, and children. Living in the horse country of Kentucky makes it easy for Jan to add small town, Southern charm to her books and the excitement of a Bluegrass horse race or a competitive horse show.

The Ghost Mountain Ranch series is a contemporary western series with a good blend of mystery and happily-ever-after romance. The Dawsons of Montana is another four-book contemporary western series.

Jan leaves her contemporary voice behind with two paranormal gothic romances, Timeless and Tangled Memories, a Romance Writers of America (RWA) Golden Heart finalist. Her historical romance, My Lord Raven, is a medieval story of honor and betrayal.

A member of Novelist, Inc., Jan self-publishes her books with her husband’s help.

Jan lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with one rescued dog, one rescued cat, and a husband she rescued twenty-three years ago.

https://janscarbrough.com/

Social Media Links:

https://twitter.com/romancerider

https://allauthor.com/author/JanScarbrough/

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jan-Scarbrough/author/B001K8768A

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jan-scarbrough

https://www.facebook.com/Romancerider

Newsletter signup (free ebook) https://dl.bookfunnel.com/egu96mi9qf

Take Me, Take My Kids...by Bonnie Edwards

 

Take me, take my kids. Simple. Unless the woman of your dreams has the best reason in the world not to.

Single dad Jesse Carmichael met the perfect woman in Last Chance Beach, but when she heard about his three children, she bailed. Hard.

But Jesse has a plan.

Eva Fontaine has stepdaughters in the custody of their grandparents. She’s the only mother they remember, and she moved across the country to be near them. Her life is centered on staying in their lives while avoiding handsome, caring Jesse.

Eva refuses to get involved with another single dad. Falling for Jesse means loving his children. She’s done that once and her heart can’t take another beating if she should lose them, too.

But Jesse has a new plan to help her and desperate Eva’s onboard with it.

Until his children throw another insurmountable obstacle in their paths.

Now, Jesse has a plan for that, too.

At Last Chance Beach love takes a stand…

Excerpt: Take Me (and My Kids)

A Last Chance Beach Romance

Copyright Bonnie Edwards

 

July 4 Last Chance Beach

“But you promised I could see them this weekend.” Eva Fontaine clutched her phone so hard she thought the screen would crack. She eased her grip and held her breath. Her dead husband’s mother-in-law held all the cards, and she knew it.

“I don’t recall promising any such thing,” Estelle Morgan responded. “We’re taking Sophia and Jillian to visit their uncle and cousins. Their real family.” The girls’ grandmother never missed a chance to slash Eva’s heart open. That organ bled out, down her chest to the ground beside her fun Italian scooter as she stood in her sun-drenched driveway.

Her driveway. Her scooter. Her children. Eva stood outside Rook’s Nest Cottage, her new home in Last Chance Beach and wanted to scream.

But of course, she didn’t. Grown women in a battle of wits and cunning didn’t scream in despair. No. They handled their problems. Like a boss.

Estelle had no idea who she was up against. Yes, the older woman had won a major legal battle, but Eva had brought this fight clear across the country and it wasn’t over yet. She’d sold her SoCal family home, quit her job, and followed the Morgans and her stepdaughters to the East coast.

Custody. She wanted full custody of her girls and she wouldn’t stop working for it. Not ever. Maybe the Morgans had won legally, but morally? They were contemptible.

“They’re Sophie and Jilly,” she corrected, desperate to keep their names in her heart.

These conversations were always the same and had been since her husband had been killed in a car crash. What had once been a cool but reasonable relationship had become a series of emotional skirmishes, tactical ambushes, and legal attacks.

Sophie, nine, and Jilly, six, despised visiting their cousins. They were emotionally abusive bullies who had reminded them constantly that their real mom was gone, and they had to suffer having a stepmother. Now that their father was gone, too, Eva could only imagine the cruelty the boys dished out.

Estelle gave a long-suffering sigh on her end. “If you’re finished interrupting our day…” And the call disappeared. Estelle had hung up on her again. Soon, Eva suspected her calls would go unanswered.

Numbly she wondered how she’d live every day if Estelle and Bernie cut off all contact. Estelle could get a restraining order if Eva started showing up at their door. As it was, she’d barely controlled her urges to follow her girls just to catch glimpses.

Eva had kept herself busy the last few months by moving here, buying her cottage, and deciding to open a daycare. She even found a new friend in Farren Parks. She was heading to meet Farren now and maybe it was time to confide a little more. She had to do something to ease the pressure she lived with daily.

She slipped her phone into her backpack and then stowed the bag on the rack behind her seat. Eva was due at The Landseer Motel for a morning of lifeguarding, a joyful pursuit that kept her mind off her troubles.

Hoping to patch her heart by keeping busy amid a crowd of single parents and happy children, she settled herself for the short trip. Her little Italian ride was all she needed here on the island and the breeze on her face helped dry her tears and blow away the pain she lived with every waking moment.

~*~

Bonnie Edwards has been writing all her life, starting with a poem about Santa suffering with gout. She was seven, Santa was a thousandteen years old. Delighted with writing, she went on to write family sagas, humorous contemporary romance, romantic suspense, erotic paranormal ghost romances and more.

She may jump around within romance, but all her stories come with a tear, a laugh, and a happy ending. Published by Kensington Books, Harlequin Books, Carina Press, and Robinson (UK) Bonnie’s stories stretch from short stories to novellas and novels. Now, she's happy to be publishing her work herself.

With 40 titles to her credit, she has been translated into several languages and sold books worldwide. Aside from standalone romances, she has six romance series that include Christmas romances and beach reads. Contemporary family sagas find a home in Return to Welcome. Learn about more exciting releases and get a free romance by subscribing to her newsletter, Bonnie’s Newsy Bits

Cheers and happy reading!

Bonnie Edwards

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