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It is always exciting to find historical romance set in times and places outside the norm and I am very excited to host C. Sablan Gault's story of love across the cultural divide in Guam (now a small island protectorate of the United States).The US involvement in the affairs of Guam is a fascinating one.
I have a personal connection to Guam - in his oil industry days my husband had many visits to Guam, including one memorable one in our final week in Singapore when a cyclone had torn through Guam and he was despatched to cope with the ensuing crisis - leaving his wife (who had the flu) and two teenage sons to pack up the apartment and tie off the loose ends of our lives in Singapore. Needless to say he was not popular...
Historical Romance, Women’s Fiction
Set in the tumultuous period of Guam history, between the Spanish-American War and World War II, the lives and loves of three Chamorro women unfold amid the changes and challenges around them. Sixteen-year old Amanda falls of a navy seaman who leaves her with child. Her daughter Sylvia grows up an illegitimate orphan. Yet she finds happiness with Tino Camacho, who loves her despite her scandalous background. Life teaches their daughter, the level-headed Vivian Camacho, that falling for an American navy man is futile, like reaching for the moon.
Cultural and racial prejudices increase the distance. Vivian avoids such futility until the handsome Philip Avery, an up-and-coming naval engineer, enters her life as an upstairs tenant newly assigned to Guam. Vivian falls in love with him but knows nothing can come of it. Philip is from a different world, one of wealth, rank, and privilege. Vivian is a simple island girl who lives under naval government rule. Philip is a man well beyond her reach. He is as distant from her world as the moon; he is the mansion there. Philip falls in love also, but his career comes first. Both deny their feelings for each other; their love cannot be. But love knows no distance, sees no differences.
About the Author
C. Sablan Gault, a native born Chamorro, began her writing career in advertising. She holds a BA in Anthropology and studied journalism. She worked as an advertising assistant, newspaper reporter, feature writer, and columnist. She then served as press secretary to a Guam governor, a legislator, and to Guam’s delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. She also worked as a writer and researcher for a Guam political status education commission. She and her husband David, a Vietnam-era Seabee, live in Guam.
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Today's guest is Cecelia Mecca who is showcasing her latest #historicalromance THE THIEF'S COUNTESS. With over 30 mostly 5 star reviews on Amazon, this is not a book to miss!
Cecelia is giving away a digital copy of THE THIEF'S COUNTESS to one lucky reader. Scroll down to enter the #Rafflecopter contest.
Historical Romance
Date Published: 3/1/17
The Reiver
Sir Geoffrey has dedicated his life to exacting revenge on the men who killed his parents and stole his birthright. The son of a baron, he has been reduced to stealing the resources he needs to reclaim his family legacy. Just when he’s on the verge of success, his uncle asks him to put his plans on hold to help protect a wealthy countess. It’s a distraction Geoffrey resents, even more so when he meets Lady Sara. The gorgeous, complicated and alluring lady is everything he’d want in a woman—and everything he can’t have.
The Countess
With her betrothed coming to claim her hand in marriage and a distant cousin intent on usurping her earldom, Lady Sara Caiser feels beset by controlling, unwanted men. As if that weren’t enough, her father’s deathbed request was for two lawless border reivers to serve as her protectors. Despite her misgivings, an undeniable attraction pulls her into Sir Geoffrey’s arms. The man she thought nothing more than a thief is more dangerous than she believed, for he’s noble, caring and sinfully attractive. As the threats against her continue to mount, Sara must decide what’s more important—her duty or her heart.
About the Author ![]()
A former English teacher, Cecelia combines two of her passions, romance novels and the middle ages, in debut novel The Thief’s Countess. Combining alpha male types and strong female heroines, Cecelia transports readers to an admittedly romanticized time of knights and castles.
After reading Johanna Lindsey and Judith McNaught, she started a manuscript twenty years ago when medieval romance was at its height of mainstream popularity. Picking it back up in 2015 when vampires and highlanders reigned supreme, Cecelia stuck to the genre she loved and brought medieval England back to life.
She lives in Northeast, Pennsylvania with her husband and two young children where she can be found either planning a Disney trip, watching period dramas or convincing her children to watch Star Wars. She is firmly House Stark and Gryffindor.
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Welcome to a MEGA BOOK BLAST... featuring a whole raft of new fiction for you to dive into, including my own AND THEN MINE ENEMY
AND BEST OF ALL THERE'S A $25 Amazon Gift Card on offer for a lucky reader. Keep reading...
WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR - NEW NOVELS BLAST!
Click on any of the below book covers to be taken to the page that has more information on the novel as well as the Buy Links!
Novels Available for Pre-Order!
Novels Currently Available!
Enter the Giveaway
Want to learn more about RABT Book Tours?
Welcome to 2017 and my first visitor of the new year... Dee Davis with her delightful COTTAGE IN THE MIST.
To celebrate the release of COTTAGE IN THE MIST, Dee is offering a $10 Amazon Gift Card to a lucky winner. Scroll to the end of the post for details as to how to enter the #Rafflecopter Contest.
Time Travel Romance
Date Published: March 2016
Mo Chridhe Gu Bràth. My heart forever.
Ancient words, a powerful legend, a timeless love…
Lily Chastain has lost everything—her family, her inheritance, and her fiancé. Desperate to escape her pain, she heads for a remote castle in Scotland, but is trapped by a violent storm along the way. Injured and alone, she is drawn by a lighted cottage in the mist. What she finds there will change her life forever.
Attacked by a vicious rival and betrayed by someone from his own clan, Bram Macgillivray finds himself alone and on the run. His father is dead, his holding all but destroyed. Wanting vengeance, he seeks out the help of his cousins, but finds instead a beautiful woman who calls to his heart.
After losing herself in an unexpected and wonderful night of sensuality, Lily wakes to find Bram gone. But even more disturbing, when she leaves the sanctuary of the cottage, she finds that it has disappeared as well.
Separated by over five hundred years, yet tied together through a magic stronger than the bonds of time and place, Lily and Bram fight to find each other again. And as Lily uncovers the secrets of the past, she must race to find a way back to save the only man she’s ever truly loved.
Excerpt
Scotland – 1468
There was danger. Bram could feel it all around him. Fire raced up the wooden steps that lead up to the door leading into the tower. And he could see more flames thrusting out of the windows, black smoke spiraling into the night sky. Throwing his plaid over his face, he ran up the steps, but was stopped by one of the tower’s guards.
The man raised his claymore, his eyes narrowed as the deadly blade began its descent. Bram pivoted, and then swung his own weapon, confused as to where he was and why he was fighting. The man fell, only to be replaced by another. Bram called to him, some part of him recognizing a face that still seemed a stranger, but this man, too, seemed intent only on stopping him.
His mind argued that nothing made sense, even as his heart screamed that he must get inside. If he did not then that which was most precious to him would be lost. He knew this as surely as he drew breath.
With a twist and a parry he drew the man off, and then made quick work of him, dashing through the opening of the tower, down the hallway and into the great hall. A place meant for comfort it offered only danger now. It too was full of flame, and lined with enemies.
Again the thought brought him up short. But there was no time to try and understand. Fear pushed him forward. He surged into the fray, moving toward the stairway at the far end of the room. It gave access to the chambers above and it was there he knew he would find her.
His brain recoiled. Find who? But his heart urged him forward, and he fought his way to the bottom of the steps, then ran up them, taking them two at a time, knowing the other swordsmen were fast on his heels.
At the top he froze for a moment, the thick smoke disorienting him. The fire was much worse here. Pushing forward, he breathed through the heavy wool of his plaid, keeping sword at the ready. The first chamber was empty. As was the solar and the chamber beyond it. But then from down the narrow hallway he heard a cry.
Heart thundering in his ears, he ran through the flames and smoke. A timber fell, glancing off of his shoulder, and he hardly felt it, the need to find her overriding everything else.
He called for her, his voice swallowed by the raging fire. Another timber fell, and a wall collapsed. He jumped across a gaping hole in the floor, landing hard, but still moving. The doorway ahead was edged in flames, the smoke and fire roiling like some kind of evil spirit.
Ignoring the danger, he sprinted forward, through the opening, again calling her name.
And then, through the shimmering heat, he saw her, tied to the bedframe, her long hair unbound, her green eyes wide with fear.
“Go back,” she screamed.
But he pushed onward, stumbling as still more of the burning tower fell. “I’ll no’ leave you.” His words were whipped away by the inferno surrounding them. But he knew that she had heard him.
There were only a few feet between them now. There was bruising on her face, and a trickle of blood at the corner of her beautiful mouth, and he swore there would be hell to pay.
But first, he had to free her.
He reached out a hand, but as he did so, the ceiling above him crashed to the ground. One moment he was looking into her eyes—and the next, she was gone.
About the Author
Bestselling author Dee Davis’s highly acclaimed first novel was published in 2000. Since then, she's won the Booksellers Best, Golden Leaf, Texas Gold, Golden Apple and Prism awards, and been nominated for the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Holt and three RT Reviewers Choice Awards. She is the author of over thirty novels and novellas and is an honor roll member of NJRW. When not frantically trying to meet a deadline, Dee spends her time at her Connecticut farmhouse with her husband and Cardigan Welsh Corgis.
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Only a couple of weeks ago I was talking about Chris Karlen's lovely time travelling knights trilogy. Today it is my pleasure to introduce a whole new side to Chris... with a gripping historical murder mystery with shades of Jack the Ripper
There is a $20 Amazon Gift card on offer - scroll down for details.
Historical / Victorian Suspense
Silk on the skin—luxurious, luscious..lethal.
London-Fall, 1888
The city is in a panic as Jack the Ripper continues his murderous spree. While the Whitechapel police struggle to find him, Detective Inspector Rudyard Bloodstone and his partner are working feverishly to find their own serial killer. The British Museum's beautiful gardens have become a killing ground for young women strangled as they stroll through.
Their investigation has them brushing up against Viscount Everhard, a powerful member of the House of Lords, and a friend to Queen Victoria. When the circumstantial evidence points to him as a suspect, Rudyard must deal with the political blowback, and knows if they are going to go after the viscount, they'd better be right and have proof.
As the body count grows and the public clamor for the detectives to do more, inter-department rivalries complicate the already difficult case.
Excerpt
Events of the day and the potential satisfaction of giving Napier a bloody nose dwindled. Questions about the murder crept back into Ruddy's thoughts. Morris joined him at his table in the rear of the pub with a Guinness, the popular beer of choice in hand. “You’ve got the look of a man whose thoughts are a long distance from London.”
“No, sadly my thoughts are fixed here in the city. I’m trying to figure out a clue. Ellis’s roommate said she’d sometimes meet with a well-dressed man, a man of means the victim indicated. They’d meet up at the fountain by the British Museum.”
“Don’t know the spot but then the museum isn’t my cup of tea.”
“Not the point. I’m saying it’s odd. What member of the upper class chooses to stroll through a public garden other than Hyde or Regents, where they can see and be seen by one of their own?”
“I agree the wealthy prefer the parks filled with others of their kind but it doesn’t mean a man can’t enjoy someplace different.”
“We interviewed the guard again. The one that discovered the body walks that half of the building. He told us the majority of their male patrons are natty dressers, but he never saw a man like that loitering by the fountain.”
“My guess is: the man is married and can’t afford to run the risk of being seen by a friend of his wife’s. Or, he might live or work in the area and the spot is convenient.”
“Or, he’s a murderer who’s noticed the victim walking through the park on a regular basis, saw it as an opportunity and cozied up to her.”
Ruddy took another swallow of his ale, mentally debating the merit of each theory. “I don’t think he lives in the area. If so, he’d have cut through the park more and been seen by the guards. Not sure about the married man having a tryst idea."
To Ruddy's way of thinking, if the man was married and looking for a tumble, he’d have met her someplace other than the gardens and at a better hour.
Instinct drew him back to his original sense of the culprit and crime. “I feel like this was a crime of opportunity. I’ve thought it all along and can’t shake the sense.”
“If he was just seeking a victim, then why haven’t you had more murders like this?” Morris asked.
Ruddy downed the rest of his beer and put his tankard on the edge of the table where June would refill it. “Everyone has to start somewhere. She might be number one.”
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About the Author
I was born and raised in Chicago. My father was a history professor and my mother was, and is, a voracious reader. I grew up with a love of history and books.
My parents also love traveling, a passion they passed onto me. I wanted to see the places I read about, see the land and monuments from the time periods that fascinated me. I’ve had the good fortune to travel extensively throughout Europe, the Near East, and North Africa.
I am a retired police detective. I spent twenty-five years in law enforcement with two different agencies. My desire to write came in my early teens. After I retired, I decided to pursue that dream. I write three different series. My paranormal romance series is called, Knights in Time. My romantic thriller series is Dangerous Waters. The newest is The Bloodstone Series. Each series has a different setting and some cross time periods, which I find fun to write.
I currently live in the Pacific Northwest with my husband and four wild and crazy rescue dogs.
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Alison StuartAlison writes historical romances and short stories set in England and Australia and across different periods of history. Archives
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