Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
Today’s featured book is a special one for me – as this year, during my favourite INSPY reading event (which occurs annually during the Summer) the Christian Fiction Reading Safari – I had the chance to win some INSPY and/or Clean Romance novels by #newtomeauthors, which is fitting because guess who won today’s featured book this past August!? Ooh, yes! I did!! And, the event itself gave me back a lot of the joy I had lost throughout the previous eight months when it came to ‘reading’.
This year I felt was one of the hardest years to find joy in reading – not just due to the pandemic & all the changes it effectively brought into our lives but I felt 2020 simply had a difficult beginning all the way round. From how the wildfires in Australia were raging out of control at the start of January to the earthquake which hit Puerto Rico to every month which seemed to bring something ‘else’ to worry over and/or give us a sombering glimpse into how the year was going to become one of the more memorable ones of the recent past. Each month, I admit, I struggled with reading – to connect to the stories and to find joy in the height of reading the books I had slated to be read.
I had certain moments of where I could settle into a story and find myself completely entrenched inside its pages but overall? I felt this year was one of the harder years to be a reader as every month just felt as oppressive difficult to get through as the one before it. Which is why I am thankful this story is part of the showcases for Prism this December as I haven’t even had the chance to look over the books I won in August – I unpacked them all (to ensure they arrived) but I just haven’t felt very motivated to ‘read’ them. I’ve been looking forward to reading a story by this author for quite a long while as I hosted her featured novella during 2019’s #blogmas!
If you struggled with reading this year yourself – what did you do to work through the harder hitting weeks/days/months you were unmotivated to read? Did you participate in any book blogosphere events, reading challenges or other monthly OR themed bookish events to help you realign back into reading and the joy of discovering stories? I’d be curious to know what you did to reset yourself back into books as I found events helped me but I still struggled to find my bookish and readerly mojo to tell the truth.
How wicked lovely then to be able to feature an author I won a book by this year and to know it is the first of a series. I look forward to queuing the book into my New Year’s Reads and delighting in the joy of a fresh start after the 1st of January to begin a new journey into the world of books, stories and the authors who pen them. For now, I am enjoying #blogmas as a bit of a precursor of what I want to seek out in the New Year and which stories caught my eye to feature this December. Thanks for continuing to take this journey with me!!
Curiously – have you participated in any readathons or reading challenges wherein you had the chance to win a book during the course of the event!? My favourite one for INSPY & Clean Romance is the Christian Fiction Reading Safari hosted by Singing Librarian Books every Summer. This is how I came to win my copy of today’s featured book and I am very thankful to all the writers & publishers who give their books throughout the event. It is an added bonus to being able to read the books I most desire to become acquainted with throughout the thirty day reading challenge!
A traitor with a deadly plan.
Two agents sent to expose his identity before he strikes.
But danger is closer than they think . . .
Lord Christian Wolverton―known as Wolf in a covert group operating during the war against Napoleon―has been called home from his military duties. For the moment, his family responsibilities require him to suspend his more clandestine activities. But information falls into his hands that a traitor will soon try to tip the scales back into French favor and Christian doesn’t have much time to stop it from happening.
Going to the one person who can help him, the powerful Duke of Huntingdon, Christian comes face to face with Lady Alice. She’s a beautiful member of the ton with a very big secret―she’s also a trained agent and already on the case. Forced to partner with her to lure the traitor out of hiding, Christian wants to quickly close the case himself, before Lady Alice is more closely involved. But Lady Alice has ideas of her own and she’s going to prove her theories correct―with or without him.
Danger is closer than they think, however, and it’s a race against time to expose the traitor’s identity before British lives are endangered. Both Christian and Alice have strong opinions on who he is, but which one will be proven right?
Add to LibraryThing | ISBN: 978-0-9997946-4-7
Veteran’s Club series:
The Marquess Meets His Match(book one)
The Viscount’s Vow (book two)
The Highlander’s Hidden Heart (book three)
Converse via: #CleanRomanceForChristmas and/or #INSPYRomance or #INSPY
as well #ChristianFiction and/or #HistRom or #HistoricalRomance
Enjoy an Extract from
“The Marquess Meets His Match”:
“In a hurry, my lady?” he said, arching his eyebrows and slowing his step.
“I wouldn’t want to keep Lord Pembroke waiting,” she said, nearly pulling him along with her.
But Wolverton stopped altogether. Since he still held her arm fast, she did, too, rather abruptly. Alice looked up in surprise.
“I must ask you a question, my lady. Why were you asking Huntley about the Earl of Moreland’s son?” His voice was soft, as if she might spook if he spoke too loudly.
Alice gaped. How had he overheard? Swallowing, she forced herself to relax. “I met Thomas once and was shocked at his death, that’s all. There are so few details on what happened.” She gave Wolverton a demure smile, hoping to cover her earlier reaction. “But Lord Huntley reminded me that such things aren’t fit for the ears of a gently bred woman.”
He tilted his head as if considering her words. “Since it was reported that Pembroke was the last person to see Thomas alive, is it reasonable to assume that is why you’re so anxious to talk to him? To find out more details? If so, I’d like to know why.” His blue eyes bored into hers. He wasn’t going to give up easily, that much was clear, and she needed to claim her dance with Lord Pembroke.
Alice pulled her hand away from his arm and straightened her spine. “Lord Wolverton, this conversation has become tiresome, and I have promised this dance to another. If you will please escort me inside.” She turned and started toward the ballroom doors, but Wolverton caught up easily and blocked her way.
His hands were behind his back now, the picture of a gentleman, but his voice was edged with tension. “Be careful, my lady. Curiosity can be a dangerous thing.”
Excerpted from The Marquess Meets His Match by Julie Coulter Bellon.
Copyright © Julie Coulter Bellon. Published by Stone Hall Books.
The shortness of this extract gives you full agency to want to seek out the larger context of the novel and thankfully, this time round I can claim I will be reading this novel in 2021 – as it is currently on my bookshelf awaiting my eyes to read it!! Laughs. I love a good volley of dialogue between characters but I also love how some characters go up against others – to see who has the better confidence in the scene but also who might have the upper hand. In this instance, it is interesting because you want to side with the woman, to see if she can accomplish the mission she clearly has undertaken but there is a moment in this extract that draws to question – is she strong enough to pull it off? Does she have what she needs to do what needs to be done and not have any entanglements or conflicts therein? Time will surely let out the truth!
What do you like about Historical Romance which has a hearty dash of Suspense riding through it? Do you prefer it to just be about the romance & relationship of the characters or do you regularly like to see a bit of drama and suspense threading in the background as well? I’d love to know which stories you’ve enjoyed which mix the two and give you a wicked good read?
About Julie Coulter Bellon
Julie Coulter Bellon is the author of nearly two dozen romantic suspense novels. Her book All Fall Down won the RONE award for Best Suspense, Pocket Full of Posies won a RONE Honorable Mention for Best Suspense and The Captain was a RONE award finalist for Best Suspense. Most recently, her books The Capture and Second Look were both Whitney finalists for Best Suspense/Mystery. Julie loves to travel and her favorite cities she's visited so far are probably Athens, Paris, Ottawa, and London. In her free time she loves to read, write, teach, watch Hawaii Five-O, and eat Canadian chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.
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 “The Marquess Meets His Match”, “The Viscount’s Vow” and “The Highlander’s Hidden Heart”, the author’s photo (for Julie Coulter Bellon) and biography, the extract from “The Marquess Meets His Match”, 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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