Category: giveaway

Book Blitz & Giveaway: The Gentleman’s Promise by Frances Fowlkes

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About the Book

A social pariah due to her scandalous activities, Lady Sarah Beauchamp yearns for redemption to obtain a husband. The assistance of Society darling Mr. Jonathon Annesley gives her hope of success. However, the more effort he puts into helping her, the more she realizes the only esteem she wishes to earn is that of the handsome Jonathon. However, her reputation would potentially ruin his political aspirations.

Offering a gentleman’s promise to help his sister’s friend regain the favor of the ton should be easy for son of a viscount, Jonathon Annesley. After all, he’s well liked and considered a rising star in Parliament. Until he learns Sarah’s ultimate goal is a husband. No man is good enough and could ever appreciate her for all she is. But she is not for him—his focus rests solely on gaining reforms for society’s weakest members. Yet, a promise made cannot be broken…

Find The Gentleman’s Promise on Goodreads

Book Facts

  • Publisher: Entangled Publishing
  • No. of pages:
  • Publication date: 17th April 2017
  • Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Adult

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*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

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Excerpt from The Gentleman’s Promise (Daughters of Amhurst #3)

“Come now, Sarah. We are well acquainted enough to know when the other is hiding something. Why not confess to your choice of literature? I know this to be a ruse,” he said, waving the book on trees. “And your real choice to be hiding behind the pillow. When have I ever criticized your taste in books? I would never do you the dishonour of disparaging your selection. If you’re reading a Gothic novel or a…a book of Lord Byron’s poems, I will not think less of you.”

Her heart swelled. His candour and implicit trust in her was one of the things she loved most about him. That he would not condemn her for her oddities or interests made her love him all the more. She was attracted to him physically, yes, but his heart and kindness affixed him permanently on her heart.

Did he harbour similar affections for her? Ones that went beyond their friendship and into the realm of…of love?

“I-I-I” she stuttered, unable to speak through the barrier of her emotions.

He leaned toward her, further incapacitating her. She could hardly breathe through it all, his nearness numbing her brain and inhibiting all functions. He experienced no such diversions and easily plucked the book out from its hiding spot.

“What are you reading today?” he asked, as he perused the cover. “A bit of Yeats?” His eyes widened as he opened the book to the chapter on graphically detailed pleasure positions.

She was going to die of abject humiliation. She was certain of it. Mortification would kill her. Now.

“This isn’t Yeats,” he whispered. His gaze lifted from the pages and bored into hers. “How much of this have you read?”

She glanced down at her hands, which she clasped together. “All of it. This is not my first reading.”

He let out a breath. “Does anyone else…know?”

“That I read ancient Indian texts?” she asked, still avoiding his gaze. “You are the first to discover my unusual reading selections.”

“Sarah…” He touched his fingers to her ankle, wrapping them around her and squeezing. “Look at me.”

“So you can lecture me on my indecent behavior?”

“So I can ask if you have any questions.” His hand remained on her ankle, warming her skin through her stocking.

Her gaze lifted. “You are not disappointed in me?”

A low chuckled rumbled in his chest. “On the contrary. I’m very interested in your thoughts on the subject.”

“And were I to share them?” she asked. “Would you think less of me?”

“Never.”

WinGiveaway

To be in with a chance to win one of the following prizes, enter the giveaway by clicking here  

  • ebooks of the first & second books in the series – The Earl’s New Bride & To Win a Viscount
  • $20 Amazon gift card

 

The giveaway (INTL) runs until 27th April 2017.

FrancesFowlkesAbout the Author

After viewing her all-time favourite love story, Anne of Green Gables, at the impressionable age of ten, Frances Fowlkes has been obsessed with affable boy-next door heroes, red-heads, and romance stories with lots of “highfaluting mumbo jumbo” written within their pages. It only seems natural then that she married the boy who used to pull on her curls in her high school English class, had not one, but THREE red-headed boys, and penned multiple love stories with bits of flowery prose.

When not writing, Frances loves spending time with her family, fangirling, and planning her next vacation. Originally a northern mid-westerner, she now lives in the southeast with her ardent hero of a husband, three playful and rambunctious boys, and one spoiled standard poodle. A self-professed Anglophile and summa cum laude graduate of LeTourneau University, Frances Fowlkes combines her passion for happily-ever-afters with her interests in both American and English histories.

Connect with Frances

Twitter https://twitter.com/francesfowlkes
Website http://www.francesfowlkes.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/francesfowlkes.author
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8145738.Frances_Fowlkes

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Blog Tour/Giveaway: Across Great Divides by Monique Roy

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I am delighted to be today’s host on the blog tour of Across Great Divides by Monique Roy and to bring you my review of this powerful story of one family’s struggle for a place to call home.

Two lucky people will receive a digital copy of Across Great Divides, courtesy of the author.  To be in with a chance of winning, click on this link to enter the giveaway… http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/bf633057115/?

DividesAbout the Book

Across Great Divides is a timeless World War II story of the upheavals of war, the power of family and the resiliency of human spirit. When Hitler comes to power in 1933, one Jewish family refuses to be destroyed and defies the Nazis only to come up against another struggle—confronting Apartheid in South Africa.

As Jews, life becomes increasingly difficult for identical twin sisters Eva and Inge under the oppressive and anti-Semitic laws of Nazi Germany. After witnessing the horrors of Kristallnacht, they flee their beloved homeland, finally finding a new home for themselves in the beautiful country of South Africa; however, just as things begin to feel safe, their new home becomes caught up in its own battles of bigotry and hate under the National Party’s demand for apartheid. Will Eva and Inge ever be allowed to live in peace? Across Great Divides is a tale of one family’s struggle to survive in a world tainted with hate, and the power of love that held them all together.

Purchase links*
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UK Amazon
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Barnes and Noble

*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

My Review (3.5 out of 5)

As the book opens, the author depicts how life gets increasingly difficult for the family with the rise of Hitler. There are detailed descriptions of events in Berlin such as the book-burning and violence of Kristallnacht. I did feel that one or two sections read more like straight history rather than being illustrated through the experiences of Eva or her family.  The author has clearly undertaken extensive research because as well as a wealth of information about events in Germany there are fascinating details about the diamond cutting and trading business.

Eva and her brother, Max, get the most page time with other members of the family, including Eva’s twin, Inge, more in the background. The unique connection between the twins is explored early on and returned to briefly later but it would have been interesting to have more focus on this.

The family’s struggle to escape from Nazi Germany illustrates the bravery and resourcefulness of those in real life who aided Jews to escape death in the concentration camps but also the opportunity for corruption for those prepared to take advantage of the situation. The family have a number of lucky escapes and are fortunate to have a seemingly unlimited stock of diamonds to ease their passage. One wonders how those without such resources would have fared.

Although powerfully told, I found some of the story lines a little too convenient and there are a couple of coincidences that seem a little far-fetched – along the lines of “of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine” (Casablanca) or, in this case, tent.  However, I really liked the impression the author created of the family’s sense of uprootedness, of feeling no longer welcome somewhere they had considered home and being viewed as a hated “other”.

‘Our home was everything and then we felt like we existed nowhere.  The place where I thought I would live all my life was no longer the place where I could exist at all.’

In the latter section of the book, the author juxtaposes the persecution suffered by Jewish families at the hands of the Nazis with the discrimination meted out to black South Africans through the apartheid system. Of the family, only Max and Eva really seem to see the parallels and some of the responses of other family members are surprising given their own experiences.  The author’s love of South Africa is clear from the wonderful descriptions of the landscape and scenery of Cape Town.

I did enjoy the book and admire the author for attempting to explore some weighty themes.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Neverland Book Tours and the author in return for an honest review.

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MoniqueRoyAbout the Author

Monique was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and her grandparents were European Jews who fled their home as Hitler rose to power. It’s their story that inspired her to write Across Great Divides. She is also the author of a middle-grade book, Once Upon a Time in Venice, and Monique is working on her third novel, which also takes place during the World War II.

Connect with Monique
Website http://www.monique-roy.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/MonWriter1
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AcrossGreatDivides/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/Monique_Roy

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