Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
October is a bit early for spotlighting #ChristmasReads, I will admit – however, some years the stories which you want to be reading at Christmas have a way of touring ahead of November & December! I read the premise of this Contemporary Romantic Suspense and knew I was going to be featuring it as a pre-#blogmas surprise for my readers!
Every year for the past several years I’ve been keen on finding new voices in Fiction who are writing compelling and/or uplifting stories for Christmas! I have enjoyed the diversity of stories I am finding each year and which genres capture my eye as each Autumn I find myself captured by a different group of genres which set the tone for what I am intrigued to seek out each Winter. The stories I feature on Jorie Loves A Story are future reads of mine – each of them tucking into a part of what I love about #blogmas and the celebration of a the changing season of the final hours of the year.
I have loved reading Christmas Romances ever since I was quite young and it was through Victorian & Regency Christmas Romances I first caught the romantic novel bug and became a lifelong reader of Romances! Being able to host my own Twitter chat which regularly celebrates Romance & Women’s Fiction as well as all genres featuring strong women and/or Feminist Fiction is quite heartwarming to me as a host. When it comes to Romantic Suspense novels – the ones I love have a wicked cunning plot with realistic characters you can feel as if you can rally behind soon after you’ve met them. I tend to gravitate towards Contemporaries lately for Rom Suspense but the best bit of course is the resolution at the end! Where you can let out that breath you’ve held inside you waiting to see how it would all resolve! At least, I do!
As a precursor to my #blogmas showcases this year, I am thankful I could join the blog tour for “This Christmas” and help celebrate discovering it as it appears to be a self-published novel and I *love!* supporting authors who are taking the Self Pub route for their careers! Here’s to rockin’ our readerly lives as Autumn shifts into Winter and as the Christmastide starts to arrive in our lives. Despite the bumps and heartaches of the year there are quiet moments of peace and solitude which give us a peaceful respite in order to enjoy the holiday seasons which are now readily upon us now that Halloween is less than thirteen days away! Imagine!?
This Christmas
Subtitle: The North Star series
by Laurie Winter
Source: Chapter Sampler
'A beautiful story of loss and new love, set in a snow-capped mountain ski resort town.'
Celia Batista waited a long time for all three of her sons to be together for Christmas. But after one of her identical twins disappears without a trace, Celia must rely on Police Captain Luke Veldkamp for help. Despite Luke’s accusations that her other twin son is involved with organized crime, she falls for the handsome, Stetson wearing cop.
Luke Veldkamp is facing his first Christmas after the loss of his wife, working nonstop to avoid the holidays and his grief. His daughter, who’d moved home to care for her mom before her passing, pushes him to face his pain. Luke pushes back, telling her to return to college and regain her own life. If his own strife isn’t enough, the mission to locate the missing son of his beautiful neighbor grows more personal than any other case.
While Luke and Celia fight to keep their families from falling apart, they find comfort and strength in one another. And when love blooms between their children, Luke and Celia’s own relationship takes root and grows. But Celia is used to living on her own terms, and loving a man who has isolated his heart is a risk too great. Now, Luke must either confront his emotions or face a life without the woman he’s come to love.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-1735743813
Published by Self Published
on 21st September, 2020
Format: Chapter Sampler | Online
This is a Self-Published novel
Converse via: #ContemporaryRomance or Contemporary #Romance
as well as #RomSusp or #RomanticSuspense and #ChristmasReads
Enjoy this small Extract from “This Christmas”:
Luke laughed. “Payback for your old man, huh?” He knew Andrew Batista and had seen him around from time to time. Celia’s older son must have been out of the house by the time they’d moved into the neighborhood. He’d have to look him up in the database at the station. “Okay, I deserve that. But any man who thinks he’s good enough for you has to pass the Dad test.”
“Dad test?” Kenna set down the piece of copper on the workbench in order to pet her dog, whose large frame sat on her feet. “Do I even want to know?”
“I’m a cop and a Marine veteran. No, you don’t want to know what I have planned.” Luke walked over to the old radio and turned up the volume. A modern country melody filled the space. “If you were back at Stanford, you could date without interference from your overprotective dad.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to get rid of me?” She stuck out her lip and crossed her arms.
Luke pinched her nose, just like he did when she was a little girl. “I hope you told that guy to get lost.” “His name is Marco, and yes, in not so many words.”
After slipping back on her gloves, she picked up the blowtorch. “You should make a point to stop over and talk to Celia next time you see her. She is very nice…and single.”
Ooh dear! I never understood why fathers are so overly protective of their daughters – without good reason, mind you! What I mean to say is sometimes fathers come off quite strong when their daughters are starting to date or are seeking out a bit more independence – this snippet from the story isn’t long enough for context and to better understand what is happening in-scene but generally speaking I think the overprotective father gets a bit too much attention in stories. Perhaps because I didn’t have an overbearing father myself – those kinds of characters simply rub me the wrong way.
I prefer to see fathers who readily engage with their daughters through conversation and of sharing their experiences as a father and daughter; rather than having a Dad come off in such a strong way to make dating near-impossible. Of course, I did catch the clue about how this father served his country and he’s super protective by nature but evenso, I think a bit more scope of insight ahead and past this extract might be needed to better understand the gist of what is being disclosed.
Although I did notice that perhaps the Dad needs to start dating himself? To distract him from his daughter’s pursuit of love and romance!? From the synopsis I know this is a potboiler of emotions and the choices which need to be made which are for the good of the people in the story. It is a hard-hitting premise which seeks to have a lovely uplift on the back half of the story itself – I look forward to seeking this out to read and sorting out where this scene fits into the context of it, too.
What do you love the most about reading Contemporary Romantic Suspense?
About Laurie Winter
Laurie Winter’s head has always been full of stories. Then a dream gave her the inspiration to put her thought into written words, sharing a part of her heart and soul. Now, she creates authentic characters who overcome the odds and find true love. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, daughter, and rescue dog. Please connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bookbub.
This blog tour is courtesy of: Prism Book Tours
This post is part of my #blogmas showcases for 2020.
NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them: I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.
{SOURCES: Cover art of “This Christmas”, synopsis, the author’s photo (for Laurie Winter) and biography as well as the blog tour banner, the extract from the book and The Prism Book Tours badge were all provided by Prism Book Tours and used with permission. Post dividers and My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Stories in the Spotlight banner, #blogmas 2020 badge and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2020.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #blogmas 2020
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