Tag Archives: Love At First Sight

Happy Release Day, Desperate Daughters!

17 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by in 2022, New Release

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

It’s always a good day when you send a new book baby out into the world. Today, the Bluestocking Belles and our guest authors celebrate the release of our Desperate Daughters boxset. With over 770 pages of reading, we know you’re going to have a book hangover come the morning. Don’t forget about our contest that is still active. There’s more information below. We hope you enjoy our characters and their journey to finding love. Happy reading, my lovelies!

Desperate Daughters: A Bluestocking Belles & Friends Collection
On sale still for only $0.99!

Love Against the Odds

The Earl of Seahaven desperately wanted a son and heir but died leaving nine daughters and a fifth wife. Cruelly turned out by the new earl, they live hand-to-mouth in a small cottage.

The young dowager Countess’s one regret is that she cannot give Seahaven’s dear girls a chance at happiness.

When a cousin offers the use of her townhouse in York during the season, the Countess rallies her stepdaughters.

They will pool their resources so that the youngest marriageable daughters might make successful matches, thereby saving them all.

So start their adventures in York, amid a whirl of balls, lectures, and alfresco picnics. Is it possible each of them might find love by the time the York horse races bring the Season to a close?

A Countess to Remember
By Sherry Ewing

My contribution to the set! I just know you’re going to love Richard and Patience!

Blurb:

Sometimes love finds you when you least expect it…

Patience, Dowager Countess of Seahaven cares for a bevy of stepdaughters and a Season for each to find husbands seems out of reach. With her own young daughter to care for, there’s been no chance for romance for herself. She’s been so busy worrying about putting food on the table, that finding love is the last of her concerns.

Richard, Viscount Cranfield is in York to see to his sister’s Season. He has no desire to find a wife despite his parents prodding him to do so. A chance encounter with a countess leaves him wondering what spell she has cast around him.

Will Patience and Richard find enough time to allow love to fill their hearts?

Desperate Daughters: A Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends

Buy Links:

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3qG6WGs

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3HoEVcm

Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2YOhqIm

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3Cr5GLm

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3qL5GlH

Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/bMwL17

International Links:

Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/3ng3cth

BR: https://amzn.to/3qUFBkf

CA: https://amzn.to/3Fmf0Ab

DE: https://amzn.to/3ccXYrJ

ES: https://amzn.to/3wQPO1H

FR: https://amzn.to/30sHrgY

IN: https://amzn.to/3261J0v

IT: https://amzn.to/3Chmqmv

JP: https://amzn.to/3ozIpA6

MX: https://amzn.to/3FknEzq

NL: https://amzn.to/3qBPF1f

UK: https://amzn.to/30z5vz5

Thalia: https://bit.ly/30q8dqI

Vivlio: https://bit.ly/3qGqxqc

Help spread the word about Desperate Daughters.

Help to share Desperate Daughters and be in the Draw

Share our contest page and our Bachelor and other memes to any of your social media accounts. Each share gets you an entry into one of the weekly draws and the Grand Prize draw.

Learn more on our website here: https://bluestockingbelles.net/belles-joint-projects/desperate-daughters/giveaway/

An excerpt from A Countess To Remember:

The unseen woman was still in the carriage, as if she was still preparing to collect whatever had been left behind. A small dainty shoe poked out onto the edge of the step and Richard heard her heavy sigh that she made no attempt to mask.

Richard stepped forward, offering his hand. “May I be of assistance, my lady?”

“You are most kind,” the lady inside said. She put her hand in his and Richard swore he felt a tingling sensation rush up his arm.

“Where are my manners?” Lady Barbara exclaimed. “May I introduce my stepmother, Patience, Lady Seahaven. Patience, this is Lord Cranfield and his sister Lady Josephine.”

Richard was prepared for a matronly woman to reveal herself as she alit from the carriage. But when she lifted her head once upon solid ground to acknowledge their introductions, he was unprepared for the young beauty he faced. Blue-grey eyes that could rival the sky above met his. Wisps of strawberry blonde hair had escaped her bonnet while her porcelain skin was set in a lovely round face. But when her small bow mouth turned up into an enchanting smile, Richard became lost.

“Lord Cranfield,” her voice reached into his soul. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Richard bowed, completely bewildered in the spell she had captured him in with just one glance. At a loss for words, he could only stare at the woman before him, even while he continued to hold her hand in his. What had she done to him?

First Kiss Friday with Sherry Ewing & a contest!

06 Friday May 2022

Posted by in First Kiss Friday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog. Today I’m featuring my novella A Countess To Remember that is my contribution in the Bluestocking Belles’ box set Desperate Daughters. We’re also running a contest so be sure to read to the end to learn more. I hope you enjoy this first kiss scene between Richard and Patience. Happy reading and good luck in the contest, my lovelies!

Excerpt:

Their eyes met across the room, and he gave her the briefest of nods before walking through the open doorway and out onto a terrace. It was a silent invitation and one she wanted to accept. Patience knew she shouldn’t follow him, but all common sense seemed to leave where Richard was concerned. Besides, no harm could be done to meet him outside for only a few moments. Who would miss her?

Trying to keep her pace casual was harder than she thought. She skirted the outside of the dance floor making her way through the crush of people who watched on the sidelines or carried on their own conversations. She saw her girls being watched over by Barbara and she was again grateful that they were being looked after. With no further thoughts except her own personal agenda, she strode through the balcony doors and peered into the shadows to see Richard waiting for her. He held out his hand for her to take and she had a moment of hesitation, as prudence seemed the better course of action.

“Do you trust me?” His hushed baritone voice caused her to shiver in the moonlight and this had nothing to do with being cold.

“Richard… I—”

“Patience… I am asking for you to trust me,” he calmly said. “Do you?”

“Yes,” she answered him and she could barely make out his smile.

“Then come with me,” he said before whisking her away into the night.

He seemed to know where he was going as he went down several steps and onto a garden path. She gazed back over her shoulder wondering where he was taking her.

“My girls—” she began before he interrupted her.

“We won’t be gone long or go that far.”

“Promise?” she whispered into the night.

“Yes. I promise. You are perfectly safe with me, my dear,” he exclaimed and, true to his word, he halted near a gazebo awash in the moonlit sky. A romantic setting that caused Patience’s heart to race.

“This is a lovely place, Richard, but—”

He turned her into his arms, and Patience couldn’t object, not when she had been envisioning this in her dreams for the past several days. “I know this is sudden, Patience, but I’ve been dying to do this ever since we met,” he said brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear before cupping her cheek.

She leaned into the palm of his hand. “What have you been wanting to do?” she asked hoping he wouldn’t find her undesirable but also praying he would kiss her no matter that they had just met.

“This…”

She held her breath while his mouth slowly descended upon her own. At first, gentle, exploring to see just how much she might allow. A nip at her lower lip to tease her caused her gasp of surprise giving him the opening he had apparently been waiting for. His tongue dipped in to take hungry possession of her mouth, and she was more than willing to learn this new dance together.

She wasn’t new to the intimacies between a couple but Richard’s kiss flared into a burning flame in the pit of her stomach. Henry had never bothered with such affections, and yet, with Richard, she wanted to explore every aspect of what he could bring her. Did this make her one of those wanton women?

He deepened their kiss, and Patience wound her arms around his neck to play with the edges of his hair at his collar. His groan would have caused her to smile if she had been able to perform such a task. He brought her tight against his chest, and she could not mistake his arousal. She should have been shocked but this only made her want more of this man than he could obviously give her standing in a garden.

Whether he could read her thoughts or he just realized how entirely inappropriate their situation could become if they were found, he ended their kiss, leaving her wanting to return to his arms. He placed both hands on her cheeks, running his thumbs over them before giving her another quick kiss.

“Better than I could have ever imagined,” he murmured before he bent down to place his forehead to her own.

Desperate Daughters: A Bluestocking Belles and Friends Collection
Release Date: May 17, 2022
Preorder Sale for only $0.99!

Love Against the Odds

The Earl of Seahaven desperately wanted a son and heir but died leaving nine daughters and a fifth wife. Cruelly turned out by the new earl, they live hand-to-mouth in a small cottage.

The young dowager Countess’s one regret is that she cannot give Seahaven’s dear girls a chance at happiness.

When a cousin offers the use of her townhouse in York during the season, the Countess rallies her stepdaughters.

They will pool their resources so that the youngest marriageable daughters might make successful matches, thereby saving them all.

So start their adventures in York, amid a whirl of balls, lectures, and alfresco picnics. Is it possible each of them might find love by the time the York horse races bring the Season to a close?

Buy Links can be found on our website at: https://bluestockingbelles.net/belles-joint-projects/desperate-daughters/

Help to share Desperate Daughters and be in the Draw!

Help spread the word about Desperate Daughters.

Share our contest page and our Bachelor and other memes to any of your social media accounts. Each share gets you an entry into one of the weekly draws and the Grand Prize draw.

Congratulations to Catherine Maguire, winner of our week 1 draw.

Enter the Week Two draw here:http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/bb92b0a65/?

Find memes here: https://bluestockingbelles.net/belles-joint-projects/desperate-daughters/sharing/

Weekly prize

Every entry goes into the draw to win:

We’ll draw a winner each week for four weeks.

Grand prize

Every entry also goes in the draw to win:

  • $100 gift card
  • a made-to-order story. The winner gives Jude Knight some ingredients for a story (one character, a plot trope, and an object). Jude writes the story and the winner gets an ecopy at least three months before it is published anywhere else, and their name in the dedication at publication.

First Kiss Friday with Bob & Judy

05 Friday Jun 2020

Posted by in 2020, First Kiss Friday

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Welcome to a special First Kiss Friday with my dear friend, Jude Knight. With everything going on in the world right now, it’s nice to read a story that is so uplifting that it can only bring a smile to your face and tears in your eyes (in a very good way). Love at first sight really can happen and with that intro, I’ll let Jude take it away! Enjoy, my lovelies.

I haven’t been writing, what with packing up the house we’ve sold, Covid-19 lockdown, moving cities, buying a new house, and having a newly retired husband home the whole time.

So I thought I’d give you something different. A couple who met long ago at a prayer meeting, met again several times at youth outreach (she was secretary of her Young Anglicans group and he was president of the local Young Catholic workers), and finally went out together for a night dancing. Just dancing and talking. Two well-behaved young people in the late nineteen-sixties, and after all, they barely knew one another.

***

It was a dismal Monday morning, but the usual trip to training college had to be endured regardless. Across the harbour bridge into the city, and then a second bus out to an old made-over colonial mansion in Arney Road, where would-be kindergarten teachers learned educational theory, human development, and how to make music and movement fun and interesting for a herd of rambunctious toddlers.

Judy’s mind was on her book rather than the weather or her studies, but the greeting from further down the bus riveted her attention. Bob. She had hoped to see him again, but not so soon; not on the bus.

“I often catch this bus,” he said. “I’m surprised we haven’t seen one another before.”

They talked all the way into town, and he walked her to her next stop. He was smart, and funny, and attentive, and courteous. She didn’t miss her book at all; didn’t even pull it out of her bag until the bus turned a corner and he was out of sight.

He was there waiting to walk her to her bus that night, and on the first bus again the next morning. “Do you like the ballroom type of dancing?” he asked. “Only, I’ve got tickets for a ball this coming Friday. I could pick you up if you’d like.” As casual as him, she said she’d enjoy that.

She had university that night – she was doing two papers, and stayed late on Tuesdays and Thursdays to attend lectures. No Bob on the bus. She scolded herself over her disappointment. If he knew, he’d think she was chasing him! They were just friends, after all.

Just in case that doubt was in his mind, she deliberately caught a later bus on Wednesday. To her surprise, he was on it. She fretted all day about what he might think, and wasn’t surprised when he didn’t appear at the stop in the city to walk her home.

Thursday, she caught the earlier bus in the morning, and stayed for lectures in the evening. When she saw him on Friday morning, she wasn’t sure he’d noticed her absence the previous day. Not that they were courting, or even boyfriend and girlfriend. They were just two people who happened to like one another, and who happened to be going dancing together, because dancing was fun.

She took some money out of her bank account so she could afford to have her hair done for the ball.

It was a wonderful night. The harbourside venue was stunning, the music was glorious, Bob was a splendid dancer, his friends (it was a ball for Outward Bound Old Boys) welcomed her as if she belonged… then it got better.

They were slow waltzing, and Judy was looking up into Bob’s eyes when she saw them change. Ever after, she struggled to express what she saw: the eyes softened and grew more intent, all in one. As the warmth in his gaze wrapped her around, she fell in love, and ever after swore that he beat her to it, if only by seconds.

What happened in the remainder of the evening? Neither of them took much notice. The roof could have blown off the building, and they would still have been in one another’s arms, dancing. They couldn’t believe that five hours had passed when they were herded outside with the rest of the stragglers so the venue could be closed.

They walked back to his father’s car hand in hand, not needing words. He drove one-handed so he could continue holding hers in his clasp. And when they parked in her mother’s driveway, he cupped her chin the heel of his hand, leaned in for a kiss, and the magical night got better still.

Reader, I married him. I’m slightly stunned that that night counts as history, since on the 3rd of August this year it will have been fifty-one years since the night we talked until dawn, chose a name for our first son, and shared far too many kisses to count.

About Jude Knight

Jude Knight’s writing goal is to transport readers to another time, another place, where they can enjoy adventure and romance, thrill to trials and challenges, uncover secrets and solve mysteries, delight in a happy ending, and return from their virtual holiday refreshed and ready for anything.

Jude writes everything from Hallmark to Regency Noir, in different eras and diverse places, short, medium and extra long. Expect decent men with wounded hearts, women who are stronger than they think, and villains you’ll want to smack or worse.and all with a leavening of humour.

Website and blog: http://judeknightauthor.com/

Subscribe to newsletter: http://judeknightauthor.com/newsletter/

Bookshop: https://judeknight.selz.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JudeKnightAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudeKnightBooks

Pinterest: https://nz.pinterest.com/jknight1033/

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jude-knight

Books + Main Bites: https://bookandmainbites.com/JudeKnightAuthor

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Jude-Knight/e/B00RG3SG7I