Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
As I move into featuring INSPY Romance and Clean Romance authors for this half of #blogmas, I am delighted to be be featuring an Indie INSPY Historical novelist first! As I love seeking out Indie INSPY authors – either those who are published through publishers and/or those who are taking the Self Publishing route as this is most likely the same route I’ll take when I move into my own publishing season (years down the road from now!). The main draw for me reading INSPY Historical Fiction is seeing a faith-based story set in the historic past – as I predominately read a lot of Historical Fiction throughout the year, as a book blogger I’ve also sought to balance my choices between #HistFic and Contemporary stories as well as shifting in and out of the other genres I am most especially keen on reading such as Fantasy, Science Fiction, Cosy Mysteries, Suspense, Thrillers, Cosy Horror, Paranormal or PNR and others subniches from all fronts of interest.
In recent years, I believe I’ve had a better handle on seeking this kind of balance of both story and genre – giving myself ample time to spend within a particular genre without forsaking another one I love just as dearly. As you’ve might have caught my @joriestory feeds the first 12 days of December, I’ve been tucked into a series of chats via the tag #12DaysOfCozies wherein I’ve learnt about new authors & new series of Cosies – from the traditionally published to the Indie authors who are rockin’ this genre right now. This week, you’ll see a series of posts about my memories of the chats themselves as much as which stories & which authors have made my #TBRList!! So, you see – I’m not just rockin’ my traditional focues of Fantasy & Romance on #JLASblog this year, I am also exploring the world of Cosy Mysteries starting on Monday, the 14th of December when this post goes live!
Likewise, as December ambles forward into Christmas & New Year’s – I am going to be finishing a certain number of stories I didn’t get to finish reading this 2020 – some of which are #HistFic titles and be sure to watch for my final 3x #HistoricalMondays featuring three Historicals I felt should be showcased through my featured reviews wherein I try to highlight new emerging voices and beloved authors during my own showcases for Historical Fiction.
On this post – you’ll be seeing an extract from “Love’s Sweet Return” and learning a bit more about Krystal M. Anderson. I hope it might be a story which will resonate with you and I hope one day this series will be available in print so I can read it as right now its digital first at time of release. Here’s to continuing to champion the genres we all personally love reading and celebrating the new authors of those genres we cannot read enough of due to how many stories are happily released every year!
Curiously – when it comes to finding INSPY Historical Romances – do you read both Major Trade & Indie publishers throughout the year or do you focus on certain publishers and/or authors who are your top preferences for this genre of interest? I like to mix things up and move between different publishing markets – major trade, Indie, Self published authors and of course, the stories I find via blog tours! I get excited about a strong premise and a wicked good storyteller whose synopsis lays the foundation of what I hope to find inside the story!!
She lost the only thing she ever truly wanted: love. What could be worse? But when Charlotte Pullard’s ship wrecks off the Oregon coast in a terrible storm, she wakes in the unfamiliar keepers’ quarters of a lighthouse. When the keeper who pulled her from the wreckage turns out to be the man she loved and lost, can Charlotte find it in her heart to forgive him and embrace love’s sweet return?
Find out in this sweet historical small-town romance full of walks on the beach, the gathering of close friends, a simple coastal Christmas, and a sweeping love story centered around a majestic white lighthouse.
Add to LibraryThing | this is a Digital First release!
Keepers of the Light series:
Love’s Sweet Return(book one)
Keepers of the Light is a multi-author series that I’m ecstatic to be part of. Set in a small coastal Oregon logging town, these sweet stories feature the two lighthouses that guide ships past the treacherous shoreline and the couples who find their happily-ever-afters.
Converse via: #CleanRomanceForChristmas and/or #INSPYRomance or #INSPY
as well #ChristianFiction and/or #HistRom or #HistoricalRomance
Enjoy an Extract from
“Love’s Sweet Return”:
Oregon, December 1869
Charlotte Pullard opened her eyes to the gray of dawn, blinking slowly. Gradually, a beamed ceiling came into focus… but it wasn’t her ceiling. Whose ceiling was it? She closed her eyes again, thinking.
She’d kissed her mother goodbye. Something about that felt sad, wrong somehow. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to leave. And her father… her father…
Gasp!
Charlotte’s eyes flew open and she sat up so quickly that her head began to spin. Sinking back down to the pillow, she touched her forehead softly, her breath coming in short bursts. Her father had sent her away, as easily as a load of freight aboard one of his many vessels. She’d placed one foot mindlessly over the other, turning her back on all she’d ever known. It was to be a short trip, no longer than two days until she’d reach Crescent City, California. Then the sky puckered sourly, darkening beyond the shade of rain to something far more formidable.
The storm.
The storm with waves as big as mountains, waves so steep that her stomach would flutter every time the ship slid down the sides of them. The water was icy cold, the thunder as loud as rocks grinding together. Or had that been the ship crashing into protruding basalt?
She shook her head at the nightmare, the terror and tumult of the darkness that seemed unreal, yet too vivid to be fantasy. Then she remembered Woody, that he’d dragged her below deck to her room and shouted at her to stay put. No sooner had the words spilled from the sailor’s mouth than she found herself in the water, so breathtakingly cold and angry that it consumed her every thought and feeling…
A tear ran down her temple.
It was horrible, all of it. Yet here she was, alive, in a quiet room somewhere on shore. No, not entirely quiet, for there were the waves, not villainous and uncaring as she remembered, but rhythmic and steady.
She placed her palms flat against the mattress and slowly, so slowly pressed herself upright. There. That wasn’t so bad. Breathe in, breathe out. The deep breaths made her throat and lungs burn.
What day was it? Where was she, exactly? Where was the rest of the crew? Loud questions filled her head, vying to be first to receive an answer, but she plucked them away.
One thing at a time.
The bedroom was small and bright in the early morning light, containing only the bed she sat upon, a three-drawer bureau, and a washstand, which snagged her attention. Fingers darting to her unadorned neck, Charlotte swung her bare feet to the floor and stood, snatching the golden locket from the washstand. She’d never taken it off, not since he’d given it to her on that chilly, cloudless night last spring. A small smile stretched her lips as she cradled the token in her palms, lost in the memory of his strong hand on her cheek, how he had almost kissed her; how happy she’d been gazing into his blue eyes as deep and stimulating as the ocean itself.
But she knew the tragic ending to that story. Maxwell Tucker had filled her heart and head with his affections, then abandoned her to heartache, confusion, loneliness. Worst of all, she knew wholeheartedly that she could never love another as she’d loved him. It was that small word that kept the golden locket in her pocket always.
Love.
For no matter the pain he had later put her through, he had given her the cherished necklace out of love. The locket – and the memories – were all she had left of those happy days, and each time she opened it, those joyous recollections tumbled out.
Standing tall, Charlotte stretched her hands high above her head, rolled her shoulders, then used her fingers to comb through her tangled copper tresses. Rips and stains covered her dress… and hadn’t she been wearing stockings? She groaned, knowing she must look awful.
Her rumbling stomach drew her out of self-inspection and through the little cottage. Good heavens, but it was a mess! The furniture, though in good condition, lay in heaps about the sitting room, and the kitchen looked like it hadn’t had a thorough cleaning in ages. Whoever it was who lived in this grimy little place must be dreadfully slovenly. Then she noticed the staircase at the back of the house and couldn’t keep herself from wandering towards it. Curious, she climbed one set of stairs to a low-ceilinged garret and gasped in pleasure, lacing her hands together. The single window let in soft, muted light, perfect for reading one of the books from the rows of shelves filling the narrowest wall.
Thrilled as she was to have found the library, she quickly forgot about the books, for the shelves continued around the entirety of the room and displayed the most wonderful collection of seashore knickknacks she’d ever seen! Sea shells in every shape and color, the largest as big as her head, the smallest as little as the fingernail on her pinky; white sand dollars and chunks of coral; bright green and blue sea glass, smoothed by the ocean. Oh, she could spend a week in this room examining each and every piece! It would only be fair to amend her earlier hasty assessment of the occupant, she decided. Whomever this charming cottage belonged to must be utterly fascinating.
Pursing her lips, Charlotte remembered herself and her situation and backed out of the room. She should be mindful of her host, not traipse around his or her personal space as though it were a public museum. And where was this person, anyway? Perhaps she’d find him or her at the top of these stairs. Up she climbed, bewildered by the number of steps.
Finally, she came upon another room with a closed door, but after peeking inside to find it dark and devoid of persons, she continued her ascent, fighting lightheadedness. Next came an open, round room with a padded chair and writing desk topped with an ink pot and book, and some sort of mechanical device in the very center opened to the room above. Suddenly, the random tower made sense. I’m in a lighthouse!
Rungs of a ladder rose to access the top of the tower, and on that ladder, two legs in soiled men’s trousers. Charlotte cleared her throat loudly.
The man stilled but did not come down.
“Excuse me, good sir,” Charlotte began, thinking maybe he was hard of hearing. The silence was getting a bit awkward. “I’d like to thank you for bringing me here after that awful storm. Do you know where the others…”
Her sentence trailed off as the man descended, as she began to recognize his trim waist and broad shoulders. He stood at the bottom of the ladder, hesitating to turn around. He didn’t need to – she knew exactly who he was.
Excerpted from Love’s Sweet Return by Krystal M. Anderson.
Copyright © Krystal M. Anderson.
This series reminds me of the author series I’ve stumbled across previously – wherein, multi-authors are writing Sweet Romances, Historical Romances and/or realistic INSPY Women’s Fiction and/or Romance stories which represent our Contemporary world. I love the freedom author’s have now to tell their stories and to participate in group author collaborations without having to get a publisher’s approval as well. Authors have a lot more flexibility right now on the Indie and Self published side of the ledger than they used too and it is a wonderful sight to celebrate! Which is why I am thankful to carry-on the torch with Prism Book Tours this December shifting from highlighting Fantasy storycrafters to featuring #newtomeauthors of Romance who’ve caught my eye this month!
I definitely wanted to know the very next exchange of dialogue and see the scene expound from here – just when you get to the ‘good part!’ the story has to take a pause from our purview! Laughs. It is always the way when I am hosting extracts – they give you just a taste and tease of the story and then, you have to await reading it in full lateron! For this story, I do hope it might go into print at some point otherwise I fear I might be curiously contemplating the ‘next bits’ for quite a long time!!
About Krystal M. Anderson
Krystal M. Anderson is a Utah, USA native and a wife and mother of four young children, including a set of twins. She loves telling stories to her children and they remind her to write down their favorites. She grew up on horseback and treasured any time spent riding through the red sands and sagebrush, always yearning to find out what was over the next ridge. Nothing makes her happier than being a wife and mother... but reading is a very close second!
This blog tour is courtesy of: Prism Book Tours
Click through via the badge to find out what else awaits you!
Each day, a new author is showcased – I selected the authors I wanted to feature ahead of time –
therefore, return to see which of the authors I am focusing on throughout the 12 days!
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 “Love’s Sweet Return”, the author’s photo (for Kyrstal M. Anderson) and biography, the extract from “Love’s Sweet Return”, the book photo for “Love’s Sweet Return” as well as the blog tour banner 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: #blogmas 2020 banner & badge and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2020.
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