Monday, March 16, 2015

Bon Appetit and a Book: Harlequin March Authors


Bon Appétit and a Book: A delicious recipe of your choice to enjoy alongside the book

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/shortbread-cookies-recipe.html 

Shortbread cookies.
They're so easy to make, and they’re perfect with a cup of Irish tea and a book.

Song Playlist: I usually have an odd mix for a book’s playlist, mainly because I’m writing anything from a love scene to a shootout. Here’s the playlist for The Deputy’s Redemption

All I Want Is You—U2
Different Drum—The Stone Poneys
Welcome to the Jungle—Guns N Roses
You’re the One—Dwight Yocum
Flesh and Blood—Johnny Cash
Take Me to Church—Hozier

Love Lessons Learned: Real life romance lessons learned from the book
Finding and keeping love is hard work but worth it when you’re with the right person.

Movie Star Cast:
A less buffed up Charlie Hunnam for Colt
Natalie Portman for Elise




Bon Appétit and a Book: There's something warm and homey about a couple of yummy cookies and a cup of hot tea. Add a good book, and it's the perfect way to spend a dreary afternoon or a cold night. My all-time favorite cookie is as easy to make as it is delicious. Even better, it's a six ingredient cookie! Quick, simple and delicious!

Mexican Tea Cake Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp . vanilla
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cups finely chopped pecans
extra powdered sugar
Mix butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour and salt. Stir in pecans.
Chill dough for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350.
Roll dough into one inch balls and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. While cookies are still warm, roll them in the extra powdered sugar.
If you can, let them cool before eating.
If you can't, grab your book, your tea or coffee, find a comfy chair and enjoy!

Love Lesson Learned:

Cassie and Gavin aren't looking for love. They don't even want it. Sometimes, though, what we aren't looking for has a way of finding us. As I wrote PROTECTION DETAIL, I was reminded to keep my mind open and my heart ready. Even for someone who has been married for twenty-one years, these are important things. It is so easy to miss opportunities to show love to the ones who matter most. While we're living our busy lives, we can miss what is right in front of our noses and take for granted the things that we should cherish. Writing PROTECTION DETAIL reminded of how fleeting life can be, how quickly time passes and how important it is to express my love and appreciation to my husband. Not in big and grand ways, but in small ways, in gestures of compassion and tenderness that I sometimes forget to offer, I can build on the bond we already have and strengthen the foundation we laid years ago.

Songs:
What Faith Can Do, Kutless
Worn, Tenth Avenue North
I Need a Hero, Bonnie Tyler
Song for a Winter’s Night, Gordon Lightfoot
Make You Feel My Love, Adele
This is My Now, Jordin Sparks
Revelation, Third Day
Safe, Natalie Grant
Hero, Mariah Carey









Friday, March 13, 2015

Dangerous Birthright by Margaret Tanner



Sequel to Falsely Accused
BLURB:
Can an English aristocrat go against society and marry the daughter of convicts?
While helping Johnny Dawson escape from prison, Georgina meets and falls in love with a dashing English aristocrat, the Honourable Marcus Lindquist.
When the young outlaw is ambushed and killed, Marcus finally finds out what it is that binds Johnny and Georgina together.
Meanwhile, in England, Earl Darrington is plotting Georgina’s death to keep his dark secrets from ever seeing the light of day. Will Marcus be able to save her?
EXCERPT:
The Honorable Marcus Lindquist cursed inwardly as another bump almost unseated him. What did this idiot of a driver think he was doing? Bloody half-witted colonial. He had been forced to leave England to save the Lindquist name from being dragged further into disrepute, now he was exiled in this Godforsaken penal colony. Australia was only fit for convicts, whores and destitute immigrants.
Sylvia had ruined his life. She had betrayed him. Cast him aside to marry the heir to a Dukedom. He was starting to think about marriage and settling down to produce heirs, when he had met and become infatuated with Lady Sylvia Hayworth. The thought of her full lips and lush, ripe body being given to another man almost destroyed him.
“Youse have to stay the night here.” Their uncouth driver poked his head through the coach window. “Too late to travel on the road now.”
“Road!” Marcus bit off an oath. Is that what they called it? Rutted track seemed more appropriate. He felt bruised and battered as he stepped stiffly from the coach and waited for the other occupants to alight.
He stamped his feet to get his circulation moving again after eight hours in the cramped coach. They had stopped only to eat and change the horses; now he was forced to spend the night in some revolting, bug-infested tavern, undoubtedly run by villainous riff raff.
Automatically, he offered his hand to help a middle-aged lady alight. A good night’s sleep would help. The voyage out from England had been nothing short of a bloody nightmare. Still, it did have a few lighter moments, including a troupe of eight painted, but pretty chorus girls who had kept him entertained.
“This way.” The driver took charge of the lady’s bag, leaving Marcus to pick up his own.
The roadside tavern looked anything but impressive, although the light spilling out on to the verandah offered some reassurance. A large, fat fellow in grubby trousers met them at the door, and Marcus shuddered with distaste. Fastidious in his own habits, if this oaf’s appearance was anything to go by, he teetered on the brink of a hideous nightmare. Their driver, having dumped them like pieces of flotsam, disappeared without a word. Not even bothering to hide his disdain, Marcus stepped across the threshold.
Margaret Tanner is an award winning Australian author who writes historical romance for Books We Love.