Story Sparks Blog Tour–Creating a Family to Be Proud Of by Terri Wangard

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Ebook giveaway of Friends & Enemies by TErri Wangard, Friends & Enemies, multi-author ebook giveaway, Story Sparks Blog Tour, Terri Wangard, World War II novel

Welcome to the Story Sparks multi-Author Blog Tour. Between May 21-26, 2018, readers get a chance to enter and win ebooks from six different authors. Today, Terri Wangard is the featured author. A lucky winner will win her Friends & Enemies. Terri will be talking about “Creating a Family to be Proud Of.” Read on to discover what sparks Terri’s creativity and to enter the rafflecopter to win her heartwarming book.

 

Creating a Family to Be Proud Of

by Terri Wangard

 

A batch of forgotten letters was found in my grandmother’s house. Written in 1947 and 1948, they came from distant cousins in Germany. My grandparents and other relatives had been sending them care packages. My great-great-grandfather immigrated to Wisconsin in the 1870s, as did two brothers. A fourth brother remained in Germany, and these letters came from his grandchildren.

The family in the letters would be the perfect subject around which to craft a story. Research revealed life in Nazi Germany as increasingly grim before the war even started. The letters provide a fascinating glimpse of life in war-torn Germany, but nothing about the war years. How had the family coped? I turned to the internet and searched on the family’s factory name. I found it all right, in a list of German companies that used slave labor. I wanted my family to be the good guys, but that hope grew shaky.

Contact had ceased in 1948 after the German currency reform, and with their silence in the letters, many questions couldn’t be answered. Why had they refrained from any mention of their thoughts and activities during Hitler’s regime? Desire to forget? Shame of the vanquished? Concern the American family wouldn’t help if they knew the truth?

The family consisted of a brother, his wife, and three young children, and a sister and her husband, and their “old gray mother,” who turned 66 in 1947. Another brother languished as a prisoner of war in Russia, not returning home until 1949, I learned from the German department for the notification of next of kin. The sister and her bridegroom had lived in Canada for five years, returning to Germany in 1937 because she was homesick. They were bombed out of their homes and lived in their former offices, temporarily fixed up as a residence. Before the war, they employed about one hundred men, but in 1947, had fewer than forty-five, with no coal, electricity, or raw materials to work with.

My imagination took over. The family, not the newlyweds, came to Wisconsin. Because a critiquer scorned someone returning to Hitler’s Germany due to homesickness, I gave them a more compelling reason when I rewrote the story. The grandfather had died and the father had to return to take over the factory, much to the daughters’ dismay, who loved their new life in America.

Of course, they did not support Hitler. Because their factory had to produce armaments and meet quotas imposed on them, they had no choice in accepting Eastern European forced laborers, Russian POWs, and Italian military internees.

The older daughter (my main character) took pride in committing acts of passive resistance. Now a war widow, she hid a downed American airman, an act punishable by execution. When they were betrayed, a dangerous escape from Germany ensued.

Maybe the family did support Hitler. Many did before realizing his true colors. My version probably doesn’t come close to the truth, especially concerning the daughter. The real daughter was twelve years old in 1947. No matter. This is fiction, and this is a family I can be proud of.

 

Friends & Enemies

by Terri Wangard

Aiding downed enemy airmen is punishable by death in Nazi Germany,

but he’s an old friend. How much will she risk to help him?

A World War II novel.

 

 

 

Don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter for a chance to win Terri’s book Friends & Enemies Follow the other authors in this week’s blog tour for a chance to win their books as well. Click on the Rafflecopter link below to enter.

Enter the Rafflecopter

Can’t wait to see if you win Terri’s book? If so, here’s the book’s buy link.

Thanks for coming by today. Please come back every day for a chance to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway (link above) and win books from these six authors: Carole Brown, Catherine Castle, Linda Matchett, Amber Schamel, Terri Wangard, and Jodie Wolfe.

About the Author:

Terri Wangard’s first Girl Scout badge was the Writer. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in library science, she lives in Wisconsin. Her research included going for a ride in a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. Classic Boating Magazine, a family business since 1984, keeps her busy as an associate editor. Connect with Terri at her website http://www.terriwangard.com/

 

Story Sparks Blog Tour–125th Anniversary of the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893 By Jodie Wolfe

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book excerpt from To Claim Her Heart, ebook giveaway, hostorical romance, Jodie Wolfe, Mrs. Wigglesworth’s Essential Guide to Proper Etiquette and Manners of Refined Society, multi-author ebook giveaway, Story Sparks Blog Tour, To Claim Her Heart

Welcome to the Story Sparks multi-Author Blog Tour. Between May 21-26, 2018, readers get a chance to enter and win ebooks from six different authors. Today, Jodie Wolfe is the featured author. Two lucky winners will be awarded either her To Claim Her Heart or Mrs. Wigglesworth’s Essential Guide to Proper Etiquette and Manners of Refined Society. Jodie will be talking about the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893. Read on to discover what sparked Jodie’s creativity and to enter the Rafflecopter to win her heartwarming book.

 

125^th Anniversary of the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893

By Jodie Wolfe

September 16^th will mark the 125^th anniversary of the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893. It was our Nation’s last great race for land. 115,000 people showed up to race for 42,000 plots. I can clearly picture that day. It was hot and dry. Folks gathered along nine different starting places located along the Kansas border and south of the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma Territory.

All manner of conveyances could be seen—people on foot, horseback, buggies, wagons, bicycles, trains, etc. I can easily imagine the clamor and chaos as all those assembled awaited the gunshot that would signify the start of the race at noon. People were desperate. The country had undergone an economic catastrophe with the plummet of the New York Stock Exchange due to the overinvesting in the railroads. Many businesses that depended upon the railroad were forced to close their doors. Quite a number of banks either closed or called in their loans. It was a difficult time.

Such is the backdrop for my new novel, To Claim Her Heart. This book is especially significant to me since it was my dear mother-in-law who introduced me to the history of the land run. It mattered to her because she had several relatives who completed in the land race and found claims. I vividly remember the summer of 1997 when we stopped off in Oklahoma to see one of those original properties.

My sons and I tromped over the land and saw the homestead that was built in 1894. The first home had been a soddy that didn’t last longer than a year.

The rock home I saw was partially built into the side of a hill and in a state of disrepair. A stream gurgled nearby and within a couple of miles, the Gloss (Glass) Mountains cropped out of the landscape. It didn’t take much for me to start imagining characters tromping through the area and choosing to settle there.

While Mom never lived to see this book finally published, she knew that I was working on it in her last days. I’m so thankful that she shared her rich family history with me. Quite a few of the family stories she told me were included in my book.

Here’s what the back cover blurb says:

In 1893, on the eve of the great race for land, Benjamin David prays for God to guide him to his ‘Promised Land. Finding property and preaching to the lost are his only ways of honoring his deceased fiancée. He hasn’t counted on Elmer (Elsie) Smith claiming the same plot and refusing to leave. Not only is she a burr in his side, but she is full of the homesteading know-how he is sadly lacking.

Obtaining a claim in the Cherokee Strip Land Run is Elsie Smith’s only hope for survival, and not just any plot, she has a specific one in mind. The land’s not only a way to honor her pa and his life, but also to provide a livelihood for herself. She’s willing to put in whatever it takes to get that piece of property, and Elsie’s determined to keep it.

Her bitterness is what protects her, and she has no intentions of allowing that preacher to lay claim to her land . . . or her heart.

Here’s the first scene:

Chapter One

Competition should be relegated to the male species. Proper young ladies should avoid a situation which permits rivalry, particularly involving the male species. If unavoidable, allow the gentleman to win. Be above reproach in this manner.

Mrs. Wigglesworth’s Essential Guide to Proper Etiquette and Manners of Refined Society

 

September 15, 1893, Kiowa, Kansas—Border of the Cherokee Strip

“Elmer Smith?”

For once in all of her days, Elsie welcomed the name Pa had insisted on when her life began and Ma’s had ended.

“Is that you, son?”

“Ain’t your son.” Ain’t no one’s son. Elsie shifted her Stetson lower to ward off the man’s scrutiny.

“There’s no need to get your prickles up. Do you testify you’re at least twenty-one years of age and head of your household?”

Elsie nodded and bit back a retort.

“Then sign here.” The man shoved a paper across the makeshift desk. Beads of moisture dotted his upper lip.

She scrawled her name on the line. The page crinkled when she folded and shoved it into her shirt pocket, along with the copy of The Homestead Laws and Pa’s hand-drawn map.

“Get out of the way, kid.” A scraggly looking fellow jabbed into her shoulder.

Elsie stepped out of line, glaring at him. He ignored her and turned his attention to the clerk.

She elbowed through a crowd of men. How had her small town swelled to so many folks? Thankfully there were few she recognized, or, more so, who could recognize her. The less who knew her gender, the better. She certainly didn’t need no man to help her get the land she and Pa had dreamed about.

Elsie scooted her hat up and swiped at the sweat on her forehead before dropping it back into place, scrunching the thick braid she’d pinned up three days prior. Hefting her saddlebags to her opposite shoulder, she hiked the short distance to the livery and retrieved Buster. A short ride would clear her head and prepare her for what lay ahead.

Dust swirled and nearly choked Elsie as she rode in the opposite direction of the throngs, to see the old farm one last time.

Acrid smoke filled her lungs. Nearby fires, to deter Sooners from entering the strip before the race began, burned in the west, but not out of control.

Elsie urged Buster, careful not to tire him. Everything hinged on finding the land tomorrow.

Everything.

 

At the beginning of each chapter I created advice from a Mrs. Wigglesworth. Of course, most of my characters do the complete opposite. ☺ Because I’ve had such positive feedback in regard to these sayings, I created an ebook of her quips. I’ll be giving away a copy of it as well as an ecopy of To Claim Her Heart, so be sure click on the Rafflecopter link below to enter to win.

the Rafflecopter

And now, Jodie has a question for the readers: What time period/historical event draws your attention?

Want to read more about Jodie’s books? Go to Amazon where you can find To Claim Her Heart and Mrs. Wigglesworth’s Essential Guide to Proper Etiquette and Manners of Refined Society

Thanks for coming by today. Please come back every day for a chance to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway (link above) and win books from these six authors: Carole Brown, Catherine Castle, Linda Matchett, Amber Schamel, Terri Wangard, and Jodie Wolfe.

About the Author:

Jodie Wolfe creates novels where hope and quirky meet. The power of story to influence lives and change hearts is what motivates her to weave tales that tell of the Savior’s faithfulness and forgiveness. She’s been a semi-finalist and finalist in various writing contests and is a member of ACFW and RWA. When not writing she enjoys spending time with her husband in Pennsylvania, reading, walking, and being a Grammie. Learn more at www.jodiewolfe.com.

You can also connect with Jodie at any of these sites.

Website: Facebook: Twitter: Pinterest: Goodreads:

 

 

 

Tuesday Wedding Tales–Exposing Love by Christina Rich

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Behind the Scenes of Exposing Love, book excerpt from Exposing Love, Catherine Castle's Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series, Christina Rich, contemporary inspirational romance, Exposing Love, multi-author ebook giveaway, Sweet romance, Trying Out for Love boxed set

Welcome to Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series, where wedding themed stories are the fare.

 

It’s the final week in the Trying Out for Love promo and giveaway. For the past six weeks, week readers have been able to enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post’s book excerpt for a chance to win one of six books in the Trying Out for Love boxed set or the complete boxed set of six books. Seven chances and seven winners! Be sure to read to the end of the post for an excerpt of Exposing Love and enter the Rafflecopter for your chance at a free ebook. To see the list of books in the Rafflecopter just click on the circles below the entry box and you can scroll through the book titles.

 

Today’s featured book in the boxed set is Exposing Love, by Christina Rich. I think you’ll find her take on the bridesmaid auction an interesting one, and maybe even a bit personal for Christina. It’s been a lot of fun sharing how each of us got to our very different book plots from a single idea. We hope you all have enjoyed reading about our writing journeys in these books as much as we enjoyed writing them and sharing with you all.

Good luck to everyone who entered the Rafflecopter, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway and pass the word along to your friends about the great prizes!

 

Behind the Scenes of Exposing Love

By Christina Rich

 

I’m an amateur photographer, working toward become a professional photographer, so it was only natural that my heroine, Mia Collins would be a photographer longing for that one chance at stardom, but this story wasn’t inspired by my love for photography. It actually came out of an incident that happened a few years ago when we tried to begin a church in a small art district in my town. We started renovations on a building, and did quite a bit of work, but our future neighbors were not too happy about a church being in their midst. I decided to give my heroine’s grandparents a happier ending in their urban church.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Exposing Love

By Christina Rich

Mia Collins has been running from love since her first broken engagement with her high school sweetheart, nearly ten years ago, but after being dumped by her former boss and losing her job as one of New York’s sought after wedding photographers, she finds herself back home and in the middle of a wedding photographer auction for a former friend where the one man she’s never been able to extract from her heart is one of her subjects.

Gavin McHugh doesn’t regret choosing the Marines over marrying his first love, not even now with injuries from combat. He does regret how he treated her after their reunion two years before when they nearly died after a tandem jump and with her back in town and one of the finalists for his cousin’s wedding photographer auction, he’s going to do everything he can to mend the damage he’s done and win back her heart.

Exposing Love Excerpt

 

“What are you doing here?”

“You wouldn’t answer your phone.” One corner of his mouth turned upward. “Looks like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

She growled. “I think that is my prerogative to not answer if I don’t want to.”

“So, you were screening your calls?”

“I would have had to look at my phone to do that.” She filled the kettle, set it on the burner, and crossed her arms in front of her.

“You missed lunch with Colleen.”

“Lunch?” She glanced at the clock. How had she slept passed three in the afternoon? Because she’d been up half the night trying to convince herself to back out of the competition. She spent the other half watching every sappy romance movie she could find on the movie channel and bawling her eyes out.

“The meal most people have midday.”

“I know what it is. I didn’t know I had a lunch date with her.”

“If you would have answered your phone you would have.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “She is going to announce the top three winners tomorrow, but she wanted to talk to you first.”

“About?”

“If I’m going on assumptions, to know if you’re going to finish this out, or quit.”

“I’m not a quitter.”

“No, you’re not, Mia.” He rose from the chair. The top of his head mere inches from the low basement ceiling.

She wanted to move closer, to crane her neck as he glanced down at her. She wanted to feel his warmth and his strength. She wanted to tell him that she loved him. She wanted to throw her coffee mug at his hard head and knock some sense into him. “Are you asking me to quit?”

“Not at all.” Gavin leaned across the counter and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. She jerked from his touch, but not before it sent old feelings for him spiraling through her blood stream. “I’m asking you to win.”

“Why? Why would you do that?”

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

Want to read more? Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win the book. No purchase necessary. Or if you can’t wait, Exposing Love is available on Amazon. Winners will be announced next week, February 20, at the end of the Trying Out for Love author guest posts. Remember, all six authors are giving away an ecopy of their book in the series. A boxed set of Trying Out for Love is also in the giveaway. Seven chances and seven winners! Click on the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win. Remember to scroll through the titles on Rafflecopter, using the circles below the title boxes, to see all the giveaway book titles.

Enter Rafflecopter Giveaway by clicking box below:

 

About the Author:

A mother of four children and a grandmother of one, Christina Rich is a romance author with Love Inspired Historical and Forget Me Not Romances, a speaker, a photographer, and painter.

You can connect with her on Facebook at Author Christina Rich, Twitter @Christinainspy, Instagram at inspyscribe, or at threefoldstrand.com

 

 

Tuesday Wedding Tales–The Matchmaking Wedding Planner by Bonnie Engstrom

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Bonnie Engstrom, book excerpt from The Matchmaking Wedding Planner, Bridezilla fiction, Catherine Castle's Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series, contemporary inspirational romance, multi-author ebook giveaway, The Matchmaking Wedding Planner, Trying Out for Love boxed set

Welcome to Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series, where wedding themed stories are the fare.

 

It’s week five in the Trying Out for Love promo and giveaway. Each week readers can enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post’s book excerpt for a chance to win one of six books in the Trying Out for Love boxed set or the complete boxed set of six books. Seven chances and seven winners! Be sure to read to the end of the post for an excerpt of The Matchmaking Wedding Planner and enter the Rafflecopter for your chance at a free ebook. To see the list of books in the Rafflecopter just click on the circles in the entry box and you can scroll through the book titles.

Today’s featured book in the boxed set is The Matchmaking Wedding Planner

I’m pleased to introduce Bonnie Engstrom, the woman who started this whole crazy bridezilla/bridesmaid bidding journey. Bonnie was the one who sent the original news story about the bridezilla’s bridesmaid auction to the ACFW email loop. This bizarre story made the rounds on social media, garnered a lot of social media comments, and provided loads of inspiration for six authors. Thanks for an interesting writing journey, Bonnie, and some great story ideas. It’s been a lot of fun!

Behind the Story

By Bonnie Engstrom

I love, love, love weddings! Almost all of my books have one, and I’ve always been fascinated by all the details and frou-frou that they require. Designing a wedding is like producing a play, hopefully an award-winning one. Almost twenty years ago while “producing” my daughter’s wedding, I became close friends with her wedding coordinator, Jill. I learned so much from Jill and admired her expertise. Thus, Jill has become a fictitious character in many of my books, but she’s never had a story of her own . . . until now. I think she handles the crazy bride situation with aplomb in difficult circumstances, and I hope you do, too. Look for more Jill stories in the future.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

The Matchmaking Wedding Planner

By Bonnie Engstrom

What’s a wedding coordinator to do with a crazy bride?

Jill Spooner is the ultimate wedding planner, a role she loves . . . until the Trumble wedding. She’s been in her wedding coordinating business, Divine Weddings, for over twenty years, but she’s never encountered a situation like this one. Nor, a bride like this one. She had privately nicknamed Jessica the bride a “spoiled brat” for insisting on having an auction to fulfill her bridesmaid spots. With the bids starting in the hundreds, she wonders if anyone will show up.

When her niece Lizzie and her friend Carolyn drive from Scottsdale to Newport Beach to participate in the auction, mostly for the fun of it, Jill predicts one of them will win the Maid of Honor spot. They even devise a dress up scheme based on the bride’s idea of a storybook wedding. It works well, until Carolyn raises her bidding paddle.

Lizzie’s love struck friend Brad shows up in Newport Beach to court her. Jill helps him with a plan, but what to do with Carolyn while he romances Lizzie? Suddenly she’s a matchmaker, and a problem solver for the wedding party. None of that was in her contract. Fortunately, as an experienced consultant, she pulls ideas and answers out of her sleeve when shocking love secrets are revealed. Who really loves whom? Was Jessica the bride-to-be lying? What about her twin brother’s college roommate? Thank goodness Jill took an iron-clad, non-refundable deposit from the Trumbles. She will earn every dollar as the wedding coordinator in captivity. She is almost ready to give up the wedding coordinating business when her matchmaking proves fruitful. Suddenly, she finds herself planning two more weddings that take her out of her element, and out of state. Will she be able to pull them off? Maybe she should start a matchmaking business.

Excerpt:

“This is the most ridiculous wedding I’ve ever coordinated.” Jill Spooner flared her nostrils, scrunched up her nose trying to ignore the age lines, and pursed her lips. Agh. More wrinkles. “What is the point of hiring Divine Weddings and me when she doesn’t even have attendants? Stupid girl, stupid wedding.” Jill looked in the mirror and glared at her image. “Fortunately, I have the huge, non-refundable deposit,” she mumbled to the woman in the reflection trying to ignore the lines around her eyes and lips. After all, they were lines earned.

“I can’t wait for the auction. Wonder if anyone will show up? I know Lizzie and Carolyn will be there tomorrow. I wonder what characters they decided to play.”

She tweezed a stray gray hair on her left eyebrow and made a face in the glass. “Guess I will have the ‘privilege,’ as Margaret Trumble the bride’s mother called it, to open the responses and make a list. At least I will know what to expect. Will two show up? Or two hundred?” She put the tweezers back in her little makeup bag, shoved the pink pouch in her enormous utilitarian purse and slung it over her shoulder just as her cellphone chimed The Wedding March. What was her niece Lizzie calling her about? Hopefully, the girls hadn’t had any trouble on the drive from Arizona to California.

She pressed the green dot on her phone to hear boisterous laughter. “I hope you remembered to get gas, Liz. The desert can be lonely if you run out and get stuck.”

“Hi, Aunt Jill,” Lizzie yelled. “We are halfway there. Yes, we have lots of gas.”

She was relieved they were simply checking in and had just crossed the state border. The silly girls were singing “California here we come from our Arizona slum,” giggle. “Newport Beach for all your glare, we will show you we don’t care.” Then there was something about a dare, but reception had faded, and Jill couldn’t hear the rest of the frivolity, so she hung up as her phone chimed again. She was running late so she stuffed the phone in the special pocket of her brown purse.

The call was from another Arizona number, one she didn’t recognize. “Wonder who?” she mouthed. She would answer that call later, especially if the person left a voicemail.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Want to read more? Enter the Rafflecopter for your chance to win the book. No purchase necessary. Or if you can’t wait, The Matchmaking Wedding Planner is available on Amazon. Winners will be announced February 20 at the end of the Trying Out for Love author guest posts. Remember, all six authors are giving away an ecopy of their book in the series. A boxed set of Trying Out for Love is also in the giveaway. Seven chances and seven winners! Click on the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win. Remember to scroll through the titles on Rafflecopter, using the circles in the entry box, to see all the giveaway book titles,

 

Enter Rafflecopter Giveaway by clicking box below:

 

About the Author:

Bonnie Engstrom is a multi-published author of contemporary Christian romance. She is also a multi-grandma with six blessings. Four of her grandchildren, including twins, live a stone’s throw from her and her psychologist husband Dave. Two live in Costa Rica – Pura Vida – where they surf, even at seven and nine, thanks to lessons from their surfing teacher dad.

 

When she and Grandpa Dave aren’t taking the Arizona kids to gymnastics, chess tournaments, riding lessons and watching soccer games, she moderates two online prayer chains. They reside on a lagoon where Canada geese flourish every winter, and sometimes a snowy egret. Their two rescued mutts, Sam and Lola, love to chase the geese. Well, Sam does, but even though scruffy Lola is the bossy one, she doesn’t understand the chase part. She still doesn’t know she’s on the cover of the latest book in The Candy Cane Girls Series, Melanie’s Blue Skirt. Won’t she be surprised!

Bonnie is a long time member of American Christian Fiction Writers and a Pro member of Romance Writers of America.

Visit Bonnie’s website http://www.bonnieengstrom.com/ to see all the grandkids and sign up for her newsletter Life On The Lake.

She loves to hear from readers, so be sure to email her at bengstrom@hotmail.com with BOOK in the subject line.

You can see her books and the collections she is in at http://amzn.to/2CVT8Mc. All her books are available on Amazon.

 

 

Tuesday Wedding Tales—Bidding on the Bouquet by Catherine Castle

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author Catherine Castle, Bidding on the Bouquet, Christian romance, ebook giveaway, Inspirational romance, multi-author ebook giveaway, Sweet romance, Trying Out for Love boxed set, Tuesday Wedding Tales, Wedding Themed Romances

Welcome to Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series, where wedding themed stories are the fare.

It’s week two in the Trying Out for Love promo and giveaway. Each week readers can enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post’s book excerpt for a chance to win one of six books in the Trying Out for Love boxed set or the complete boxed set of six books. Seven chances and seven winners! Be sure to read to the end of the post for an excerpt of Bidding on the Bouquet and enter the Rafflecopter for your chance at a free ebook.

Today’s featured book in the boxed set is Bidding on the Bouquet, by Catherine Castle.

As I mentioned last week, this whole series began with a bridezilla news article. If you’ve ever watched any reality television and seen some of the bridezilla stories, you think of brides behaving badly—divas who think of no one but themselves, wedding dress disasters, wedding venue disasters and much more. But I’d never heard of this kind of bridezilla—a woman, marrying a rich man, who decided to make her bridesmaids bid for spots in her wedding party. The story struck a creative chord in several of the authors who read the article and who then took up the challenge to write a book using this story starter. And we all had some very interesting twists on the original story.

 

To Bid or Not to Bid—That is the Question

To bid or not to bid was a question a number of the real-life ladies, including the bride’s sister, must have asked themselves when they found out about bridezilla’s bridesmaid auction. By the way, the real bridezilla’s sister chose not to bid.

To bid or not to bid was also the question my heroine, down-on-her-luck grad student Marietta Wilson, briefly asked herself when she received an invitation, out of the blue, to “buy” a bridesmaid’s spot in a wedding for a girl she hardly knew.

Marietta thought that one-hundred dollars to reserve a spot to bid, and then spend who knows how much more money, was a waste of resources that could be put to better use.

But my bridezilla had a very special inducement for her bridesmaids. One of them would not only get a coveted spot in the wedding of the year, but a chance to catch the bridal bouquet containing a solid gold rose nestled among the flowers. Who could resist that? Obviously not my heroine, otherwise there’d be no story.

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

Bidding on the Bouquet

By Catherine Castle

 

Two people from different social classes.

Two different philosophies.

One bridal bouquet to unite them.

 

Excerpt

 

You are invited to participate in the season’s most prestigious event.

Date: June 17

Time: 1:00 p.m.

Place: The Vandermere Estate

Event: The auction of bridesmaids’ positions for Chrissy Vandermere’s wedding

Light refreshments will be served

℘

Chrissy is auctioning off a chance to be an attendant in her wedding.

Winners will be escorted down the aisle by New York’s finest bachelors,

and they will procure a bridesmaid-only spot at the tossing of the bride’s bouquet event.

Chrissy guarantees one of the bridesmaids will catch the bouquet,

containing a solid 14-carat rose-gold flower.

℘

Opening bids begin at $100 and are non-refundable. Cash only.

You may make an opening bid higher than $100 if you choose.

Please RSVP by April 30

 

Marietta dug into the envelope again and retrieved a smaller card and matching envelope.

 

I, ________________________, will be pleased to attend the auction.

My opening bid is $_______

Should I win a spot, I will be available on August 9

to be part of the wedding party

for Chrissy Vandermere

and

Jock Sterlingson

 

Stunned, Marietta reread the invitation. Chrissy Vandermere? The only Vandermere she knew was her wealthy classmate Chip Vandermere, and they weren’t on real talking terms. Nor did they run in the same circles. They only had a few of the same classes and a couple of case studies together in which he had commandeered the group. The guy thought himself a born, or rather a privileged, leader. His attitude had driven her nuts, and, although he was one hot guy who knew he had undeniable sex appeal, she’d stayed away from him as much as she could. She was at the MBA program to learn and conquer, not be someone’s conquest.

Is he related to this Chrissy?

If so, the whole auction idea was totally insane. Chip Vandermere had so much money he could afford to pay bridesmaids to be in a wedding. No need to auction off the spots. Besides, why should anyone spend money to be in her wedding—or any wedding for that matter? And why had the bride invited her to participate? Even though she’d spent the last six years at an elite private college, she didn’t hang around with the sort of people who had money to throw away on frivolous things such as bridesmaid auctions. She’d spent her undergrad and postgrad years nose-to-the-grindstone, studying and pinching her pennies.

Then she remembered. As a college senior, she had contact with a Chrissy, a rich, air-headed girl, who talked of nothing but herself. She’d never mentioned having siblings. The beautiful, but not-very-bright, student, had asked Marietta to help her pass an exam—and not in the study-hard-so-you-can-pass way. She’d refused, convincing Chrissy to join the study group instead. Chrissy got a D plus, but she’d at least done it honestly. Marietta wasn’t certain the rich debutante had appreciated being spared the indignity of cheating. But if the Chrissy she knew was this Chrissy Vandermere, and if she remembered who she was after two years and invited her to bid on her bouquet, maybe she’d learned a lesson.

Then again, maybe not. Maybe taunting her with the idea she might win something of great value—a 14-carat rose-gold flower—was some sort of joke.

The time the two of them spent together, however, hadn’t been rosy. When she wasn’t trying to cram knowledge into Chrissy’s bubble head, Marietta continually dodged the girl’s questions about her background. She had tried to keep all conversation focused on learning. Chrissy, however, kept pressing for information: how did Marietta get into the elite-of-elite private college where everyone knew everyone else, where did she come from, and why didn’t she ever go out with the rest of the group? The simple truth was, unlike her other classmates, Marietta came from such a dirt poor, dysfunctional, crooked family that if anyone knew her real background they would ostracize her even more. Ducking the questions hadn’t satisfied Chrissy, forcing Marietta to leave the group to keep from being outted as a pretender and fake. Someone who didn’t belong in the exclusive circles of the rich.

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Want to read more? Enter the Rafflecopter for your chance to win the book. No purchase necessary. Or if you can’t wait, Bidding on the Bouquet is available on Amazon. Winners will be announced February 20 at the end of the Trying Out for Love author guest posts. Remember, all six authors are giving away an ecopy of their book in the series. A boxed set of Trying Out for Love is also in the giveaway. Seven chances and seven winners! Click on the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catherine Castle is a multi-award-winning author who loves writing, reading, traveling, singing, watching movies, and the theatre. In the winter she quilts and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place is in her garden. She’s a passionate gardener who won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club.

 

Her debut inspiration romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing was an ACFW Genesis Finalist, a 2014 EPIC finalist, and the winner of the 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award and the 2014 RONE Award. A Groom for Mama, is a sweet romantic comedy from Soul Mate Publishing. Her latest release, Bidding on the Bouquet, from Forget Me Not Romances, is an inspirational contemporary romance. Her books are available on Amazon.

Connect with Catherine at her website  Twitter @AuthorCCastle or Facebook