The holidays bring people together and inspire romance. What better time for two bestselling authors to team up to bring you both!
This month, Amanda McIntyre and I are joining together to offer you a great price on our Christmas romances. For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can curl up by a crackling fire with Amanda’s brand new release featuring an immigrant’s first Christmas in America, and my #1 bestselling Christmas collection about a mail-order bride and a matchmaking experiment gone awry.
We’re also offering readers the chance to win some great prizes in our special Christmas Romance Raffle. Our way of saying, “Thank you.”
THE PROMISE by Amanda McIntyre
Brady McCormick made a promise to his young wife the day she died—to follow through with their plans to take their son to America and begin a new life in the land of opportunity. Now in New York, living in charity with a distant uncle, barely scraping by, Brady is unsure he will be able to uphold that promise, much less that he will ever be able to quell this loneliness eating him inside.
Saran Reichardt knows that she is unlike most women—headstrong, tenacious, she is dedicated to teaching, believing she has no need of a man to care for her, until an accidental encounter with a stormy-eyed Irish immigrant and his young son changes her perception of what need really is.
What inspired Amanda to write this story?
I’ve always had a passion for taking ordinary characters and placing them in extraordinary circumstances. Whether in my historical or my contemporary romance books, I love watching my characters become the heroes and heroines of their own stories.
In THE PROMISE, I stretched back to my own roots of a Scottish-Irish heritage—Black Irish, my mother called it—and thought of what hope and dreams those living outside America might have had. What would it have been like to sail thousands of miles to a strange land, to come into that bay and see Lady Liberty and read the words at her feet written in 1883 by a native New Yorker, Emma Lazarus.
“…Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Inspired too, by the painting called The Christmas Ship, the story of a young Irish immigrant who’d made a promise to his dying wife to bring their son to America and start a new life began to take shape. Set at Christmas in New York, it follows the struggles of Brady and his son as they adjust to the new land, and the unconventional woman the two meet by fate on the day of their arrival.
AN AMERICAN MAIL-ORDER BRIDE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION includes two historical romances and a short story, filled with Christmas spirit and a special kind of magic.
Here’s a video to whet your appetite.
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Along with books at special discounts, we’re also offering you a chance to win a Kindle Fire and a Christmas stocking filled with some surprises. Enter the Rafflecopter below. (To leave a comment, scroll past the social media buttons and click on Comments.)
Our books revolve around three wishes and a promise. What wishes do you have this Christmas? Do you have any promises for the New Year?
From both of us to you and yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and promise to bring you more romance in the coming year.
DON’T FORGET TO GET YOUR COPY OF HEARTS ABLAZE. EIGHT BOOKS FROM EIGHT BESTSELLING AUTHORS, ONLY 99 CENTS!
Victoria’s meddling sister-in-law remain a spinster! This well-intentioned matchmaker has plans for a scheming Santa that backfire, with unexpected consequences. And yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. I can’t wait for you to meet him.
fall foliage. How about eight sizzling tales from the Old West?
Fools Rush from USA Today bestselling author Ciara Knight. A young woman, desperate for independence from all men, embarks on a crazy cross-country wagon train adventure disguised as a man. Instead of finding her independence, a bounty hunter captures her under the guise of horse thieving, a crime punishable by hanging. Will a man she’s lied to for months save her, or will he surrender her to a monster with a badge?
The terms are often used interchangeably, but strictly speaking, the moonshiner manufactured the illegal whiskey and the bootlegger transported and distributed it.
Do you know where the term “fire water” came from? When the Indians purchased liquor, they determined the quality by the “kick” it provided. The stronger, the better. To test, they would toss some of the liquor onto a fire. If it flared up, they would deem it of good quality. Considering what was added to the liquor to provide the kick — things like gunpowder and arsenic — the “fire water” test might not have been the best quality control process.
If the distiller was conscientious, he used clean equipment and made the best product possible. He took pride in his craft and earned respect amongst his colleagues and customers. At the same time, moonshiners were looked down on as lawbreakers and considered outside of “proper” society. Keep in mind, Victorians privately enjoyed the vices that they publicly condemned.
Patrick’s permanent injuries are a constant reminder of his bad luck. Wounded soldiers were routinely dosed with opium for pain, and many of them, like Patrick, became dependent on the drug. Opium addiction among former troops was so widespread it was given the name Soldier’s Disease. Imagine the strength it would’ve taken to cope with injury, addiction and the rigors of starting a new life on the frontier. I think you’ll find Patrick a fascinating character.
Charm is a famous actress traveling incognito. She signed onto the bride train as a means of escaping danger with no intention of getting married. Instead, she takes a job as a saloon singer. Her decision has far-reaching effects. I won’t spoil the story by going into them.
With this advertisement begins a journey for seven women who answer the call to become brides for settlers on the Western frontier. The Bride Train takes them to a land plagued by violence and unrest. A place ruled by passion that only a woman’s touch can tame into love.
el, Her Bodyguard, which is set against the same series of events in a different location. 
When considering a hero who would be perfect for my Irish Rose, I thought, why not a dissolute English nobleman?
