A Humorous Contemporary Romantic Fantasy
Some
people call it Heaven. The residents know it as Everlasting. When you
arrive, adjustments have to be made, especially if you were meant to
live and the person you saved . . . slated to die.
...What kind of guardian angel gets knocked back to earth? The kind who falls in love with one of his wards.
Chance Godricson is heaven-sent. He's Kenya Kilmartin’s guardian, and when, on arrival, he's hired to get her through a difficult time in her life, he just might fall prey to earthly temptation.
Excerpt
...What kind of guardian angel gets knocked back to earth? The kind who falls in love with one of his wards.
Chance Godricson is heaven-sent. He's Kenya Kilmartin’s guardian, and when, on arrival, he's hired to get her through a difficult time in her life, he just might fall prey to earthly temptation.
Excerpt
Chance Godricson did not understand why he survived. If he survived.
The next tremor or aftershock might give him his answer.
After walking the mall, searching the rubble, and shouting for anyone to
answer, he faced facts. Some kind of structural collapse above the
exclusive underground shopping center blocked all exits, paralyzed
elevators, and cut the lights.
While
lingering in the Yellow Brick Mall shortly after the stores closed, to
await his appointment in the office building above, he had, for all
intents and purposes, been buried alive. But not for long. He would find
a way out or die trying.
A
gold and yellow scarf floated across the mall floor like tumbleweed to
land at his feet. He grabbed it to bandage the gash in his right hand
while seeking the airflow that propelled it.
Ah. A hole in the ceiling near a wall. A structurally sound place to end up.
He
began gathering and rolling heavy chunks of broken concrete to build a
makeshift stairway. Good enough, he hoped, for one risky climb. Hours
later, he thought—examining his work and flexing his aching hand—the
unwieldy monster just might get him out.
Yes, those steps could collapse . . . hopefully behind him . . . if he moved fast enough.
“Are you lost, too?” The voice shocked him. Chance shouted as he faced it.
Not a ghost. An angel. Small, breakable looking, but evidently not.
He
had not heard her approach. The young woman appeared to have been
dipped in honey, and rolled in a thick layer of concrete dust. He
probably looked the same. Tear trails marked her cheeks that bore a few
small cuts, and still she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“What have you been doing all this time?” he asked.
“Hiding. Expecting another explosion? Waiting to die?” She shrugged. “Except, I didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you answer when I called?” he asked.
“Hands over my ears.” She shuddered and eyed his creation. “Is that supposed to be a stairway?”
“Yes.” It gave him hope, her recognizing it.
She tilted her head. “Why?”
“For our escape.”
She moved the dirt on her face as she swiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands. “From now on, I’m only shopping online.”
“Well,
let’s get you home so you can,” he said. “The ‘stairs’ can only take
one of us at a time. No hesitating, no looking down or back. Once you
take that first step, it’s a sprint. Pretend you have wings and can’t
stop. Promise.”
She threw her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist. “I’m not good at leading the way. Not at all good. You go first.”
“I can’t. I’m heavier. I might wreck it. You’re light as a cloud. You go.” With difficulty, he pried her off him. “Go. Now.”
She hesitated, shuddered, and swallowed hard three times. “Once I get there, you’ll follow?”
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Kenya,” she said.
“So are you ready to live, Kenya?”
“Now, there’s a question.” She kissed his filthy cheek.
He didn’t remember ever feeling both honored and unworthy.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Nobody,” he said. “Just an unremarkable lawyer.”
“See you at the top, Mr. Nobody.”
“Go.”
She
whined as she started but followed his instructions to the letter, a
sprint like no other . . . and still, she proved the weakness in his
creation. Her inner strength put him to shame as he held the beam
nearest the wall, below the highest point of the makeshift stairs. He
couldn’t let go until she made it.
“Please let her make it,” he whispered.
He borrowed some of her strength when the beam beneath his hands began to shudder.
As
Kenya left the stairs behind her, the last one seeming to disappear
from beneath her shoe, she crouched, cradled by crossed steel beams in
the darkness between floors, her heart racing as another tremor seemed
to wreak havoc in the mall below.
Panic filled her with worry for the man who shared his stairs, until a hand wrapped in a yellow and gold scarf reached for her.
“Hey?” she called, taking that hand with both of hers. “How did you get here before me?”
He
pulled her through the darkness to the safety of the outdoors and the
dim light of dusk, somehow telling her to live for both of them.
When she thanked him, he was gone.
People surrounded her and wrapped her in blankets, gave her a bottle of water, brought her to the medics.
She never spotted her rescuer among them.
Some people called it Heaven.
The residents knew it as Everlasting.
When
you arrived, adjustments needed to be made; it’s not always an easy
task, especially when you were meant to live and the person you saved . .
. slated to die.
Chance became Kenya’s guardian angel.
A reward?
Or a punishment?
Purchase Links
About The Author
Annette Blair, NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author
***LOVE, LAUGHTER & HAPPILY EVER AFTER***
Three Days on a Train, Contemporary Romantic Comedy
Everlasting, Paranormal Contemporary Romantic Comedy
Rogues & Scoundrels, Eight Regency Historicals
Rogues & Scoundrels, Eight Regency Historicals
Jacob's Return & Butterfly Garden, Sensual Amish Historicals
Scandalous Brides, Historical Box Set
Fabulous Firsts, Historical Box Set
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/annetteblairfans/?fref=ts
Website:http://www.annetteblair.com
Website:http://www.annetteblair.com
Bio:
An adventurer and storyteller at heart, Annette Blair has explored nineteenth-century Amish America and Regency England. She's fallen for madcap, modern Salem Mass, where bold women follow the Celtic faith with heart. There, she fought dragons, and fell in love with an angel. More recently, she’s taken to solving mysteries beside Connecticut’s Mystic River. And with her newest series, she's be revisiting her "roots" in Salem in a small town north of the Witch City that you won't find on any map. Welcome to Wishing Well, where there's something Magic in the water...
She topped the NY Times and USA Today Bestseller Lists concurrently last month (ranking at #4 & #12 respectively) with Scandalous Brides, a joint venture box set of four full-length Regency Historicals by Annette, Lucinda Brant, Brenda Hiatt & Cheryl Bolen. Annette is honored to have shared the career-changing event with such amazing and multi-talented writers. The four are all members of the Jewels of Historical Romance, a group of 12 top flight authors who have banded together to better serve their careers, their readers, and each other through this new publishing paradigm.
Earlier in her career, Annette's work garnered multiple Romantic Times TOP PICKS, Reviewers’ Choice Awards, and HOLT Medallion nominations. A triple Golden Heart Finalist, she's also finaled in the Golden Leaf, the Lauries, the Golden Quill, and National Readers' Choice Awards. She’s won multiple Booksellers Best Awards, LORIES Awards, Laurel Wreath, Blue Boa, Aspen Gold, RIO, Southern Magic, More than Magic, Orange Rose, Winter Rose, PRISM, Beacon, Colorado Awards of Excellence, Write Touch Readers' Choice Awards and an Orange County Book Buyer's Best Award. With Sex and the Psychic Witch, Annette took home three Anne-Bonney Readers’ Choice Awards out of four. Cloaked in Malice her 5th Vintage Magic Mystery, became her first NY Times Bestseller. Jacob's Return, a rule-breaking Amish Historical became her first USA Today Bestseller.
Her E-books include The Rogues Club & Scoundrels Series, four full Regency Historicals each. Her Sexy Amish Historical E-books are Jacob's Return, Butterfly Garden, and A Winter Heart. Anthologies include Sisters of Spirit, the Jewels of Historical Romance, Fabulous Firsts, and Scandalous Brides NY Times #4 & USA Today #12.
Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Annette-Blair/e/B001ILMEEU/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1460901128&sr=1-2-ent
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/196212.Annette_Blair?from_search=true&search_version=service
Her websites is very detailed. The only thing I need to get from her is a blurb/excerpt.
Let me know if there is anything else.
Author Note
Dear Reader:
A
Romantic Times TOP PICK [as Bedeviled Angel] EVERLASTING has a first
ever prologue, new scenes and characters, and I took your reviews to
heart to make the story even better.
STRAWBERRY TARTLETS AND A DEAD STARLET
Book 1: Diary of a Single Wedding Planner (
Book 2: Diary of a Wedding Planner in Love (
Book 3: Diary of an Engaged Wedding Planner (
Before dedicating myself to writing full-time, I spent fifteen years immersed in wedding planning and five years teaching in a middle-school classroom. Both of which gave me countless stories and experiences to draw from for writing inspiration!
BOOK ONE: What happens to men when they move to Manhattan?
BOOK TWO: We’ve Always Got New York
BOOK THREE: You'll Find Me in Manhattan
Looking in your teenage daughters’ purse is never a good idea.
After all, it ended up with Carolina Jessup opening a Bed & Breakfast for railroad fanatics in a tiny Georgia Mountain town. Carolina knows all about, and hates, small towns. How did she end up leaving her wonderful Atlanta suburbs behind while making her husband’s dreams come true?
The town bully (who wears a lavender skirt and white gloves), an endless parade of teenagers through her house, and everybody's talk about a ghost have Carolina looking for an escape, or at least a way to move back home. Instead, she''s front and center for all of Chancey's small town gossip.
Unlike back home in the suburbs with privacy fences and automatic garage doors, everybody in Chancey thinks your business is their business and they all love the newest Chancey business. The B&B hosts a Senate candidate, a tea for the County Fair Beauty contestants, and railroad nuts who sit out by the tracks and record the sound of a train going by. Yet, nobody believes Carolina prefers the ‘burbs.
Oh, yeah, and if you just ignore a ghost, will it go away?
Inviting your ex-spouse for the holidays might not be a good idea. Especially when folks don’t know you were married before.
Carolina quit her job and for the first time ever, she’s doing the holidays as a stay-at-home mom. And doesn’t all that extra time mean everything will be perfect?
Then the RV showed up. The RV with her parents, their dogs, and their obsession with Gone with the Wind.
Then the college kids showed up. Their whirlwind left an empty refrigerator, loads of laundry, and a girl. A girl no one seems to know much about.
Then the other grandparents showed up. Hillbilly Hank on his book tour of Southern retirement homes brings his entourage, along with a special kind of marital discord.
While the town of Chancey watches the happenings up on the hill at the B&B, they are also trying to figure out the town’s bank account. Laney is the town’s treasurer, but she’s not answering questions. Missus has ordered 500 fake cardinals for her Christmas Ball. Peter is settling back into his home town and watching the B&B for his own personal reasons.
All the secrets aren’t in boxes tied with ribbons and bows.
Family Ties come undone with Family Lies
Carolina's in-law's marriage didn't survive the holidays visiting in her and Jackson's new home in Chancey, Georgia. Now both families have left, but she's not sure how much longer she'll still be in the small town. She knew moving teenagers from the Atlanta suburbs to a small Georgia mountain town last year was a horrible idea. She knew opening a B&B for railfans was an even worse plan. What she didn't know, was that her marriage might not survive what was beginning to feel like an honest to goodness train wreck.
Oncoming headlights aren't only aimed at her family, the town of Chancey is being set up for a collision that could change everything. And as that unfolds, Carolina's husband Jackson is smack dab in the middle of it all, his hand on the throttle, going full steam ahead.
Drama unfolds on the high school stage, but it can't match the drama happening right in Chancey when everything is suddenly on the line. Yet even in the midst of change and heartache, a small town must keep it's sense of humor, and you can count on Chancey to be able to laugh at itself!
"A new voice in Southern Fiction" is how a recent reviewer labels Kay Dew Shostak's debut novel, "Next Stop, Chancey". After being raised in a small-town in Tennessee, Kay lived around the country in a variety of settings. Taking a look at the familiar and loved from new perspectives led Kay to see, and then write about, the absurd, the beautiful, and the funny in her South.
After publishing several stories in compilation books and spending a few years in journalism, Kay wandered into writing fiction and found it hard to leave. She currently is working on the fourth book in the Chancey series and living in Fernandina Beach, Florida with her husband.
Nate Bingham’s successful career as a pediatric nurse provides plenty of personal satisfaction (and an endless supply of lollipops), but at the end of every day, he comes home to an empty house. He claims he wants domestic bliss—a wife, some adorable booger-munchers, and a pooch—but so far, a picket-fence existence has eluded him. Is finding The One really that difficult, or is Nate sabotaging his own chance at happiness?
When his obnoxiously perfect older brother, Nick, announces his engagement to the only woman Nate ever came close to marrying, Nate decides he’s ready to do just about anything to secure his own happily-ever-after, even if that means sliding on some skinny jeans and a pair of fake specs and tricking the chick lit reading public into believing he’s their latest overnight success. It thrills his new high-maintenance girlfriend, the real writer of the books, but her interests soon become Nate’s smallest motivator in the venture. And that’s a major complication that doesn’t fit into Nate’s tidy five-year plan.
Nurse Nate Bingham’s life is finally going according to plan, after a few unexpected modifications. He has the wife, the dog, the house, the career… even a start on that brood of booger-munchers he’s always wanted. Everything is great.
Too great.
Then things get real. Changes at work, revelations at family get-togethers, and disappointments at home threaten Nate’s healthy outlook and force him to diagnose and take action.
Unfortunately, nobody’s walking away from this treatment plan with an easy cure and a lollipop.
Nate and Betty’s long-distance relocation has shrunk their pesky problems like specks in a rearview mirror… or so they think. But small-town life in sultry South Carolina includes its own challenges, and the Binghams soon discover their northern hometown doesn’t have the monopoly on frustrating co-workers and dysfunctional families. Add in a bit of culture shock, and the result is a thick, hilarious pot of outsider gumbo. Plus, some people—and decisions—can follow you anywhere you go, for the rest of your life.
