Title: A Promise for Christmas
Author: Linda Carroll-Bradd
Genre: Historical Romance
Book Blurb:
After a decade serving as a governess for a wealthy Chicago family, lively Fiona Carthage is ousted from her job and their house. She turns to the Matrimonial News and responds to an ad from a Colorado storeowner. Anson Lorentz, a man who prizes routine and a quiet life, sees the happiness a mail-order bride brought his friend and takes a chance on bringing a bride to Gunnison City. Fiona works to make his house into a real home. Her arrival sets his household upside down, which causes friction for this new couple.
Will Anson stand by his promise to provide Fiona a secure home, or will his newly discovered family ties sway his allegiance?
Excerpt:
“To Number 4721 (how strange not to write to yer ad number and not yer name): My decade-long post as a governess to four children recently ended, and I am looking for the next adventure in me life. I possess the skills needed to run a household and have a desire for a home that I can call me own. Yer promise of security warms the cockles of me heart. Me age falls within yer constraints, I enjoy reading and knitting, and I can only hope yer acres contain animals on which I might dote. Please share more information about yerself. Respectfully, Miss Fiona Carthage, c/o Mandeville Furniture Works, 255 Logan St, Chicago, Illinois.”
A week later, she sat in the bedroom chair and unfolded a single piece of paper.
“Dear Miss Carthage, Gunnison City has approximately 4,000 residents, and my hardware store is the most successful one in town. I also raise donkeys and mules to sell to miners, but they are not “doted upon” like pets. Neither are the chickens or the cow that supply food. All animals have a purpose to aid my life here. The house is on the outskirts of town but not farther than a healthy ten-minute walk to my store. I find nothing objectionable to anything you shared and hope you consider us to be a good match. Anson Lorentz”
She stared at the short paragraph on the lined paper, scanning the squarish handwriting for a smidgen of personal detail she might cleave to her bosom. Was she a good match to someone who sounded so…dispassionate? For years and only in the privacy of her bedroom, she’d given rein to her romantic soul by writing little poems and sayings. Many she developed into messages and sold them to the greeting card company. Anyone who knew her while she lived with the Huntingdons thought of her as a restrained, modest spinster. But Fiona knew she possessed so much love and laughter to share with the right man.
The question remained, Was Anson the right one? Fiona stood and paced the tiny aisle between furnishings. He was the only one. After two Sundays of attending church services with Lainie and Thomas, she’d not encountered a single man who paid her special attention. Lainie was surprised as she was over the lack of bachelors asking Thomas for an introduction.
An atlas revealed the distance to Anson’s home was more than a thousand miles. Bad memories surfaced of the arduous ship passage across the Atlantic Ocean and the hopscotch path from New York to Chicago. The family had to stop three times to get jobs and earn the train fare to take them farther west. What would happen if she traveled all the way to Colorado and disliked him on sight? Should she ask that he provide her with a photograph? Although, a man who wrote like he did might not wish to spare the time. He would have the right to ask the same of her, but did she want to chance the expense?
She leaned close to a small mirror hanging by a ribbon from a nail in the wall. What would he think of her appearance? She lifted a hand to the auburn waves that tumbled over her shoulders. Around the house now, she left her hair free of pins and combs—a rebellion to the years of restrained hairdos that often caused headaches. Angling her head, she examined her rosy cheeks and the fine lines around her eyes. What if he didn’t like her looks?
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Share a holiday family tradition:
When my children were grade-school age, I always made cinnamon rolls from scratch and we had Mexican hot chocolate. As they grew and we traveled for the holiday, I defaulted to premade ones but we never skimped on the hot chocolate.
Why is your featured book perfect to get readers in the holiday mood:
This woman who has just been given the opportunity to create the Christmas holiday like she wants it is enthusiastic and gets her staid husband in the spirit.
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Open internationally
Runs December 1 – 31
Drawing will be held on January 4.
Author Biography:
As a young girl, Linda was often found lying on her bed reading about fascinating characters having exciting adventures in places far away and in other time periods. In later years, she read and then started writing romances and achieved her first publication--a confession story. Married with 4 adult children and 2 granddaughters, Linda now writes heartwarming contemporary and historical stories with a touch of humor from her home in the southern California mountains.
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