July Tea Party - MaryLu Tyndall, Gabrielle Meyer, and Rebecca DeMarino on a Pirate Ship!!!

WELCOME to Nassau harbor!!! This lovely island is one of the settings for The Reckoning, MaryLu Tyndall's latest exciting release!  This is a time travel book, so there are both contemporary and historical elements plus even an alternate reality section--it really showcases MaryLu's considerable skills as an author!

A modern day miss is transported back in time when she finds this amulet aboard ship during a modern-day Tall Ships festival in coastal California! And it plays a part in the story line, of course, for the ending because there has to be a "portal" when you have a time travel novel.

Hero Captain Dutton's ship, "The Reckoning"!

Come on into the Captain's cabin and have some refreshments!

Also, be sure to stop by our Facebook party, during which the authors will be chatting with our guests. The FB party event page is the place to show off your clothing for this event!

The Reckoning, by MaryLu Tyndall

Isn't this a gorgeous cover? Love it!
Available for purchase online at Amazon. (click here)
(For Barnes and Noble, click on the cover image!)

Giveaways: In addition to a copy of her book, MaryLu has a nice ocean bath gift basket that contains Bubble bath, bath salts, shower gel, and  body lotion. 

We're serving an assortment of teas, lemonade and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. 

Desserts:  Plum-Duff pudding, Shrewsbury Cakes

Snacks/ meal:  Goose and Truffle Pie, Lobscouse, Breadfruit biscuit, and an assortment of toasted cheese.

 * * * *

A Groom for Josette is the second story we're celebrating during our July Tea Party! This story, by Gabrielle Meyer, is a novella in The Convenient Bride Collection from Barbour Publishers.

Once you step off Captain Dutton's ship, The Reckoning, be sure to board Itasca, a Mississippi steamboat traveling from St. Louis to Minneapolis in 1855.

This is the ship our heroine, Josette LeBlanc, takes from St. Louis to Minnesota Territory in hopes of finding a husband. She goes after seeing this ad: Wanted: good-looking women for the town of Little Falls, Minnesota Territory. We guarantee a hundred eligible bachelors for every single lady. If interested, please inquire with Philip Sommers at the company store.



Josette LeBlanc, the daughter of a French Fur Trader
and a Chippewa mother

Josette must find a husband within three weeks, or her father's shipping empire will fall into the hands of her incompetent half-brother, and she'll be cast out on the street.


Little Falls, Minnesota

When Josette arrives in Little Falls, she reserves a sitting room at the Northern Hotel to conduct interviews with prospective grooms. However, when the appointed hour arrives, the hotel proprietor doesn't bring her to the sitting room...he brings her to the ballroom, where over a hundred eligible men stand waiting!

But only one man catches Josette's eye. His name is Alexandre Dugas and he's traveling up the Mississippi from New Orleans to pastor a small church just north of Little Falls.

The only problem is, he isn't looking for a wife.
 



Reverend Alexandre Dugas

When Alexandre meets Josette, he feels compelled to marry her...but a misunderstanding threatens both their plans. Will they find their happily-ever-after, or have they made the biggest mistake of their lives?

The Convenient Bride Collection is available for purchase online at Amazon. (Click here.)

Visit Gabrielle's author Facebook page here.

Gabrielle is offering a copy of The Convenient Bride Collection to one lucky winner!

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Step into the 17th Century with a chance to win a copy of To Capture Her Heart 

by Rebecca DeMarino!

And sail on The Swallow from Nassau 

to Southold, Long Island, NY

Mayhap the Captain of The Reckoning will toss us a breadfruit biscuit! Or better still, we'll walk the plank and join the party with a plate of Mary Horton's Ginger Cakes! 

Captain Horton's The Swallow

It is 1653 and Heather Flower, a princess of the Montaukett tribe, is celebrating her wedding feast when a rival tribe attacks, killing the groom and kidnapping her.  Though her ransom is paid by an Englishman, she is bound by her captors and left to die—until she finds herself rescued by handsome Dutch Lieutenant Dirk Van Buren.

Still tender from her loss, Heather Flower begins to heal in the home of the Hortons, English friends of her people. Torn between her affection for Dirk and her longtime friendship with Ben Horton, Heather Flower must make a difficult choice—stay true to her friend or follow her heart. 

Giveaway: A Copy of To Capture Her Heart

Rebecca DeMarino writes love, legends and lore as a historical romance author and lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She inherited her love of baking and gardening from her mother, a love of horses, reading and writing from her dad, and the wanderlust gene from both parents. Her travels have taken her from Alaska to Nebraska and Florida, from Long Island to England and Italy, and from Washington DC to Texas, California and Guam. 

Note:
Our wonderful Facebook Party Event page was taken down--we don't know why.  But here is the link to the new page (click here) where you can chat live with authors from 5:45 to 9:00 PM Eastern Time.  

Tea Party for Rebecca DeMarino, Lisa Norato, MaryLu Tyndall and Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Thank you for joining us for a summertime tea party at historic Gurnet Light along the shores of Duxbury Beach.

 

Gurnet Light is located in Plymouth, but is accessible only by passing through the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. The first lighthouse at Gurnet Point was erected in 1768. When light keeper, John Thomas, went off to fight in the Revolutionary War in 1776, his wife Hannah took over his duties as keeper.

Our door is open. Welcome!  Careful on the steps leading inside, ladies. We don't want you tripping over the hem of your lovely gowns. The table has been set, tea is steeping, lemonade is chilling, and there's fresh fruit and savory scones.  So have a seat and enjoy a relaxing view of the east coast. 

There will be book giveaways and other delightful prizes, so please partake of some refreshment and enjoy while we introduce you to the authors whose latest novels we share with you today.



Chocolate peanut butter cake

Today we celebrate four new releases! Rebecca DeMarino's debut, A Place In His Heart; the long-awaited third book of MaryLu Tyndall's Escape to Paradise series, Abandoned Memories; Jennifer Hudson Taylor's For Love or Country: Book 2 of The MacGregor Legacy; and Lisa Norato's, The Promise Keeper, a Sea Heroes of Duxbury novel.



Ahh, the gentle call of the sea...



If you have worn a special gown for the occasion, please describe it for us.

Lisa Norato, author of The Promise Keeper, is wearing a floral, printed cotton of the federal era with puffed upper sleeves, the same gown as worn by her heroine, Iris Moon, on the cover of her novel.

Duxbury, Massachusetts, 1825

Danger reunites a sea captain's daughter with her childhood protector-who is now a reclusive lighthouse keeper on an island across the bay.

THE PROMISE KEEPER by Lisa Norato

The new keeper has manned Pilgrim Light for a year now, and though her father recruited him for the post, Iris Moon has never seen the fellow nor will anyone discuss him. Rumors circulate he was once a pirate and had been imprisoned. Lured by the secrecy, Iris rows out to the light to meet the solitary keeper. He's a curmudgeon who remains as mysterious as ever, until confusing dreams haunt her, causing Iris to suspect they share a past connection.

Jonathan Mayne sailed with Captain Moon's family as a young cabin boy during the earliest years of Iris's life. A grown woman, Iris holds no memory for her childhood friend, who now guards the bay from a lonely lighthouse tower. When a shipwreck survivor bent on revenge washes up on the shores of the Moon family mansion, will Johnny be able to protect Iris from her dead mother's secret while keeping a promise to her father never to expose it?
 

GIVEAWAYS: Lisa will be giving away a copy of The Promise Keeper (winner's choice of a signed paperback or ebook--foreign addresses available for ebook only). Lisa is also giving away a pair of (pierced) monarch butterfly crystal earrings by Rhode Island-based jeweler Kirk's Folly.

From Massachusetts all the way to Brazil, MaryLu Tyndall's third book in her Escape to Paradise series is an adventure not to be missed!  The civil war has ended and a group of disgruntled Southerners have fled the Reconstruction and headed for Brazil in the hopes of recreating their Southern Utopia (minus the slavery)  Their journey is recorded in Forsaken Dreams, book 1. The settling of their colony outside Rio de Janeiro is the topic of Elusive Hope, book 2, and now the real reason God lured them to Brazil is finally revealed in Abandoned Memories, book 3!  All three stories are full of adventure and romance in an exotic location.

It is 1866 and the fledgling Confederate colony of New Hope is Angeline Moore’s last chance at a normal life. Running from the law, she longs to make a fresh start in this new Southern Utopia. But a series of strange disasters threaten to destroy everything the colonists have worked for, and strange visions threaten to reveal a past Angeline is desperate to hide.

James Callaway failed at both doctoring and preaching, but he hopes that his move to Brazil will give him another chance to become the spiritual leader he so desires. He longs to create a world free from the immorality that plagued every street corner back home and ruined his life. And he believes Angeline is just the sort of refined woman he needs to keep him on the right track.

But something is amiss in New Hope: haunting visions, the discovery of crypts beneath an ancient temple, and an archaic Hebrew book, set the colonists’ fears on edge. When one of their own is murdered, a series of disasters leads them to believe God has brought them to Brazil to defeat an evil that, if unleashed, could wreak havoc on the entire world.

If you haven't read the first two books in the series, no worries, The Ebook of Forsaken Dreams is FREE right now on Amazon and the Ebook for Elusive Hope is only 1.99!!!!  

Giveaways!  MaryLu will be giving away a signed copy of Abandoned Memories along with a Brazilian Nut Shea Body Butter!

A Place in His Heart by Rebecca DeMarino

She could cross an ocean, but could she ever win his heart?

Anglican Mary Langton longs to marry for love. Puritan Barnabas Horton still grieves the loss of his beloved wife, but he knows his two young sons need a mother. And yet these two very different people with very different expectations will take a leap of faith, wed, and then embark on a life-changing journey across the ocean to the Colonies. Along the way, each must learn to live in harmony, to wait on God, and to recognize true love where they least expect to find it.

This heartfelt tale of love and devotion is based on debut author Rebecca DeMarino's own ancestors, who came to Long Island in the mid-1600s to establish a life--and a legacy--in the New World.

Giveaway: Carrie is giving away a child's size mob cap from Colonial Williamsburg.

A courageous colonial spy. A daring British captain. Will they risk all to win at love?

At the height of the Revolutionary War, Tyra MacGregor is successful at thwarting the British Army with her colonial spy efforts. But her sleuthing ways come to a screeching halt when Captain Donahue "Hugh" Morgan puts her under house arrest.

Hugh is intrigued by this courageous spy the natives call "War Woman." She's more daring than most men and is intelligent in defending her convictions. Even more impressive to Hugh is the strength of Tyra's unshakeable faith in God.

When Tyra saves his life during an attack, Hugh vows to return the favor. Before he can intervene, however, she is caught by his superior officer and imprisoned. Soon Hugh's honor, faith, country, and love are all on the line. Can he risk it all to gain everything?

Book 2 of The MacGregor Legacy by Jennifer Hudson Taylor.

Giveaway! Jennifer will be giving away one copy of For Love or Country. 

Seasons of Yesteryear

The seasons of yesteryear, to our ancestors, were not so much about three month blocks of time, but were really defined month to month. Each month brought critical change to how they coped with survival.

And though the month of May might have brought Maypoles and baskets of flowers, it was also a month of growth and renewal - and the season of the plow. After months of breathing stale, smoky air, the smell of the freshly turned earth made the toil of plowing bearable.

Almanacs from colonial times advised, "In May your Indian corn must be planted. This is the basic chore and the field work of the year." Corn to the colonists meant grain from wheat, oats or any grass that bore kernels. Thus they called the kernels on the main crop of the Native American's, corn.

It's interesting to note that corn, left on its own, will not reseed. It requires proper planting, a few seeds in a hill of dirt, for the kernels to survive and propagate.

In addition to plowing, May was the season to collect pole wood. And though it might be used for a Maypole, it also would be used to make brooms for spring cleaning, among other things.

Other "woodlot chores" in May would include gathering splintwood for baskets and barrel hoops. Black ash, hickory and white oak were commonly used and after cutting into splints, they were kept in running water, which helped keep them soft and ready for pounding.

How to make a yellow birch broom:  find one yellow birch sapling, peel off the bark and cut into a pole. Splinter one end upward. Make cuts in the middle to splinter downward. Fold the middle splinters downward and tie around the lower splinters.

Rebecca's debut novel, A PLACE IN HIS HEART, is a historical romance based
on Mary and Barnabas Horton, Rebecca’s ninth great-grandparents. Set in 1600’s Southold, Long Island, book one of The Southold Chronicles releases June 3rd. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and when not writing, she enjoys faith, family, genealogy, travel, reading, running, baking and gardening. Rebecca is represented by Greg Johnson of WordServe Literary Agency.