A race against time – #TimeTravelRomance #RegencyRomance #Giveaway

Blurb

She’s waiting in the past . . . He belongs in the future.

Jared Langley, present-day Duke of Reston, tumbles into an abandoned fountain on his ducal estate and is pelted back in time to the year 1816. There, Reston servants and local villagers think him a dead ringer for his namesake and rakehell ancestor—the seventh Duke of Reston, gone missing at the Battle of Waterloo. Unfortunately, Seven got mixed up with French spies out to assassinate the Duke of Wellington, and an unwary Jared ends up in their crosshairs.

Lady Ariana Hart has loved Jared Langley, the seventh Duke of Reston, since she was twelve years old, until the night the rogue broke her heart. Given up for dead, her rakish neighbor makes a miraculous return from Waterloo. Only Jared shows up a changed man and reignites all the feelings Ariana had long ago buried.

Jared is in a race against time.

His tasks?

Waylay the suspicions of his quirky servants and neighbors

Get to Wellington before the French spies do

Fix his fountain–before Seven shows up–so Jared has a way home

And definitely do not fall in love with the irresistible Lady Ariana...

Excerpt

The library door crashed open, startling them both and sending them a full step back from each other. A flame-haired siren stalked through the door.

Jared had torn free from Lady Wilder, but he gaped guiltily in a frozen stare, incapable and unwilling to break eye contact with the siren who had burst into the library. He wanted to keep staring and lose himself in those amazing emerald green eyes, made even greener by the rich color of her gown.

The young woman was tall and slender, with smooth, sleek curves at her hips and breasts. Strands of red-gold curls had slipped free of her pale-gold bonnet with its sassy emerald-green trim and curled enticingly around her cheeks, marked by two bright flags of color. He felt his own cheeks flush hot when those amazing green eyes shifted downward and spied the traitorous ducal staff in full salute, then snapped back to glare at him.

“I brought your dog,” the flame-haired siren said flatly. “I feared you would forget to come for Harry. He missed you.”

An enormous mass of black fur bounded into the library and sent the squealing Lady Wilder back to Jared’s side. The immense dog promptly knocked them both to the floor.

The siren frowned her displeasure and headed for the chaise to make herself comfortable.

“Get him off! Get him off!”

Lady Wilder’s high-pitched shrieks almost burst Jared’s eardrums. He rolled her off him and reached for the dog’s collar. The massive black hound danced away, totally unaffected by Lady Wilder’s shrieks and slaps, and managed to squeeze in a few sloppy licks between her swings at the dog’s head, which would have been funny if Jared’s ears did not ache.

“Come here, boy!” Jared barked as he scrambled to his feet.

“Don’t you dare hurt him!” the siren shouted.

“You did that on purpose, Ariana! You little witch!” Lady Wilder screamed.

Ariana? What a perfect name for the flame-haired beauty.

“Don’t you yell at me, Lucilla Tartley! I am not responsible for Harry’s lack of taste,” Ariana shot back.

So Lady Wilder was Lucilla. Who was Harry? The dog?

Jared tried the name, and the black dog bounded over to him.

“I am surprised Harry even noticed you, now that Jared’s home,” Ariana told Lucilla.

Jared glanced down and noticed the dog sat patiently at his side, but only because his finger was hooked in the dog’s collar. Good Lord! The canine knew he was not the real Jared—or rather Seven. This could be a problem.

About the Author

Petie spent a large part of her career working at Walt Disney World—"The Most Magical Place on Earth"—where she enjoyed working in the land of fairy tales by day and creating her own romantic fairy tales by night, including her new series, The Cinderella Romances. She eventually said goodbye to her "day" job to write her stories full-time.

These days, Petie spends her time writing new tales for her Cinderella series, her new The Watchers series, sequels to her Regency time-travel series, Lords in Time, and more contemporary romance standalones, along with her two previous releases—Any Fin For Love and Ambush in the Everglades.

Petie shares her home on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee with her horticulturist husband and an opinionated Nanday conure named Sassy who makes a cameo appearance in Christmas Watch, Book 2 of The Watchers series.

Visit Petie at her website, www.petiemccarty.com, to get to know her, learn about her current projects, and discover her other published works.

Social Media Links

http://www.petiemccarty.com

https://www.facebook.com/petie.mccarty

https://x.com/authorpetie

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6094579.Petie_McCarty

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/petie-mccarty

http://www.amazon.com/author/petiemccarty

 

Petie McCarty will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

She’d beaten the blues before – #Triad #EroticRomance #MFRWHooks

Welcome to this week’s MFRW Book Hooks blog hop. If you’re looking for your next romance read, check out the links to all participating authors’ posts, at the end of this one.

My hook today comes from Wild About That Thing, a three-way erotic romance that is available both as a stand-alone title and as part of my boxed set collection Triad, which is free on Kindle Unlimited.

Blurb

There's more than one way to beat the blues

Ruby Jones has clear priorities. Her teenage son comes first, then her struggling blues club. Her love life ranks as a distant third, despite the efforts of Zeke Chambers to convince her otherwise. Zeke's the lead singer in her house band, a devoted friend, and an occasional lover. He can drive her wild with desire, but can't get her to make a commitment. Deserted by her cheating ex-husband, Ruby's determined she's going to make it on her own. She's hot-blooded like her bluesman daddy, happy to satisfy her physical cravings, but she's not about to let any man into her heart.

The stranger who takes the stage on open mike night upsets the delicate balance in Ruby's world. From the moment Ruby sets eyes on him, Remy Saint-Michel inspires irresistible lust and inexplicable sympathy. Confused, guilty and worried about her prized independence, Ruby decides that the only way to deal with the two men is to push them both away. Zeke and Remy, however, have other ideas. 

 

The Hook (Rated R)

Fresh applause greeted Zeke’s invitation. He stood up there on the platform—his hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans jacket, his axe hanging around his neck—and grinned like the country boy he used to be. At six-foot-one, with the solid build of a halfback, Zeke was an imposing figure. He’d broken up more than one drunken brawl for her over the past two years and he had a temper that could be scary. To Ruby and Isaiah, though, he’d been nothing but kind. Whatever success the Crossroads could claim was largely due to him.

“To kick things off tonight, I want to invite a very special lady to join us here on stage. She’s been through some hard times, friends, and she knows the blues. It’s in her blood, passed on from her daddy, Jimmy ‘The Harp’ Jones. When she sings, she spills her soul. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Ruby Jones, the lovely owner of the Crossroads Blues Bar!”

Applause filled the club. Zeke’s invitation hadn’t been a surprise. They’d discussed having her warm up the crowd, and of course, she’d been performing since she was a kid. Nevertheless, his effusive introduction made her feel self-conscious. Ruby wished she’d worn something a bit more glamorous than her usual jeans and tailored shirt.

She picked her way between the tables, headed for the stage. Zeke held out a big hand. When she grasped it, he swung her onto the platform, and quite neatly, into his arms. The crowd roared.

Zeke brushed his lips across hers. His distinctive scent engulfed her—clean sweat, Jim Beam and Ivory Soap. It was like turning on a movie—she instantly remembered the last time he’d been inside her. His blond stubble grazed her cheek. She saw him in her mind’s eye—body suspended above hers on powerful arms while he scanned her face, focused on her pleasure. She wondered if Zeke could smell her growing dampness. Hell, what about the rest of the band?

“Stop it,” she whispered, pushing against his rock-hard chest.

Zeke released her with obvious reluctance. “I love her,” he told the audience, eliciting a chorus of hoots and whistles. Aching, hungry and guilt-ridden, Ruby knew he meant every word.

She smoothed the wrinkles from her blouse, noting in passing the tautness of her nipples, and took a deep breath. “Good evening,” she said into the microphone. As always, the amplified sound of her low alto startled her with its depth and richness. “I’m so glad to see you all. I hope you have a great time—that’s why I’m here, to make that happen if I can. Like Zeke says, the blues is in my blood. I can’t get away from it. I just gotta give in and let it out.”

She turned to nod at Zeke and the other musicians. They picked up the intro to Bessie Smith’s famous lament.

“Once I lived the life of a millionaire,

Spending my money, I didn’t care.

I carried my friends out for a good time,

Buyin’ them bootleg liquor, champagne and wine…”

The audience was as silent as a few dozen folks crammed into a low-ceilinged bar could be. Ruby dug deep and let the pain flow out into her song.

“Nobody knows you when you down and out

In my pocket not one penny

And my friends I haven’t any…”

Zeke and Jojo gave her solid backing, keeping it simple and strong to avoid drawing attention away from her vocals. She didn’t need to think—she’d learned this song at ten years old. She could sing it in her sleep.

She wanted to soar, to turn the sorrow in the piece into some kind of revelation, but worry weighed her down. She couldn’t get her mind off the letter. It was from some fancy uptown law firm, scorn hiding behind politeness. We regret to inform you…

She paused to give Zeke and Jojo their solos, blinking hard in a fight against looming tears. The new owner of the building at 127 Fourteenth Street has expressed an intention to not renew the lease. Two years of her sweat and sacrifice, not to mention every penny she owned, down the drain. Please vacate the premises on or before … The owner will be taking possession… Why did she have nothing but bad luck? Didn’t she deserve some happiness for a change? What was she going to do?

Zeke’s chord change signaled the end of their solos. She nearly missed the cue.

“Mmmmm…when you’re down and out…”

Ruby could feel Zeke gazing at her. If she lifted her head, she knew she’d see surprise and concern on his face. And he’d see the wet gleam in her eyes.

Down and out. Her voice wobbled, vibrating with emotion, as they brought the number to a close. The audience screamed its approval. Ruby bowed and tried to smile. She’d beaten the blues before. She wondered if she had the strength to do it again.

 

You can find buy links for Wild About That Thing at https://www.lisabetsarai.com/wildaboutbook.html

Triad is Amazon-exclusive and free on KU: https://www.amazon.com/Triad-Three-way-Romance-Lisabet-Sarai-ebook/dp/B0DCT7NC8C

Be sure to visit the other authors participating in today’s Book Hooks!

Review Tuesday: The Reluctant Roommate by Cheyenne Blue - #LesbianRomance #Tropes #ReviewTuesday

The Reluctant Roommate by Cheyenne Blue

Ylva Publishing, 2026

When it comes to romance, familiarity trumps novelty. Readers have their favorite tropes and apparently use these to select the books they will buy and read. They are actively looking for well-known themes and plot devices. Indeed, blurbs and marketing graphics these days explicitly highlight the tropes upon which the referenced book relies.

This is a serious challenge for an author. It takes exceptional creativity and consummate skill to craft a story that incorporates the tropes readers seek while still offering at least a few surprises. Tropes tend to turn characters into clichés, but a successful romance requires protagonists that live and breath and make the readers care. We all know that a romance will end happily, but if the writer can’t keep you guessing about the shape of that ending, even the most trope-obsessed reader is going to get bored.

The Reluctant Roommate, the latest lesbian romance from veteran Cheyenne Blue, rises to this challenge. On the surface, it’s a classic opposites attract, forced proximity, ice-queen-meets-earth-mother tale. Morgan Favola is the ultimate type A personality, pouring all her time and energy into her career and avoiding anything, including relationships, that will interfere with the success she’s chasing. Heidi Lincoln is a warm-hearted free spirit, going with the flow and making it up as she goes along. When Morgan is fired from her high-powered job as a financial adviser, economic pressures force her to look for someone to share the expense of maintaining her lavish, perfectly-decorated home. Heidi is barely acceptable as a roommate; her casual approach to life, including kitchen cleanliness, sets Morgan’s teeth on edge—and what about that purple streak in her hair? But at least Heidi is queer-friendly—pansexual according to her own admission—and not too inquisitive about Morgan’s own life.

As soon as Heidi moves in, we know that she and Morgan will eventually fall in love, because that’s the way romance works. Still the path they’ll follow isn’t completely obvious. Ashamed of what she sees as her failure, Morgan pretends that she’s still employed. Heidi struggles to establish herself in her new home town, working at a crappy job while making serious attempts to satisfy Morgan’s exacting standards. Provided with glimpses of both Morgan’s and Heidi’s histories, we start to understand the forces that shaped them both. Morgan is superficially more successful, but she has been raised to hide any sort of weakness. Heidi comes from a background of loving chaos; she’s resilient but whatever survival skills she has, she’s picked up along the way.

Morgan can’t understand how Heidi can be so messy and disorganized. Heidi sees Morgan as a rigid perfectionist. What brings them together, finally, is geography.

Heidi is Australian. After following her American girlfriend to the U.S., she was robbed and betrayed. She ended up in Denver following a job lead that did not pan out.

Morgan has lived in Denver ever since she started her career. She loves the mountains; if she’s honest with herself, she’s also happy to be thousands of miles from her demanding parents.

When her tropic-born roomie is awed by the Rockies or thrilled by the first experience of snow, Morgan feels some vicarious delight. Gradually, the two women begin to explore the mile-high city’s attractions in each other’s company. As they do, they find it more and more difficult to ignore their mutual attraction.

In fact, The Reluctant Roommate is something of a love letter to Colorado. The author talks about her own experience in the state in a preface and you feel her affection for the place in every chapter.

Given the situation in the U.S. right now, I had some sense that this book was looking through rose-colored glasses. On the other hand, we read romance in order to feel good, not to ponder political realities, and this book definitely delivers on that promise. I thoroughly enjoyed The Reluctant Roommate. It’s warm, funny, sexy and satisfying—even for a trope-despising curmudgeon like me.

Charity Sunday: Fighting for our Freedom to Read – #CharitySunday #Censorship #AABB

Welcome to this month’s edition of Charity Sunday. As always, for every comment I receive on a Charity Sunday post, I will make a donation to my selected cause for the month.

In general, I avoid partisan political causes for Charity Sunday, since I know that individuals differ in their opinions. Given that I am an author, however, and that pretty much all of the people who will visit this post are either readers or other authors, I am hoping that my choice today will not be considered controversial.

Today I’m shining the spotlight on AABB – Authors Against Book Bans. This is a coalition of authors and other individuals involved in the publishing industry to oppose censorship. To quote from their website:

We unequivocally support the availability of diverse voices on our library shelves, in our schools, and in our culture. 

 

Despite the rather evangelical tone of their mission statement, the people from AABB are really practical. They keep track of the raft of current efforts, at both the state and federal level in the U.S., to remove “objectionable” or “inappropriate” or “obscene” (etcetera) books from libraries, schools and bookstores. They muster popular support against such laws, talk to legislators and to the public, and generally press for common sense approaches that address parents’ or other individuals’ legitimate concerns while not curtailing the freedoms written into the U.S. Constitution.

One reason I’m supporting AABB today is that my former home state, Massachusetts, just enacted a landmark law that protects freedom to read. I’m very proud, and I want to celebrate.

https://authorsguild.org/news/authors-guild-celebrates-massachusetts-freedom-to-read-law/

So this month I will donate two dollars to AABB for every comment I receive on this post.

Meanwhile, for my excerpt, I have a bit from Damned If You Do, a paranormal romance whose heroine is an erotic romance author. Believe me, Wendy Dennison’s steamy books would definitely be banned by the censorship vigilantes!

Excerpt

Her four dollar cup of Americano, now cold, tasted like muddy pond water. With a bitter sigh, Wendy Dennison, aka romance stalwart Gwen Diamante, iconized her browser and popped up her work in progress. The word count in the bottom status bar accused her of sloth and incompetence. She should know better than to check her sales stats and reviews before she’d produced at least a couple thousand words. Nothing sapped her motivation for writing a new book as much as surveying the tepid response to her last one.

Maybe another coffee would help. Extravagant, yes, but she needed a kick in the butt to get her out of her slump. She signaled to the cute college guy behind the counter, pointing to her cup. “Can I get another hit, Eric?”

The gangly kid grinned at her. “Coming right up, Wendy.” A mass communications major at the University of Pittsburgh, he treated her like minor royalty. Clearly he thought it was the ultimate in cool to be serving a real live published author. If he only knew the truth.

Wendy typed a four line sentence and scowled at her laptop screen. She highlighted the second clause and swapped it with the first. After staring at the page for a few minutes, she hit “Undo”. She turned the first clause into a participle instead, then tried replacing a pronoun with the character’s name. That didn’t really help either.

Eric removed the stale cup to her left and set down a steaming, fragrant mug in its place. “Two sugars, right?”

Still wrestling with her recalcitrant prose, Wendy gave him a cursory nod. Then she realized how impolite that must seem. “You’re a darling. Thanks so much!” The barista pushed his shaggy brown hair off his forehead and beamed at her. Wendy’s black mood brightened a bit.

With pierced earlobes, Black Sabbath tee shirts, and artfully threadbare denims, Eric had a sort of punk sex appeal. Wendy let herself imagine how he’d look naked—all wiry limbs and pale skin, with a bushy nest around his cock, which would be long and slender, like his tall, lanky, not-quite-mature body. Hard, of course. Young guys always were. He’d be willing to wait though, to give her pleasure before taking his own. She saw him kneeling between her spread thighs, wearing a worshipful expression. He leaned in to flick at her clit before running his tongue firmly along the cleft between her swollen lower lips. Oh my God! Did he have a stud embedded in his tongue?

“Can I get you anything else?”

Eric’s voice hauled her back to reality.

“Oh—um— ” Blood heated her cheeks, especially when she realized how damp her panties had become. What was she thinking? He was young enough to be her son!

“We’ve got a special on cream cheese brownies. Two for one.” He lowered his voice to a seductive purr, apparently aware he was tempting her.

Wendy recalled both her financial constraints and her depressingly accurate digital bathroom scale. “I really shouldn’t,” she replied, determined to do the right thing.

“C’mon. You need the energy to fuel your creativity! Eat one now, and take one home for later.”

“Well…” Saliva pooled in her mouth as her resolve wavered. She could always skip dinner. “I did have a salad for lunch…”

“Two sinfully rich double fudge cream cheese brownies, coming up.” Her youthful admirer gave her another grin. “Don’t worry. They’re small.”

She turned back to the computer, scrolling back to read the previous few paragraphs. The tension between her heroine and her hero sizzled, but somehow she couldn’t get them out of flirting mode and into bed together. They resisted her every attempt to move them in the directions prescribed by her outline.

Maybe she should switch genres. Try some sweet romance for a change. Or a cozy mystery. Those seem to be selling pretty well these days.

She knew from experience, though, that she’d never succeed in keeping the sex out of her books. Her imagination naturally flowed in carnal directions. Especially these days, now that Tom was out of her life.

She didn’t miss his company that much, to be honest—just his body. He was a selfish, egotistical ass who in seven years of marriage had never once taken her seriously. He’d always laughed at her “little hobby”, even when she’d quit her day job at the newspaper to write fiction full time. When she’d been named “Romance Author of the Year”, he had dismissed that as a fluke. “It’s lucky I make a good living,” he used to jest. “Without me, you’d be just another starving author.”

Well, he’d been right about that part. The settlement had left her with the house—and the mortgage—while he moved out to California to shack up with his new girlfriend, a well-known cover model who’d been one of his clients. Should have known better than to marry a lawyer, she thought for the umpteenth time. She survived on her royalty checks, but just barely, and was constantly looking for ways to economize. For instance, she worked in this usually quiet coffee shop every afternoon, taking advantage of its free WiFi, so she could cancel the pricey cable package Tom had subscribed to.

Of course, she could give up romance entirely and look for a job. A real job, as Tom would have put it. The notion made her slightly nauseous. Who’d hire a forty-two year old, anyway, a woman who’d been out of the workforce for half a decade?

 

Thank you for visiting! Please do leave a comment. And if you’re tempted to learn more about Wendy, you can find the buy links on my website: https://www.lisabetsarai.com/damnedifyoudobook.html

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Alone, again – #Queer #ScienceFiction #Giveaway

Blurb

Jordan Blue works to survive on the oppressive, corporate colony world, Shoar. A random, near-fatal encounter puts her in the company of Kuvett, a space faring creature of the stars. While Jordan tries to figure out the inscrutable Cosmari, Kuvett sneaks about the dilapidated Outskirts to find out just what happened to the planet, what secrets the impenetrable Meritopolis hides, and why it is there.

Excerpt

“What is, then?” Kuvett challenged her with a hardened stare. “Complete obsequiousness to a faceless, parasitic organization that takes and only takes? Or exchanging your very life for security and the mockery of one?”

Jordan clenched her fists as tears spilled, unafraid of the danger she felt herself in. “That’s easy for you to say. You can fly around anywhere and everywhere. I can’t. I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to.”

Kuvett folded her arms. “Do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Do you really want to leave?” Kuvett inclined her head to the balcony as if to invite Jordan to fly away somewhere else.

“Of course, I do,” Jordan responded as she turned and leaned against the wall beside the doorway, “but I can’t. I just can’t.” Her protests grew more silent as she slid down to the floor and hugged her knees.

With a quiet sigh, Kuvett unfurled herself and floated past Jordan. She looked down, disappointed and agitated. “Then you won’t.”

Jordan peeked through her knees and scowled between tears. “Get out.” Her lip quivered as she turned away, hiding her face behind her arms.

Without another word, Kuvett made her way to the main room. Jordan did not try to stop Kuvett as she opened the doorway to the balcony, leaving the carcass. Jordan closed her eyes and sobbed as the only friend she had made left her alone. Again. 

About the Author

From his youngest days, C.D. Clark has always loved stories and the worlds they could take him to. His writing career began with original, fan-based fiction which led to his passion for writing. Over the past twenty-five years, C.D. Clark has developed his craft, all the while celebrating his successes and reveling in any spectacular failures, using them as learning experiences. Ever eager to learn, he continues leaping towards the future while creating fantastic new worlds and passing along poignant messages through his books. 

Twitter: @CDClarkNovelist

Mastodon: @CDClarkNovelist

Twitch: twitch.tv/bass_prefect

Email: CDClarknovelist@gmail.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/cdclarknovelist

Website: https://www.cdclarknovelist.com/

C.D.Clark will be awarding a digital copy of the book to a randomly drawn winner.

The only woman who can satisfy him – #HistoricalRomance #EnemiesToLovers #MFRWHooks

Happy Wednesday! Welcome to this week’s MFRW Book Hooks blog hop. Today my snippet comets from my historical erotic romance Power and Persuasion. I just signed a contract with WordWooze Publishing to bring out an audio version of this title. They’re a premium publisher – no AI voices for them! I’m looking forward to hearing the results!

Meanwhile you can read a bit of this lively battle-of-wits romance below!

Blurb

She’s his natural enemy – and the only woman who can satisfy him

Billionaire industrialist Andrew MacIntyre commands a vast empire of railroads, mines and mills. Labor activist Olivia Alcott is dedicated to helping the factory workers responsible for Andrew’s wealth. They are natural foes, but with complementary needs: his need to command and hers to surrender.

The Hook

An inspiration seized him then, a stroke of brilliance that would enable him to solve multiple problems at once.

“Olivia, I have a proposition for you.” She did not resist when he led her to the automobile and installed her inside. As he breathed her lilac perfume mingled with her clean sweat, his erection grew more insistent. “There’s to be a ball this weekend at Wavecrest, my house in Newport. My mother has invited what she considers to be the cream of society, including every eligible—that is, single and wealthy—female she can think of. She’s determined to marry me off to one of these creatures, regardless of my wishes.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Her frown of perplexity delighted him. He could practically see the wheels turning in her agile mind as she tried to understand his motives.

“I need an escort, a woman to keep at my side all weekend so I can fend off the advances of all these would-be Mrs. MacInytres. Come back to Newport with me. Spend the weekend. If you do, I’ll seriously consider the question of raising the workers’ salaries.”

Olivia laughed, a bright, clear sound that sent a stab of want to his groin. “Me, a poor professor’s daughter, at a society ball? I’d be as out of place as a Hottentot in the White House! I don’t have the airs and graces of a Rockefeller girl. And what would I wear?” She indicated her dusty brown frock. “I doubt very much this would be appropriate.”

“No one need know who you are—we’ll invent some mysterious identity for you. You can be the illegitimate American child of a Hungarian prince, how’s that? As for clothing, I will supply everything you’ll need.” He gave her luscious body a frank once-over that brought the blush back to her face, to his immense satisfaction. “I suspect your measurements are quite comparable to my sister Ann’s. You could wear one of her dresses. But no, that won’t do—you must be the most resplendent creature at the ball. We’ll stop at Ann’s dressmaker on the way and have you fitted for a new gown. With adequate monetary incentives, I’m sure the dress can be ready by tomorrow evening. We’ll pick up a whole kit for you, tennis and boating outfits, morning attire, underclothes. With jewels to match each ensemble, of course.”

“Mr. MacIntyre, doesn’t the impropriety of what you’re suggesting bother you in the least?”

Her critical tone brought him up short. What would people say about a single young woman, unchaperoned, in Andrew’s constant company? He’d hoped she was less conventional than the women of his regular circle, but, given the importance of reputation, he couldn’t blame her for her concern.

“You’re essentially trying to buy my sympathies, aren’t you?” she continued. “You suppose that if you lavish enough money upon me, I’ll drop my support for the strike and encourage the workers to return to their looms, correct?”

“Not at all—”

“Well, it won’t work. I intend to spend every minute we are together reminding you of the plight of these poor women. I shall work upon your conscience, sir, until you have no choice but to do the right thing.”

“What? Then—you agree? You’ll come to Newport?”

“How could I pass up the opportunity to do so much good?” A smile played at the corners of her compressed lips and Andrew understood that she was teasing him. Yes, she was serious about her cause, but she wanted to join him for other reasons. Hope flared in his chest while desire hardened his loins.

Find all the buy links at https://www.lisabetsarai.com/powerandpersuasionbook.html

Be sure to visit the other authors participating in today’s Book Hooks!

Join us for Charity Saturday, 30 August 2026 #CharitySundaySignup #Altruism #Marketing

Image by jeurey from Pixabay

Since 2017, I’ve been devoting the last Sunday in each month to a post which features some worthy cause. Often, other bloggers join me in this effort, turning the event into a blog hop. This Sunday, August 30th, is our next Charity Sunday.

If you do decide to join me, I hope you’ll download my 2026 banner:

https://www.lisabetsarai.com/2026CharitySundayBanner.jpg

Charity Sunday is a meme designed to give authors and bloggers a chance to give back to the world, as well as to attract new readers.

How does it work? Each participant selects a favorite charity. Before the date, you should prepare a blog post that: 1) talks about the charity and why you support it; 2) provides a link to the charity; 3) includes an excerpt from one of your books; 4) includes the code to show links to other participating blogs.

It’s fun if you can make the excerpt relate somehow to your chosen charity, but this isn’t required.

For every comment left on your post, you commit to giving some amount to the relevant charity. The specific charity and the amount to donate are up to you. You can set an upper limit to your donation if you want.

If you’d like to participate in the next Charity Sunday on August 30th, sign up using the Linky List below. Please be sure that the link you enter will lead directly to your Charity Sunday post, not just to the home page of your blog.

Be sure to use the new Charity Sunday banner!

For an example post, check out this link from my last Charity Sunday.

https://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2026/07/charity-sunday-endangered-at-top-of.html

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