Good Morning,
I'm about tired of the rain, let me tell you! It has rained every day this week and the weather app changed from sunshine through Thursday to cloudy - UGH. My Newsletter went out Thursday. If you haven't signed up for it, please consider doing so. Tempered Truth is a month old now. If you've read the book, please consider leaving a review - THANKS!
Today's guest has visited before, so please welcome Alina K Field with her latest release, Storm & Shelter. Take it away Alina....
The year
2020 was awful in many ways, but there were some bright spots. For me, one of
those was being invited by the Bluestocking Belles, a group of historical
romance authors, to be one of the guest authors in their 2021 story collection.
It was a unique experience, and a great deal of fun, interweaving our stories
and characters into the collection's setting. All of the stories take place in
the fictional Suffolk town of Fenwick on Sea during a "storm of the
century". It is the first week of April 1815, and Napoleon Bonaparte has
just escaped from Elba.
When this opportunity arose, I was in the middle of writing Fated Hearts, my Regency-set retelling of the Macbeth story. Since Fated Hearts was set in London in March 1815, in the middle of the Corn Riots, and in the week that ended with the arrival of news of Bonaparte's escape, the Storm & Shelter project gave me the perfect opportunity for a secondary character's romance.
Blurb
for Storm & Shelter:
When a storm blows off the North Sea and slams into the village of Fenwick on Sea, the villagers prepare for the inevitable: shipwreck, flood, land slips, and stranded travelers. The Queen’s Barque Inn quickly fills with the injured, the devious, and the lonely—lords, ladies, and simple folk; spies, pirates, and smugglers all trapped together. Intrigue crackles through the village, and passion lights up the hotel.
One storm, eight authors, eight heartwarming novellas.
Blurb
for The Comtesse of Midnight:
A
Scottish Earl on a quest for the elusive Comtesse de Fontenay rescues a French
lady smuggler from the surf during a devastating storm, and takes shelter with
her. As the stormy night drags on, he suspects his companion knows the woman
he’s seeking, the one who holds the secret to his identity.
Marielle Plessiers may dress like a boy and go out with the local free traders, but she’s really the Comtesse de Fontenay. She trades in spirits, not secrets, but the information she holds will change Malcolm Comyn’s life forever.
Excerpt:
The Scotsman, however, was dead
on his feet. She could almost feel sorry for him. He was far from home, and had
been traveling for several days. His neckcloth was limp, his cuffs soiled, his
coat wrinkled. His boots, well and carefully crafted, if not by Hoby then by
some equally fashionable bootmaker in Edinburgh, had not been properly polished
in the last few days.
Did he have a razor in his
interesting valise? She wouldn’t molest him, unless he thought to do the same
to her. If it came to that, and she prayed that it wouldn’t, she would use her
own blade and not some unfamiliar shaving instrument.
“Is this one of your imports?”
he asked, swirling the amber liquid. “It’s very good.”
His words stirred her out of her
imaginings about handsome young men, and she realized she must manage the
conversation else she’d slip into sleep, or perhaps something more
inconvenient, without thinking.
The Comte had always succumbed
to sleep when they’d conversed, no matter the topic. She must soothe this
fine-looking and very fatigued man the same way.
Outside, the thunderstorm had
moved on, and the rain pounded in a comforting downpour. With the warm fire,
and the heavy blankets, and the sleeping dog, it was quite cozy.
But what to talk about? Most
certainly not the free trade. It would be far too diverting to put him to
sleep, and besides she had no idea what he would do with the knowledge.
The countryside? She might slip
and drop a hint about her home at Bloodmoor Hill.
She thought back to her time on
the fringes of a London society that she’d found unbearably dull.
The weather.
“I am glad you are enjoying the
brandy,” she said. “But I daresay you are not liking this weather. It is quite
the worst storm in many seasons, people are saying. Normally at this time of
year the sea has quietened.” A lie, of course, but how would he know?
He sipped his drink, eyeing her
over the glass.
Oh. Given that it might remind
him of her activities that evening and spark questions, the sea was an
inappropriate topic, whether or not one was fudging a weather report. “Winters,
however are generally mild.”
He yawned, and she went on,
discussing the number of rainstorms in March and going back to February, and
then January, and making up the story as she went along, until his eyes drooped
and the empty glass fell into his lap and lodged itself next to his fall.
Warmth uncurled in her. His
trousers were tight in the usual fashion for gentlemen, outlining masculine
endowments that sparked her interest far too much. Retrieving the fallen
tumbler was out of the question.
She set down her own glass and fought the urge to join him in slumber.
Storm & Shelter also includes novellas by Jude Knight, Carolyn Warfield, Sherry Ewing, Rue Allyn, Cerise DeLand, Mary Lancaster, and Grace Burrowes.
Buy
Links:
Amazon
US: https://amzn.to/3kgRmLG
Apple
Books: https://apple.co/3lZYHja
Barnes
& Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/storm-shelter-bluestocking-belles/1137958115
Kobo:
https://bit.ly/3o0z977
Google books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Grace_Burrowes_Storm_and_Shelter?id=TNMhEAAAQBAJ
Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/38Rr8w
Website: https://alinakfield.com/
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alina-K.-Field/e/B00DZHWOKY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alinakfield
MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/alinakfield
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlinaKField
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/alina-k-field
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alinak.field/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7173518.Alina_K_Field
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/alinakf/
Great spotlight don't'cha think? I certainly enjoyed it. Thank You, Alina for sharing with us today. We wish you and the other authors involved in this anthology the best of luck and God's blessings.
Until next time, Friends, take care and God bless.
PamT
