Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
You might have seen me happily chattering about today’s featured #SatBookChat guest author during a recent #HistFicChat!? Ever since then – I’ve quite literally been stalking my local library for updates on my purchase request – as I found out within a very short window they accepted the purchase for this novel, however, what I hadn’t known is *when!* the book would arrive into the library and thus, be available for me to pick it up to borrow and read!
More uniquely – nearly all of my purchase requests this year were accepted *and!* I had a limited time window to read them (per why I did not finish most of them yet) as other patrons discovered the stories in the card catalogue and fetched them for their own readerly exploration! This title isn’t any different than those – as I have to read and sort out my thoughts for it to run during #blogmas before it needs to be returnt to the library on the 27th!
Now, normally that might sound like a long time (a proper fortnight) however between a major blog crisis (ie. Friday-Monday major technical issues where I couldn’t access my blog properly and it delayed all my posts for #SciFiMonth) and a severe migraine (ie. Sunday-Thursday) – you can see why my #HoHoHoRAT was less ‘ho ho ho’ and more ‘oh no no no’ angsty oy vie!
I dearly wanted to read it before #SatBookChat today as well – but I had to reconcile that I’ll be reading it this week instead – whilst only getting to dip my toes into the opening chapter or so ahead of happily chattering about the elements inside it which make my bookish heart swoon!
This also marked a new transition of cross-social promotion for @SatBookChat as the author kindly created a short video which she shared via her feeds for #Instagram and within her #InstaStories (also on Instagram)!
As you can see – this is one of those #ChristmasReads which gave me wicked sweet expectations of joy to be discussing during #SatBookChat and it is a delight of joy I can share this preview of the novel with my readers, visitors & chatters alike before we go LIVE @ 11a NYC | 4p UK | 8a PST to interact directly with Ms Bacarr and find more reasons to hug close to the story and bring a bit of war era loveliness in our holiday reads this festive season 2019!
I hope you’ve brewed a cuppa to enjoy the information on this spotlighted post in conjunction with @SatBookChat whilst taking time to visit our past chats archived via the Moments on the chat’s feeds via Twitter. This chat will be archived after it concludes and a bit lateron from there to allow everyone the chance to interact, share and respond.
Without further adieu,
I give you my fifth #SatBookChat spotlight”
wherein you can learn a bit more about the author & her story.
All she wants for Christmas is to save the man she loves…
On a cold December day in 1955, Kate Arden got on a train to go home for Christmas.
This is the story of what happened when she got off that train. In 1943.
In 1943 Kate Arden was engaged to the man she loved, Jeffrey Rushbrooke. She was devastated and heartbroken when he was called up for wartime duty and later killed on a secret mission in France.
But what if Kate could change that? What if she could warn him and save his life before Christmas?
Or will fate have a bigger surprise in store for her?Christmas Once Again is a sweeping, heartbreakingly romantic novel – it’s one woman’s chance to follow a different path and mend her broken heart…
From the first moment I read those fateful lines, I was *hooked!* dear hearts!
I wanted to be INSIDE this story,.. I had to KNOW what happens!
Thus, I happily submitted a purchase request at my local library & it arrived ahead of the chat and in-line with my selections I earmarked to read for #HoHoHoRAT this year – except to say, my 10 days of #HolidayReads had more life crises and fires to put out than most readers would have even attempted to solider through with their current reads! This is why this is happily being tucked into my #ThanksgivingReadathon queue instead wherein I get to delight in the JOY of its beauty before December and #blogmas begin! I will be featuring a review of this novel during my #blogmas showcases *however!* today, I wanted to spotlight the novel and the author as I happily will be championing this story during #SatBookChat!
Some stories simply FIND YOU as a reader
and I felt this one definitely FOUND me!
Christmas Once Again
extract provided by and used with permission of the author Jina Bacarr
Chapter 1
Posey Creek, Pennsylvania
December 12, 1943
‘I bet you my last pair of stockings, little sister, I’ll be saying I do before Christmas.’
I whirl around in a circle, pretending the most wonderful man in the world is holding me in his arms, my heart soaring. A pot of Ma’s meat gravy simmers on the burner, the smell tickling my fancy to have my own kitchen soon. So many wonderful memories here. Planked floors, big white stove humming with good cooking, Ma’s rocker and her rosewood sewing box. Wallpaper dotted with daisies, their yellow petals turned golden over the years – and four ceramic angels lined up on top of the spice rack. A tradition we do every year along with listening to the holiday radio shows, but this Christmas is even more special to me. It’s crazy I feel so confident, even though he hasn’t actually asked me yet. But I know he will.
Eyes popping, Lucy swallows the spoonful of jam she shoved into her mouth. ‘You, Kate? Married?’ Slender and graceful like a young doe, she’s not as tall as me, though at sixteen she’s already filling out her sweaters. Dark brown hair rich with honeyed highlights frames her oval face and an army of freckles deepen in color on her cheeks as she laughs. ‘I hear Santa’s taken.’
I ignore her sarcasm and scoop Ma’s holiday cherry jam onto crackers. ‘It’s a secret, so don’t tell anyone.’ I wink at her, not letting up with my tease. I can’t. I’m too excited. Lucy adores secrets. Her face beams with excitement, like she got away with something without Ma finding out. Like using a pillow case for a laundry bag since bedding is hard to come by, or borrowing my two dollar face powder when she thinks I’m not looking.
Despite my affection for her, I pray she keeps my news under her hat. She loves to talk as much as she loves flirting with the soldiers down at the canteen, but I have to tell somebody the news or I’ll burst. What are sisters for if you can’t tease them? Besides, when Jeff does ask me, I’ll need her help fitting my bridal suit to get the hem straight. A gray suit with a frog clasp I made from extra silk Ma had left over from before the war. I’m lucky to have it. I want to look pretty for him. I never thought of myself as the pinup type, but Jeff makes me feel special and loved. He says I stand up taller when he catches my eye and that brings me closer to kissing him. Ma also noticed how much more confident I am. She was curious about why I saved up for two months to buy a blue silk hat with a wispy veil to go with my red coat with the fake fur collar when I have a perfectly good black hat.
I just smiled.
‘What’s there to tell?’ Lucy points to my bare finger smeared with jam. ‘You’re not wearing a ring, so you can’t be engaged.’
I smile. ‘You don’t know everything about me.’
‘I know you’re sweet on some guy.’
I raise a brow. ‘Snooping again?’
‘Me?’ She bats her eyelashes. ‘I don’t have to. Not the way you go around singing to yourself when you come home from your job at the mill. How you stop and sigh when we walk past Wrightwood House on our way to town.’
A winsome smile makes my lips curl. I love working at the paper mill. I started out in the typing pool after I graduated from high school. I worked my way up to private secretary to Mr Clayborn in the billing and acquisitions department. He needed a girl who could think and not just type, he said. Nothing top secret about what I do, but I’ve been told not to ask questions. Anyway, I have other things on my mind. Even when I’m dead tired from typing a pile of my shorthand notes, I get warm all over when I think about the man I want to marry.
A light comes on in Lucy’s swimming green eyes. ‘So my big sister has stars in her eyes for Jeffrey Rushbrooke.’
‘Don’t get your garter belt in a twist.’ I grab another cherry jam filled cracker. ‘You don’t know anything of the sort.’
Surprisingly, Lucy goes quiet, like she’s mulling over her reply before saying something that might upset me. She gossips more than Mrs Widget the neighbor, but she’s a good egg. Bouncy and full of cheer, especially this time of year. She loves Christmas as much as I do and helped me pile Ma’s holiday cherry jam into glass jars.
For me, the Christmas season begins when Ma takes us kids cherry picking in the woods. Lucy, Frank Junior, and me. When the days are long, the nights are hot, and the cherries are big and sweet and perfect to pick for jam. Before the war, Ma made the sweetest jam in the county with cinnamon and lemon zest, but since rationing started, we’ve had food shortages. We cheered when the government doubled the sugar rations so we could make jam for the boys passing through our small town. The trains stop here every day and Lucy makes it a high priority to meet the train and flirt with the soldiers. She talks about nothing else.
‘He’ll never marry you, Kate,’ she says, her sad puppy eyes showing real concern. I’ve never seen her look so serious. ‘You know what Ma says about them rich people.’
‘Those rich people.’
She wriggles her nose. ‘It doesn’t matter how good you talk, we’re not his kind.’
I shrug. ‘The bet’s still on.’
‘You’re a fool, Kate Arden.’ She sighs. ‘Falling for a guy who doesn’t know you’re alive.’
Lucy never went up to Wrightwood House with Ma and me when we were kids, never knew Jeff and I were pals. I grin. ‘He knows.’
She stares at me straight on. ‘Then why don’t you bring him around the house to meet Ma and Pop?’
‘You know I can’t.’ The hoarseness in my voice reveals how much that hurts me. Because my romance is a secret. Is Lucy right? Am I a fool?
What do you think?
Especially if you’re a cross-genre reader – following me via #SciFiMonth and/or through my Historical Fiction blog tour hosting showcases for war dramas – what did you think appealled to you about this time travelling historical war drama?
When I first learnt of the story itself – I immediately was brought back to the Hallmark Christmas movie “Journey Back to Christmas” – wherein she was a war era nurse and she had slipped through time to the present day and felt like a proper fish out of water! The whole time she was in our current timeline she was aching to know what became of the love of her life and throughout the drama as it unfolds you simply never know – will she slip back? Will they reunite? Was he a causality of war?
Sidenote: This film was also a beloved favourite of Ms Bacarr’s!
These are the kind of human interest war dramas I’ve shifted into reading – as I noticed early-on as a book blogger, the harder grittier war dramas had had their day and moment in my readerly life but honestly, after I read “Citadel” I knew I had to change how I approached reading them as that story simply crushed my soul and made my heart bleed – not in a good way!
This is why I was delighted beyond repair to have stumbled across this lovely new release – as per watching Candace Cameron Bure’s delightful film and knowing where my heart lies with war era dramas now – I couldn’t think of a better ‘fit’ for me during my annual #ChristmasReads self-directed readathon as my traditional chase up into the holiday season I love dearly!
Open Letter of Gratitude to my Public Libraries:
I am truly full of thanksgiving and gratitude to my local library for being able to purchase the print edition of this novel whilst my regionally local library attempted to purchase the audiobook for me as well. They sadly were unable to do so either for reasons why we have “the big stink” over here stateside in the war between libraries and publishers and/or their distrubtor cannot fetch a copy via this publisher to bring it to their OverDrive catalogue for e-audiobooks. Therefore, I am hopeful *fingers crossed!* this audiobook might become added to the #Scribd catalogue and I can stream listening to it this holiday season!
It should be noted – I will eventually be gathering a personal copy for my personal library as I do not always have the purchasing budget to do so at point of discovery. This is why I relay on my local libraries – whilst they are helping me continue to read the stories I desire to read in the here & now – it also allows me to help fellow patrons who read diversely through their local libraries to find new authors I am finding myself. This year, I focused on seeking more UK novelists and story-tellers – whilst next year whilst continuing this (as its a sweet spot of bookish joy in my heart) I’ll also expand to see if I can bring in Canadian and Australian authors, too!
About Jina Bacarr
I started out working as a reporter writing articles for a travel magazine based in Beverly Hills and then for a computer magazine, as well as writing for academia, radio commercials, and PR copy. I’ve had three plays produced in Malibu, California and I worked for a time writing children’s and daytime TV before publishing nonfiction books about Japan, and then later fiction.
In addition to my WW 2 time travel romance, CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN, I’ve written a Civil War time travel in 1862 Virginia at the Battle of Antietam, a WW 2 Christmas novella in war torn Italy between a GI and a nun, an erotic novella about a hunky Scrooge from Wall Street, contemporary and historical erotic romance novels, and non-fiction books about Japan.
I enjoy writing to classical music with a hot cup of java by my side. I adore dark chocolate truffles, vintage anything, the smell of bread baking and rainy days in museums. I’ve always loved walking through history—from Pompeii to Verdun to Old Paris.
The voices of the past speak to me through carriages with cracked leather seats, stiff ivory-colored crinolines and worn satin slippers. I’ve always wondered what it was like to walk in those slippers when they were new.
This Jina Bacarr Spotlight is connected with the chat I hosted via @satbookchat featuring this lovely author on 23rd November, 2019.
The press Materials are courtesy the author.
View the archived chats Part One & Part Two via Moments
{SOURCES: Book cover for “Christmas Once Again”, synopsis and chapter extract as well as the author biography and author photo for Jina Bacarr were all provided by the author Jina Bacarr and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #SatBookChat Jina Bacarr Chat badge, #blogmas 2019 banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life
.@joriestory | ?#SatBookChat #BookSpotlight
w/ chapter sampler extract from "Christmas Once Again"
by @JinaBacarr via @BoldwoodBooks?#HistFic war drama
?Christmas #HistRom
?Time travelling
?Jorie discovered it via #HistFicChat!
?#librarylove??https://t.co/oBBZTkxZ7O pic.twitter.com/EtnXHTfyuF
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter ?? (@joriestory) November 23, 2019
Hallo, Hallo Spacers and #SciFiMonth readers – I just released a book spotlight w/ extract from the #HistRom time travelling war drama I’m featuring today via #SatBookChat over on #JLASblog! Be sure to read the pinned tweet?for details & to click the link!☺️?
— Jorie jumps hyperspace into #SciFiMonth??? (@joriestory) November 23, 2019
Comments via Twitter:
The author via #Instagram or rather #Bookstagram:
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #blogmas 2019
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