Sandra Nachlinger's Blog, page 54

Teaser Tuesday - Tougher Than The Rest

Today's Teaser Tuesday excerpt is from Tougher Than the Rest,  the first book in the McLarens of Fire Mountain series by Shirleen Davies. I had such a good time escaping with this sweet Western romance! The author's skillful writing made me care about Kate and Niall - I hoped they'd end up together. She did a great job of introducing all the main characters and giving their history, too, making me look forward to the stories of each of the four MacLaren brothers. Future books in the series are due out later this year. I'll be watching for them!


TEASER:
     She'd told him more than once that he was the toughest man she'd ever met. And that, in a nutshell, was what she wanted--a tough, rugged westerner to hang on her arm and warm her bed.
(at 33% on my Kindle)

Amazon Link: Tougher Than the Rest
Number of Pages:  163

Here's the synopsis from Amazon:

A passionate, fast-paced story set in the untamed western frontier by an exciting new voice in historical romance.

Niall MacLaren is the oldest of four brothers, and the undisputed leader of the family. A widower, and single father, he is focused on building the MacLaren ranch into the largest and most successful in northern Arizona. He is serious about two things—his responsibility to the family and his future marriage to a goal of a wealthy, well-connected widow who will secure his place in the territory’s destiny
.
Katherine is determined to live the life she’s dreamed about. With a job waiting for her in the growing town of Los Angeles, California, the young teacher from Philadelphia begins a journey across the United States with only a couple of trunks and her spinster companion. Life is perfect for this adventurous, beautiful young woman, until an accident throws her into the arms of the one man who can destroy it all.

Fighting his growing attraction and strong desire for the beautiful stranger, Niall is more determined than ever to push emotions aside to focus on his goals of wealth and political gain. But looking into the clear, blue eyes of the woman who could ruin everything, Niall discovers he will have to harden his heart and be tougher than he’s ever been in his life…Tougher than the Rest.

Here's my review on Goodreads:
Goodreads Review

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasersLeave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.

Boomer Lit Friday

SUMMER LOVIN’…DID YOU GET VERY FAR?
                               ♥ ♥ ♥
Do the words  summer lovin' bring back memories of your teenage years? We sure remember the good ol' days of summer … and so do the three main characters in our book, I.O.U. SEX . After all, their goal was to find their former high school steadies and give them the sex they’d missed out on so many years before.
So let your mind travel back in time and think ... going steady, necking at the drive-in, and summer lovin’ as we revisit Dallas with our character June. She’s at the drive-in theater with her one-and-only, but they’re not watching the show. Photo Source: Coltera's Photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianspenceranderson/    “Mmmm, Junie. You drive me wild.” Denny reached across the vinyl-covered seat and pulled June closer.    She snuggled against him and stretched up to whisper in his ear. “Wild, huh?” She inhaled his unique scent—Brut aftershave mixed with the faint aroma of Lava soap and motor oil from his dad’s garage.    Denny’s laugh sounded nervous. When he shivered, June giggled and stroked his wavy hair, then tickled his earlobe with her tongue, making him gasp.    “Whoa, baby. You better slow down or you’ll get more than you bargained for.” He turned and grasped her shoulders, staring into her blue eyes. “Or have you changed your mind?”
    June scooted away, her warm feelings cooled by Denny’s question. She pushed her long blonde hair off her face and anchored it behind her ears. “You know how I feel about going all the way. Why can’t we just have some fun?”    Denny groaned. “Junie, baby, you really don’t understand, do you? Have you ever heard of blue balls?”    June stammered. “B-blue what?”    Denny ran his fingers through his hair, making the short strands stand on end. He sighed. “Never mind. Come back here, June Bug. Let’s figure out what we can do without actually doing it.” He pulled her closer and slid the spaghetti straps off her shoulders, gently kissing the spots where the fabric had been only moments before.    They’d done some heavy petting in the past, so June didn’t object. She loved it when Denny caressed her breasts and his kisses warmed her inside and out. Once she’d let him touch her down there. It felt go good—until she got scared and made him stop. She could only imagine the thrill of real sex.    Of course, good girls didn’t go all the way. She’d had long discussions with Kiki and Peggy on the subject of how far to go without getting a bad reputation. Peggy said once you did something, boys seemed to expect it every time. And Kiki sure had a lot of information for someone who claimed virginity.
    June smiled and unbuttoned Denny’s shirt.♥ ♥ ♥Perhaps you once met a boy who was cute as could be, and you remember your summer days drifting away. We hope this blast from the past reminds you of hot summer nights at the drive-in movies with your first love.

Boomer Lit FridayA weekly blog hop event for Boomer Lit writersThank you for stopping by for another Boomer Lit Friday post. To read excerpts from more Boomer Lit authors, click HERE.

Wordless Wednesday

This is my first post as part of the Wordless Wednesday meme. Yes, I've been lurking on everyone's sites in previous weeks, but today I finally decided to just jump on in.

Today's photo features Rainier cherries -- a treat in Washington State only once a year. I'm eating some right now. 

Yummy!

Teaser Tuesday - Orphan Train

Maybe it's because my grandfather was an orphan, but ever since I heard about the real-life Orphan Trains, I've wanted to learn more. Christina Baker Kline's novel provides a realistic glimpse at that time in history.  It's a book about a teenager who is in foster care (present day) and a woman who was an Orphan Train child back in the early 1900s. Their stories are fascinating, and I came to care about the characters and the challenges they faced. Anyone who enjoys good fiction, taking place during real historical events, will be glad they read ORPHAN TRAIN. It's a book I won't soon forget.



FYI: According to the author's notes, between 1854 and 1929 approximately 200,000 orphaned children were transported via rail from the East Coast to the Midwestern U.S. for the purpose of adoption. 

In my Teaser (from Page 28) the children are waiting on a train platform, getting ready to be considered for adoption:
I am with a group of twenty children, all ages. We are scrubbed and in our donated clothes, the girls in dresses with white pinafores and thick white stockings, the boys in knickers that button below the knee, white dress shirts, neckties, thick wool suit coats. It is an unseasonably warm October day, Indian summer, Mrs. Scatcherd calls it, and we are sweltering on the platform.

Genre: Literary Fiction
Length: 273 Pages
Amazon Link: ORPHAN TRAIN
Goodreads: Synopsis
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasersLeave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.

The Light Between Oceans - Teaser Tuesday

Sometimes I'll read a book and it's entertaining for a while, but when I put it down, I forget it. That's not going to happen with THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS by M.L. Stedman. Set in Australia after the end of World War I, the main characters are a lighthouse keeper and his wife - two people I came to care about so much that I cried when I read their story. That hasn't happened in a long time. 

If you want to read a book that will keep you turning pages, wondering what will happen next with a story you won't soon forget, then you'll enjoy The Light Between Oceans.


Genre: Thriller / Historical
Length: 354 Pages
Amazon Link: The Light Between Oceans
Goodreads: Synopsis

Here's my two-sentence Teaser from 2% on my Kindle:
As he walked down the path, he heard the sweet notes of Isabel's voice as she sang, "Blow the wind southerly, southerly, southerly, blow the wind south o'er the bonnie blue sea." Though the music was tuneful, it failed to comfort him as he climbed the stairs of the light, fending off a strange uneasiness at the concession he had made.

Partial Synopsis from Goodreads:
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby. 
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasersLeave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.

Teaser Tuesday - THE COMEBACK KISS

Has anyone heard of (or recall) the Volkswagen "Thing?" I didn't remember it until I started searching online for a photo of the car. The main character in THE COMEBACK KISS had one of these funky little vehicles, and she painted "colorful daisies all over it...."



Teaser Tuesday - Two sentences from 1% on my Kindle:

It was a vintage 1974 VW Thing, a boxy, funky-looking model that didn't sell well and didn't last long; theorists were split on whether the blame fell on the name or the design. But Tessa had loved it with all her heart.


Photo by Sven Storbeck
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 336 Pages
Amazon Link: THE COMEBACK KISS

Goodreads Synopsis:
Sometimes love just won't go away. — ALL IT TAKES IS ONE LITTLE KISS... — 

In order to keep custody of her teenage sister, Tessa Scuderi told a small (okay, big) lie to the people of Lucy's Lake, Vermont, about what really happened ten years ago when Dermot Finnegan took off with her virginity, her car, and the town bell. It had been working, too, until she found her old car parked in front of her house, keys in the ignition, and a telltale red hair stuck to the headrest.

TO TOTALLY SCREW EVERYTHING UP.

All Finn wanted to do was return the stupid car and get going. But he stopped to save a burning pet shop (big mistake), ended up kissing Tessa behind the drugstore (big mistake, but worth it), and discovered that Tessa's been building him up as some kind of town hero all these years (gonna have to puzzle that out). Now Finn has to find out who's behind a string of mysterious fires and deal with the heat between him and Tessa. Hey, one more kiss can't hurt -- or can it?



Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasersLeave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.

Book Beginnings on Friday and Friday 56 - Ashes

I've recently read ASHES by Kelly Cozy, and the first chapter had me hooked. The opening sentences began innocently enough - the author described a typical day - but wow! Things started happening right away. 

Book Beginnings on Friday - Opening sentences:
Downtown Los Angeles glittered in the sun, seemed to preen. The city knew its best light - a spring morning, the sky cleansed of smog by the past weekend's rain - and its best angle - from a distance.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
I live in a small town in British Columbia, where I'm an assistant librarian. I putter around with books and have tea with my boss and we talk about what we're reading. I have a cross-eyed cat and a tiny house with fish painted on the bathroom walls and a bedroom done in early San Francisco Whorehouse. I tutor a fisherman's son.

Genre: Thriller
Length: 371 pages
Amazon Link: Ashes

Here's the synopsis from Goodreads:

Anonymous. That was Jennifer’s life. But when she survived a domestic terrorist attack and her last-minute escape became the iconic image of the event, that life was over. Wanting only to disappear and become just another face in the crowd, she cashed in on her unwanted fame and moved to a small town, hidden away and safe. 

Retired. That was Sean’s life. A former covert operative – the kind the government denies exists – he’d been pushed unwillingly into a life of suburban peace and quiet. But his retirement ended when he saw Jennifer’s rescue; from then on he only wanted to find those responsible for the attack, even if it meant turning rogue. 

What Jennifer and Sean will both find is that nothing goes to plan, and their paths will cross in a way neither could have foreseen.







Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings and Friday 56. 

   Click here to connect to other Book Beginnings posts    (sponsored by Rose City Reader.)

   Find other Friday 56 bloggers here 
   (sponsored by Freda's Voice).                 

Book Beginnings and Friday 56 - The Beach Trees

I've just finished reading THE BEACH TREES by Karen White and enjoyed it so much that I've added her other books to my wish list. Not only did I like the plot, I came away with a better understanding of the outlook and attitudes of people who live in disaster prone areas. Seems to me that no matter where we live, Mother Nature has surprises in store for us!  

Book Beginnings on Friday - Opening sentences:
Death and loss, they plague you. So do memories. Like the Mississippi's incessant slap against the levees, they creep up with deceptive sweetness before grabbing your heart and pulling it under.

Friday 56 (from Page 56 of my paperback copy):
Aimee regarded me with a steady blue gaze. "Why build skyscrapers in San Francisco that might be knocked down by an earthquake? Or why build farms in Kansas and Oklahoma that might get blown away by a tornado?" 

Genre: Women's Fiction
Length: 432 pages
Amazon Link: The Beach Trees

Here's the synopsis from Goodreads:
From the time she was twelve, Julie Holt knew what a random tragedy can do to a family. At that tender age, her little sister disappeared - never to be found. It was a loss that slowly eroded the family bonds she once relied on. As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings and Friday 56. 

   Click here to connect to other Book Beginnings posts    (sponsored by Rose City Reader.)

   Find other Friday 56 bloggers here 
   (sponsored by Freda's Voice).                 

Teaser Tuesday - Bluebonnet Bride

   Why can't I discover the first book in a series first? Seems like I always come across the second or third installment before ever reading the first one! Today's Teaser book, BLUEBONNET BRIDE is the third in the Men of Stone Mountain series by Caroline Clemmons, and I just started reading it yesterday. It's a terrific book - great description, good plot, appealing main character - so I know I'll read the first two stories as well. Too bad I won't be reading them in sequence.


Here's today's Teaser, from 2% on my Kindle:

Winds sucked at her skirt so hard her shawl whipped away. She feared all her clothes would be ripped from her body.

Genre: Romance
Length: 210 Pages
Amazon Link:  Bluebonnet Bride

Goodreads Synopsis:
When a tornado provides Rosalyn with the opportunity to escape the gallows, she collects her daughter Lucy and flees. They travel far enough West that Rosalyn believes she’s gone to the ends of the earth. She hopes she and Lucy will be safe in this remote North Texas town where she embarks on a new life as a dressmaker. If only she could avoid contact with people, especially the handsome sheriff who pops up every time she turns around. She fears either she or her chatterbox daughter may slip and reveal too much. 

Joel Stone has been content with his life, even if it’s not the one he’d dreamed. His younger brothers are married and living nearby, his aunts have moved to Radford Springs, and he is respected for the efficient job he does as sheriff. When he meets the new widow in town, his instant attraction staggers him. She appears uninterested, but he is determined to win her hand in marriage. 

But life doesn’t turn out the way either Rosalyn or Joel plan. They overcome temporary obstacles, but what of the secret she protects? Can he save her from the gallows?

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasersLeave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.

Boomer Lit FridayA weekly blog hop event for Boomer Lit w...

Boomer Lit FridayA weekly blog hop event for Boomer Lit writers

Thanks for joining us for another Boomer Lit Friday. We're featuring an excerpt from I.O.U. SEX, the story of three women who search for their high school boyfriends, decades after graduation. 

At this point in the story, people often wonder who Peg will choose as her private investigator and ask us, "Will Peggy fall for the P.I.?" Not a chance! Here's an excerpt from I.O.U. SEX giving you Peg's viewpoint when she first sees James Hornby. We hope this gives you a clear picture of why Hornby isn't exactly hero material.
He didn't look at all like what she expected. Instead of resembling the PIs she'd seen on television shows, he looked more like McGruff the Crime-Fighting Dog. You'd think he'd have the courtesy to rise to greet a prospective client, she thought. She straightened her shoulders and reminded herself that she would be the one paying for his services.

Not only did Peggy compare "Hornyberry" to McGruff, she also had a few more gems to say about him.

Not that this Bozo was such a prize. With his bald pate, jowls, and round belly, nobody would call him the pick of the litter.

That about says it all. Go, Peggy!

To connect with other Boomer Lit authors and read excerpts from a variety of terrific books, click HERE.