Top Ten Tuesday: Valentine’s Day Picture Books for Young Children

February 9, 2021 By 44 Comments

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

One of the latest trends I’ve noticed where I live is that Valentine’s Day is beginning to be used to celebrate non-romantic types of love as well as the romantic types.

For example, some people here now buy chocolates or flowers for their closest platonic friends. Others have started giving small Valentine’s Day gifts to their young children or grandchildren.

In honor of this cultural shift, here are ten picture books  about Valentine’s Day and love in general from as many different cultures as I could find for the little ones in your life.

 

1. Hugs and Hearts by Toni Trent Parker

2. Homemade Love by Bell Hooks

3. On Mother’s Lap by Ann Herbert Scott

4. Freckles and Willie, a Valentine’s Day Story  by Margery Cuyler
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5. Full, Full, Full of Love by Trish Cooke

6. Countdown to Valentine’s Day by Jodi Huelin

7. “More More More,” Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams

8. Mama Says: A Book of Love for Mothers and Sons  by Rob D. Walker

9. Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse

10. My Huggy Valentine by Sheila Sweeny Higginson

 

Happy Valentine’s Day if you celebrate it! Long and Short Reviews deeply appreciates all of our readers.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books Written Before LASR Was Born

February 2, 2021 By 50 Comments

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Long and Short Reviews has been around since 2007. Here are ten books that were published before we existed!

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King

3. Pretty Little Liars (Pretty Little Liars, #1)  by Sara Shepard

4. The Birth House by Ami McKay

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6. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

7. The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #13) by Lemony Snicket

8. Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic by Esther Perel

9. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

10. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals  by Michael Pollan

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Picture Books for the First Half of 2021

January 5, 2021 By 32 Comments

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I believe that no one is ever too old or too young to enjoy a good picture book. Here are the picture books I’m most looking forward to reading in 2021.

 

The Highest Tribute: Thurgood Marshall’s Life, Leadership, and Legacy by Kekla Magoon

Publication Date: Today

 

Off to See the Sea  by Nikki Grimes

Publication Date: January 12

 

Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail (Hardcover) by Lesléa Newman

Publication Date: January 28

 

Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena

Publication Date: February 2

 

 

A Little Courage  by Taltal Levi

Publication Date: February 4
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Hello, Earth!: Poems to Our Planet by Joyce Sidman

Publication Date: February 9

 

Fair and Square: An Acorn Book (Unicorn and Yeti #5) by Heather Ayris Burnell

Publication Date: March 2

 

The Little Butterfly That Could by Ross Burach

Publication Date: March 2

 

Game, Set, Sisters!: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams  by Jay Leslie

Publication Date: March 30

 

 

As Strong as the River by Sarah Noble

Publication Date: May 4

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Movie Review: Candy Jar

January 4, 2021 By Leave a Comment

Movie Review: Candy Jar

Director: Ben Shelton

Writer: Chad Klitzman

Stars: Christina Hendricks, Uzo Aduba, Jacob Latimore, Sami Gayle, and Helen Hunt.

Rated: 4 Stars

Review by: Astilbe

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Anything is possible if you work hard enough at it, right?

Lona and Bennett would have been loathed to admit it, but they truly were two peas in a pod. They were both intelligent, hardworking, and stubborn teens who knew their many hours of studying and carefully-selected extracurriculars like debate club were going to get them admission to their dream colleges. There was nothing that was going to stand in their ways, not even each other. The acting was so well done that I kept forgetting this was a fictional story. That was how convincing both of these actors were at playing competitive and nerdy high schoolers.

I must admit that their strong personalities overwhelmed me a little at first. They were both so determined to be right about everything that neither of them was very good at listening to others. I admired their strong work ethics, but they both seemed like people who would be exhausting to spend a lot of time around in real life. They never took a break!

Luckily, those character flaws in these two characters provided plenty of fodder for both the dramatic and comedic moments in this film. Their personalities were so similar to each other that they were often on the same wavelength. This lead to moments of friction when they disagreed, but it also brought them of opportunities to find the funny side of their high-pressure lifestyles.

There’s something amusing about watching two characters realize just how much they have in common and what a good couple they might make. This was obvious to the audience from the very first scene, and it made me wonder if or when these characters would figure it out as well.

Candy Jar was a lighthearted romp that I’d recommend to viewers of all ages who love teen romances, dramas, or, better yet, both of these genres!

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Winter Blogfest: Amber Daulton

January 1, 2021 By 8 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a free ebook copy of Forever Winter (1-flame historical romance), A Hero’s Heart (5-flame romantic suspense), and Mistletoe in the City (3-flame New Adult contemporary) to one winner. These are my backlist holiday-themed books.

Writing Holiday Romance

Holiday-themed romances are some of my favorite books to read and write. My latest contemporary, Harmony’s Embrace, follows Harmony Holdich as she returns home to Willow Springs, Vermont to visit her uncle for Christmas before starting her life over across the country. There she reconnects with her high school sweetheart, Birley Haynes, and her plans go up in smoke.

Quiet literally.

Someone is targeting Birley and his family business, and Harmony gets caught in the crossfire.

Even though most holiday romances tend to be more sweet and clean—and there’s nothing wrong with that—my books lean more toward danger and sexual tension hot enough to melt snow. I always put my heroine and hero through the ringer, both in and out of the bedroom, and Harmony and Birley are no exception. After all, the bad guys aren’t going to wait at home, twiddling their thumbs, just because it’s the season to be merry. Heck no! Where’s the fun in that?
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But I am following some of the normal holiday conventions with Harmony’s Embrace—family, kids, and matchmaking. Birley is an exhausted single dad with a ton of responsibilities, and his mother and brother are determined to set him up with the woman who got away.

No matter what happens during the course of the story, one thing should always remain the same—the romance. Harmony and Birley may find their happily ever after outside the typical holiday structure, but as long as the reader is smiling, then it’s a good book.

Divorced dad Birley Haynes is too busy raising his children and running his family’s music academy to start a relationship. Then Harmony Holdich, his high school sweetheart, returns home to Willow Springs, Vermont for Christmas and falls into his bed. She brings light and fun back into his life, but he can’t brush aside the threatening incidents around his workplace.
Harmony hadn’t expected a complication like Birley, especially so soon after the death of her unfaithful husband. With her life a mess, she plans to move across the country and start over. All she can offer him is a fling, but her heart yearns for more.
When the threats rise, how will Birley keep his children safe and convince Harmony to give love another chance?

Amber Daulton is the author of the romantic-suspense series Arresting Onyx and several standalone novellas. Her books are published through The Wild Rose Press, Books to Go Now, and Daulton Publishing, and are available in ebook, print on demand, audio, and foreign language formats.
She lives in North Carolina with her husband and demanding cats.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

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Winter Blogfest: Mary Patterson Thornburg

January 1, 2021 By 17 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a digital copy of The Kura.

The Joy of the Holidays

“The holidays,” we say, wanting to be inclusive – even “the winter holidays,” although for those of us in Earth’s southern hemisphere they’re summer holidays. As I was writing my novel The Kura, set mostly on an alternate world, in another reality, I wondered if the people there celebrated them too. But of course they did, and do. When a native of that world steps into this one on a snowy December night, my heroine explains it to him:

“They approached the downtown area, where lights glittered on every lamppost and the store windows were decorated with tinsel and artificial snow. ‘Is it a celebration?’ he asked. ‘The Midwinter festival?’

“’Yes. A lot of people call it Christmas – that’s what my brother and I called it, growing up – and people from other cultures call it other things. Use it to celebrate other things. But it’s all about Midwinter, really. The return of the sun, in the North. The rebirth of light.’”

When I myself was growing up, my father worked for a Christmas tree company, and his holiday season started with the first frost and got more stressful by the day, making him a bit cynical about the whole thing. My heroine’s father reflects some of this cynicism when he says, of the lights and decorations, “Yes, it’s pretty. Some of it’s almost beautiful. They start this earlier every year, and it’s all about money. Nothing to do with Jesus Christ, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or Midwinter. All about money.” But he can’t keep that up. A minute later he’s agreeing to put up a Christmas tree and planning a party. There’s something about this season that makes it hard to be a cynic for long.
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My holidays this year will be spent alone. My husband, who was for thirty-five years the nearest bright light on my own Christmas tree, died in July, a few days after my country’s Midsummer Festival, which we call Independence Day. Our family is thousands of miles away, and we’re all staying in, staying safe, in this year of worldwide pandemic. But as I write this, I feel the joy of all these coming holidays rising around me. I will send the cards, listen to the music, put up my little plastic tree, and visit with my beloved people through bursts of energy that bounce from one phone to another, caroming off an artificial star. And I will reflect on that “rebirth of light” and the promise these winter holidays make, to all of us, that – in the words of the Dalai Lama XIV – “Our ancient experience confirms at every point that everything is linked together, everything is inseparable.”

Happy holidays to you! 

Six years ago, two men chased Alyssha Dodson into a dark room under a bridge in her Indiana city, and she found herself in another universe. After three months she came back. She promised her father she’d stay in his world. But what she’d left behind was a place she couldn’t forget, dreams she couldn’t escape. And a piece of her heart.

Now, when a man dies in a hit-and-run accident, leaving her a strange, double-faced coin and a message she doesn’t understand, she’ll have to break that promise.

Mary Patterson Thornburg was born in California, grew up in Washington State, moved to Montana when she was 18, and spent many years in Indiana, where she studied and then taught at Ball State University.
Her dream was always to write fantasy stories and novels, but she didn’t get started until she and her husband moved back to Montana in 1998. When she’d finished her first story and it was published, she took off running and never looked back. She’s had stories in Cicada; Zahir; The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction; Strange, Weird, and Wonderful, and the anthology Dreamless Roads, among other places. Her first novel, A Glimmer of Guile, was published by Uncial Press in 2014. Her second book for Uncial, The Kura, came out in April, 2015, and since then there have been novellas and short stories galore. She’s currently writing as fast as she can.

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Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , ,

Winter Blogfest: Eileen Charbonneau

January 1, 2021 By 19 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of my American Civil War Brides series (Seven Aprils and Mercies of the Fallen), a variety of teas and a vintage tea cup and saucer from my collection. (shipped to the US only).

Story and Song of the Season

In December, many cultures celebrate the return of the light in the midst of darkness.  Part of this celebration comes in storytelling and song, For many Native American and First People’s cultures winter was the time for story, and we all know a good story, don’t we?  When the missionaries came to the Huron/Wendat people, they brought the Christmas story, translated into the language and cultural traditions of the people.  And so, to this day, we have the haunting and lovely Huron Carol.

‘Twas in the moon of wintertime

When all the birds had fled

That mighty Gitchi Manitou

Sent angel choirs instead

Before their light the stars grew dim

And wandering hunters heard the hymn…

Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born

Jesus ahathonhia!

Within a lodge of broken bark

The tender Babe was found

A ragged robe of rabbit skin

Enwrapp’d His beauty round

And as the hunter braves drew nigh

The angel song rang loud and high…

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With gifts of fur and beaver pelt…

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The Holy Child of earth and heaven

Is born today for you.

Come kneel before the radiant Boy

Who brings you beauty, peace and joy…

Maryland plantation heiress Ursula Kingsley is content with her secluded life in a convent. Until the bloodiest day of the Civil War brings a downed soldier into her care.

Blinded Rowan Buckley only knows he’s in deep love with the woman who pulled him off the battlefield. His superiors claim she’s a spy. He knows she’s full of secrets, but he’s out to prove that treason is not one of them.

The two negotiate the crucial times of the Battle of Antietam, Gettysburg, and the New York City Draft Riots. Treachery from North and South meet them at every crossroad. Will their love survive?

Eileen Charbonneau’s unique viewpoint reflects heritage that includes immigrant Irish, French Canadian, Eastern European ancestors and Huron and Shoshone relatives. She enjoys exploring the perspectives of people often left out of history: its women, its immigrants, its marginalized poor. Eileen has published historical fiction for adult as well for young readers.
American Civil War Brides series follows the lives of couples brought together by the most soul-searing conflict the United States has endured. The first of the series is Seven Aprils, the second Mercies of the Fallen.

Eileen lives in the brave little state of Vermont and before the pandemic hit she ran a small historic house B and B with her husband Ed. She adores him, her kids and sweet grandchild Desmond. Eileen is addicted to American roots music and dance, and maple creemies.

Website | Blog | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

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Winter Blogfest: Maria Imbalzano

January 1, 2021 By 6 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook of A Song For Another Day.

A New Year’s Eve to Remember

I don’t always look forward to New Year’s Eve with the pressure to do something fun, or at least enjoyable. Where should we go? What should we do? Which group of friends or family do we include? This coming New Year’s Eve may be one for the records with no celebratory gatherings, given our Covid-19 infected world.

I’m so happy to have the memory of last year’s New Year’s Eve, which I spent with two of my high school girlfriends and our husbands. I’ve been friends with these women for over fifty years, which is impossible to believe since none of us feels that old. 

We chose Philadelphia as our destination—about forty-five minutes from our homes (until one of them moved to Los Angeles this past year). We met at the bar at The Notary Hotel, located steps from City Hall, at four p.m. where the catch-up and laughter started immediately. There is no down time when we get together. We took a short break and retired to our rooms to dress for dinner, then started walking to our dinner destination, about a mile and a half away. I love to walk, especially in large cities at night where people are out and about. Although it was cold, it was the perfect night to take in the lights of the city, the people, the electricity. 

Our reservation was at The Love (don’t you adore that name), a homey but beautiful restaurant near Rittenhouse Square. We experienced none of the usual craziness that accompanies dinner out on a holiday. We were seated immediately and were never rushed. Spending this special dinner with the women who shaped my life, along with our husbands, was not only memory filled (like ordering Grasshoppers as our after dinner drink in tribute to our tastes at age 18), but memory-making (the first time in 15 years we had all been together on a New Year’s Eve). 

As if still in our early twenties, we left the restaurant at eleven in search of our next destination (with no reservations), which would hopefully include dancing. After all, we had lived at dance clubs in those earlier years, and despite the few years in between where we raised our families, we still loved to dance. After a few mis-steps, we found one at the bar at The Rittenhouse Hotel, filled with twenty and thirty year olds who probably wondered why we were invading their space. 

We toasted the New Year at midnight, and stayed for another hour of people watching, drinking, and dancing. While walking back to our hotel, we passed lit-up Christmas trees and decorated office buildings, breathing in the crisp, cold air of the new year. 

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Gigi Jenson, an up-and-coming Broadway star, finds herself in Willow Springs, Vermont, for the summer as director of their first annual community revue. This sleepy town is worlds away from her vibrant and beloved New York City, but the experience she'll gain will be invaluable to her career.
Jason Simmons has lived in Willow Springs his entire life. Working several jobs while writing music, he yearns for a contract to record his songs. The one chance he had to make it in Nashville he blew due to stage fright.
When Jason volunteers to help Gigi with the revue, sparks ignite but their dreams are taking them in different directions. Could their love for each other guide them to the same path?

Maria Imbalzano is a retired matrimonial lawyer who now writes full time. Instead of drafting motions, legal memoranda, and briefs, although fascinating, she now spends her days creating memorable characters and taking them on their emotional journeys through her contemporary romance novels.

Her novel, “Unchained Memories,” won the Wisconsin Romance Writers Write Touch Readers’ Award and the ACRA Readers’ Choice Heart of Excellence Award. “Sworn to Forget,” the first of the four-book Sworn Sisters Series was a finalist for the illustrious RONE award as well as the Book Buyers Best Award.

Maria Imbalzano is a retired matrimonial lawyer who now writes full time. Instead of drafting motions, legal memoranda, and briefs, although fascinating, she now spends her days creating memorable characters and taking them on their emotional journeys through her contemporary romance novels.

Her novel, “Unchained Memories,” won the Wisconsin Romance Writers Write Touch Readers’ Award and the ACRA Readers’ Choice Heart of Excellence Award. “Sworn to Forget,” the first of the four-book Sworn Sisters Series was a finalist for the illustrious RONE award as well as the Book Buyers Best Award.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Buy the book at Books2Read.

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Winter Blogfest: Susan Saxx

December 31, 2020 By 12 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a digital copy of A Real Man – the first book in the Real Man Series! Let me know below what your favorite Christmas romance trope is to enter. 

So This Is Christmas ?

The tree is up.   Most of the prezzies  are bought (I’ve been doing that all year), and plans are made. (Here’s a shot of my baby, with 3 of my favorite ornaments winking in the picture…)

Yes, I love Christmas. I apologize to you if you don’t, ‘cause, I get it. There are a bunch of reasons not to. I’ve experienced a lot of those reasons myself.

Still, I adore Christmas.

For me, it’s the season of all good things. There’s an abundance of goodies. Shortbread cookies, sweet treats, Irish cream, yum! More importantly though, it’s a season of kindness, when we tend to put a magnifying glass on goodness, on seeing to it that everyone has enough. That no one is overlooked, or forgotten.

And that matters to me? Most of all.

My character, Emily Gates, in It Started with a Candy Cane, is one of those young women. At first glance, she’s all about the bling. Really, all about the bling. I mean, who visits a rustic, northern Canadian town dressed in all cream? Emily, of course. She can’t wait to get back to her high fashion area of Toronto (Yonge Street, around the Esplanade), back to her job as a city planner, and she resents the fact she can’t be there to see the big Christmas display she created.cover of It Started with a Candy Cane by Susan Saxx

Yet, the more we get to know her, the more we see there are depths in this young woman that she herself doesn’t realize.

When the town’s butcher sees her, the dude’s a goner. Yet, he’s got a very important mission. And even though he’s besotted with her, that mission comes first.

When he and Emily finally meet up one night as her world falls apart, he invites her to come along on his infamous Candy Cane run. This is a journey into the depths of the northern bush, the night before Christmas Eve. And when she does, her life literally changes.

This is one of the many books in the Real Men series. It’s a novella, the other novella in the series being It Started on a Back Road. Many of the other characters you’ll meet here have full stories in the series, such as Real Deep, Real Hero, and Real Miracle. Yet It Started with a Candy Cane is one of my absolute favorites because of the one thing it really focuses on, through all the fun, the surprises and the soul-searching Emily ends up doing: kindness.

if you’d love a short, sweet-hearted, yet intriguing escape just about now, if you’re so inclined, pick up It Started with a Candy Cane, and possibly some of the companion books in the series. Readers seem to love it. I know I still have a soft spot for Emily and Rufus, as well as the wonderful, worthy people they meet on that midnight candy cane run…the one I’m itching to take myself.

She’s city. The more designer and fluffier, the better.

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He’s a closed-off butcher in a small northern Canadian town. Emily Gates is hip. If a bag’s got more than three zeros in its price tag – she’s in. Cream is her favorite color. And her new role as junior city planner in the city of Toronto has her excited beyond all reason. For the gal with the troubled past – something she carefully keeps a secret – it’s all about building community now. Even though she loves working and living in the upscale, trendy area just east of Bloor and Yonge. Rufus Richardson isn’t fancy and his job is dirty. And he’s always trying to slay the damn dragons, even when no one wants him to. He should settle for a local gal, one who’s used to country and mosquitos and wild animals poking around the family homestead. Instead, the moment he sees the vivacious city beauty, his heart tumbles, and his warrior’s sword appears. But she doesn’t need him to slay any dragons, and lets him know in no uncertain terms. But when the life she’s carefully curated falls apart suddenly and she goes off into the dark northern night alone searching for the meaning that’s always eluded her, they find themselves thrown together, the night before Christmas Eve. On Ruf’s annual infamous northern Candy Cane Run, and…Everything changes.

And this Christmas, it all started with a candy cane.

Susan loves romance, and believes it’s a staple ingredient in life. She uses this love to create sexy, heart-warming stories where friendship and passion–along with breath-taking risk– intertwine to create a love that is timeless.

Focusing on contemporary, small town romance and m/m romance, she also unabashedly loves the various holidays, especially Christmas.

Cheerfully addicted to homemade green smoothies (and the rewarding prospect of grossing out certain close friends who shall remain nameless), she also plays second fiddle to the feline masters in her life.

Susan loves to hear from readers. You can contact her at susansaxx@gmail.com, and sign up for her main newsletter here: www.smarturl.it/SusanSaxxNewsletter, and for her m/m romance newsletter here: https://susansaxx.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f161713dad49609e6e5923b65&id=6bdd0ef900

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Winter Blogfest: Laura Elizabeth

December 31, 2020 By 22 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win either a $25 gift card to Target, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon (winner’s choice) and a signed copy of my book.

The Countdown

It was my turn. 

I dressed quickly, ran down my steps, and rounded the banister to where my family’s Advent Calendar hung on an almost white wall. A rectangular, felt material calendar was covered with twenty-four pockets, each containing a plushy ornament to stick on the stitched emerald green tree. My turn. I grabbed the plush of the day—a drum—and stuck it on the middle of the calendar.  

Every year, my sisters and I organized the Velcro ornaments into the pockets. However, the baby Jesus in His manger ornament was always placed in the pocket with the “24” on it. My little sister figured out quickly which order she’d have to fall into for that ornament each year.  

My older sister and I let her have that victory. Shush, don’t tell her. 

But when it was my turn every third day to stick the ornament on the tree, I was met with different feelings as the days passed. At first, excitement filled me as another holiday season was underway. But then, as one-by-one, day-by-day, a new ornament was added to the tree, I held onto a lot of sadness. It felt like wishing the season away a bit…counting down the days until Christmas Day. What then? Ordinary life was a little dimmer…December 26 got a bad rap simply because the anticipation of December Day was over (and Epiphany didn’t mean much to a kid…however, props to the Wisemen’s journey). By the time December 20 came around, I was filled with an awful sense of doom. It was almost over. This feeling of magic was almost complete for another year. 

I forgot to embrace (and who can blame me really…I was a kid) how precious and special each day was and is throughout the year.  

The ability only cialis discount pharmacy to show that love to do. Nuts: Almonds are very excellent sources of fat and Visit This Link online levitra desserts. Engaging in a satisfying sex life can decrease tab sildenafil stress. What Is Erectile Dysfunction? Erectile Dysfunction is a disorder and require constant monitoring of levitra 20mg canada the progress report of the person. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve shifted my perspective. My family’s Advent Calendar tradition has transformed into a habit of enjoying each day—embracing December 9, 10, 11 and so on for the same miracle they are as December 25 is…all of them God-given; all of them sacred, even if Jesus’s birthday is rather spectacular. As well as my birthday. Time is a little more magical on my birthday. 

This year, I bought an Advent calendar and hung it on my wall. And I vow to be excited for each and every day, embracing the magic in every sunrise and sunset. The pandemic has placed an interesting twist on this promise, but so far, I’ve found a reason to bask in the present moment of this day. Sometimes, the basking comes simply in a Pop Tart (if it’s the s’more kind, I consider myself doubly thankful). But joy happens. And that’s what matters. While looking forward to the hope of another day, standing in faith with the present hour is pretty great, too. 

Just don’t tell my fiancé I’ve already counted out the days so I get to put the last ornament on the tree. I’m not that evolved yet. It’s my turn.

Ex-cowboy-turned-stuntman Jake Smith trudges to his hometown where he’s left behind a dream he was born into, memories of a hero dad, and his ex-girlfriend who was never supposed to stay in town.

Cassie Sullivan, an ex-politician’s daughter, escaped to Lovestruck during college and now owns the Smith ranch. She’s created a life she’s proud of, even though they aren’t her dreams she’s fulfilled. When Jake returns and lassoes her in, she’s prepared for a showdown that’s percolated for seven years.

That is, if she can stay angry with him for abandoning her. Because she has a secret that would’ve ended their union long ago.

Laura is a lover of all things romance. She’s a former student of the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York and an on-going student at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After participating in PitchWars in 2015, Laura continued writing love stories. Strong heroes and heroines are a must. She’s a Writer’s Digest Honorable Mention Award Recipient.

In her spare time, she teaches yoga, enjoys hiking, and talks often with her writer friends, whose group name is inappropriate for public consumption.

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