New Release -- THE BABY BARGAIN by Diana Tobin -- Giveaway!

After years of estrangement from her family, Lynn Baxter comes home to Webster, Maine, for her mother’s wedding—but she brings a load of secrets with her. The life she’s planned hasn’t worked out. She’s lost everything—her fiancé, her job, and the law degree she’d left home so eagerly to pursue. As Lynn makes amends with her sister, brother, and mother, she realizes Webster is where she needs to be to heal her heart and her wounded pride.

JC Benjamin is a farmer—and he loves that life. But seeing Lynn again for the first time since high school kindles emotions inside that he thought had died with the pain of divorce—and the departure of his ex-wife! JC wants Lynn just as much as he did all those years ago—but what would an upper crust woman like her see in a farmer? Much to his surprise and delight, Lynn gives him a chance to be the man he’s always wanted her to see…

When Lynn asks JC to give her a child, he bolts, fearing being trapped as his ex tried to do. But a sinister attack by a man from her past changes everything, and JC must face the truth—he can’t live without Lynn Baxter. It’s time for both of them to take a leap of faith after the hurts of their bitter pasts, but can they trust each other enough to find happiness? JC wants so much more from Lynn than what she’s suggested in THE BABY BARGAIN…but will she agree to be his wife, as well? 

EXCERPT

     He backed up a half-step. “Put them down, please.” She did as he asked, setting the can on the floor and the brush on top of the can. “Now, step over here.” He backed up another two steps. When Lynn was in front of him, JC wrapped his arms around her and hugged her to his hard body. “You are clever. I can’t believe all the thought and hard work you’ve put into this for me.”

     His praise pleased her even as a worrisome thought flitted through her mind. Was she repeating her Donny mistakes with JC? No. “It’s for me, too. You said you’d share your profits with me and I can sell my cookies. Plus, I can do what I want when not waiting on customers.”

     “All true,” he agreed, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “You’ve got to remember, my mother and ex-wife never wanted anything to do with the stand, the farm, nor my father and me.”

     “Your mother and ex-wife were idiots,” she spit out, then wondered if she’d overstepped the bounds of friendship.

     JC pulled her tighter against him and chuckled. “Keep talking like that and you’ll give me a swelled head.”

     She rubbed her belly against the front of him. “Think I already have.”

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New Release -- Home for the Heart by Sarah J. McNeal -- Giveaway!

Lucy Thoroughgood has gone and done it now—fallen in love with Hank Wilding, a man she’s known all her life. He’s content with friendship, but Lucy’s heart has flown the coop and she knows she’s in love with the determined bachelor. When she visits him with a proposition—to let the orphans she cares for learn to ride his horses during the summer—he surprises her with one of his own. She must accompany him to the dancing lessons he’s signed up for.

Secretly pleased, she hopes that perhaps this arrangement might lead to more than friendship. But Hank’s loved hard and lost, with his engagement to one of the popular town girls going south two years earlier. He’s sworn to never lose his heart to another—including Miss Lucy Thoroughgood.

A teenage orphan, Chayton, could be the key to thawing Hank’s heart—but danger follows the embittered boy. Will Hank be able to give Chayton the home he yearns for—or will the boy’s past bring only sorrow to those he cares for? When a Lakota premonition becomes reality, Lucy’s life hangs in the balance. Will Hank have the chance to let Lucy know how wrong he was?

EXCERPT

     In the quiet of the barn filled with the smell of fresh hay, horse manure, and leather tack, Hank sensed rather than heard someone enter the building. Ah, the smell of sunshine and roses. Must be Lucille Thoroughgood. Without turning to look at her, he set the pitchfork against the wall of Lonesome’s stall. “What do you want, Lucy?” he grumbled as a greeting.

     “Mr. Wilding, I have something I’d like to propose to you.” Her voice sounded tense. When he turned to face her, he saw those blue eyes dart away from his to peer at the straw on the floor. She promptly straightened her spine and must have forced herself to look him straight in the eye. Her starched manner made him want to mess with her.

     “A proposal?” He moved closer to her…maybe too close. He felt something shift in his chest like a warning bell. “Well now, I haven’t ever had a lady propose to me before,” he joked, badly, just to get her goat. Generally, women were not to be trusted. He’d learned that lesson the hard way. But Lucy was his old friend since grade school. Even though she must have been born straight-laced and proper, she spoke her truth, plain and simple. Beneath that barbed wire exterior beat a heart of gold.  

     Lucy propped her fists on her hips and he thought she looked like a charming sugar bowl all ruffled up in her pink flowered dress and her sweet, straw hat that sat askew on her gleaming brown hair. She knitted those brows together and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not proposing marriage to you, Mr. Wilding. I’m proposing a business deal…sort of.”

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#NewRelease -- KISSING COUSINS by Diana Tobin -- Giveaway!

Be sure and leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for a free ebook of KISSING COUSINS by Diana Tobin.

BLURB

Augusta Thompson has lost everything—her parents, her husband, her home…and now, her only child. Then, a legal notice arrives asking her to travel across the country to claim an inheritance from an unknown relative—a grandmother she never knew she had. There’s only one catch: she must share her grandmother’s beautiful old home with handsome Olympic contender Charles “Web” Webster—the only other person named in the inheritance—for one year.

Web finds it difficult to believe Augusta never knew about her family in Maine, the family Augusta’s mother turned her back on.  As time goes by, he realizes Augusta was mentally and emotionally abused by her ex-husband, and her heart and soul are wounded.

Can Augusta learn to trust in others once more and make a new life for herself?  Can Web’s love for Augusta heal her broken heart and allow them a future together? Will the conditions of the inheritance prove to be a help or hindrance for these KISSING COUSINS?

EXCERPT

     Augusta Thompson kept her most treasured belongings in the trunk of her car. Her scrapbooks and boxes of photos; a string of pearls once belonging to her mother, and a macaroni necklace made by her daughter; a blanket she’d crocheted when pregnant and had wrapped around baby Hope. A few precious books by her favorite authors; Nora Roberts, when she wanted to read about true love—however fictional, and Janet Evanovich when she needed to be reminded there was humor in the world. A small collection of Junie B. Jones books she and Hope had read, and laughed over, together.

     What took up most of the trunk space in her fifteen-year-old Dodge Neon were skeins of yarn, pattern books, notebooks holding more patterns and ideas, and a variety of knitting needles and crochet hooks.

     Logically, keeping her most prized possessions in a vehicle might not be the best idea, but Augusta, better known as Gus, had lost much to someone she was supposed to be able to trust and in places supposedly safe. Plus, her car had become her home. It was old enough, with various dings and dents, that no one would deem it worthy of stealing.

     Today Gus packed the last few items as she wondered how long it would take her to drive from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine. One saw the end of what she loved best and held most dear, the other, hopefully, would help her find a way to go on living.

     Armed with numerous maps to help her find her way across the country, she placed the last item in the trunk. A small ornately carved box holding the ashes of her beloved eight-year-old daughter, Hope.

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