Although I had certainly heard of Fred Harvey and his famous Harvey Girls, it had never occurred to me how much these young women changed the frontier forever. With their pristine uniforms and fresh faces, along with the strict code of conduct Mr. Harvey demanded of them, they were a new version of femininity to cowboys and other males on the frontier. They are widely credited with introducing a new level of civility to what had once been the wild West. *** TRAILBLAZER by Anna Schmidt Cowboys & Harvey Girls #1 MEET THE HARVEY GIRLS: These real-life pioneering women were symbols of elegance in the wild frontier: taming rough manners, falling in love, and changing the face of the West forever. Grace Rogers is ready for the adventure of a lifetime. With her family’s farm falling on hard times, she accepts a position with the prestigious Fred Harvey Company and heads for Juniper, New Mexico. There she meets a handsome cowboy who quickly turns her head. Too bad the Harvey Girls are forbidden to marry… Nick Hopkins has a plan: buy a little land, marry, and raise a family in that order. But after meeting Grace, he can’t keep away….
Over the last week and for the rest of this week, the Reviewers of Fresh Fiction will be sharing some of our favorite reads in various genres. We hope you’ll take another look at these titles, and maybe share your favorites in the comments. We’ll have a different genre featured each day! Be sure to check the blog to see what we’ve already covered. It’s all things historical romance today! Check out our picks below. TAPESTRY OF WAR by Jane MacKenzie Reviewer: Clare It was unusual to see Alexandria as a location for a WW2 romance. Contrasted with Scotland which has an influx of GIs. Women greatly involved in business, nursing and war work. Historical [Allison and Busby, On Sale: June 19, 2018, Trade Size / e-Book, ISBN: 9780749022990 / eISBN: 9780749023003] Alexandria trembles as Rommel approaches Buy TAPESTRY OF WAR: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Ripped Bodice | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR *** MY ONE AND ONLY DUKE by Grace Burrowes Reviewer: Danielle Grace Burrowes is my go-to historical romance author. She writes characters who feel…
So here we are again, approaching the end of another calendar year, and the beginning of another holiday season in many traditions. My yuletide memories aren’t uniformly positive. My dear mother had to wrangle Christmas on a shoestring for seven children. Pennsylvania winters meant those children were very much underfoot, and family tensions could erupt into something other than four-part harmony. And yet, I love this time of year. I love how the whole hemisphere gets a little quieter, the evenings longer, the mood both more reflective and more congenial. I get more writing done over the winter months than in any other season, and writing is one of my very favorite things to do. I also enjoy our annual year-end focus on charity, on welcoming the stranger (angels unaware is one of my favorite Christmas tropes), and on looking out for our neighbors who might have trouble paying the heating bill or affording anything for the children on Christmas morning. I don’t need to see the brain science to know that kindness lifts my spirits, whether I’m the giver or the receiver. I think we are intended to be kind to one another, and the holidays give us permission…
I’m very excited to be here on Fresh Fiction today to celebrate the release of A PROTECTOR IN THE HIGHLANDS! This book is the second in my Highland Roses School series about two sisters who journey into Scotland to start a school for ladies in the 1690s. The theme around the series centers on empowering women at a time when they were often treated as inferior. Women were left out of inheritances, business dealings, education, and decision making. Their purpose in life was to bear children and manage the home. And if a woman found herself in a domestic abuse situation or attacked, she was often blamed with no way out. When researching for my series, I read a wonderful book about two sisters living in the mid-1600s in England (A Court Lady and A Country Wife by Lita-Rose Betcherman). One sister birthed several children and managed her home mostly in the country while the other one became an influential woman at court. Both ladies were considered a success in their circles, although they had many limitations placed upon them because of their sex. Even though the court lady was a friend to the queen of England, she still had…
Please welcome New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Grace Burrowes! MY ONE AND ONLY DUKE, the first book in her new series, Rogues to Riches, is available now! 1. This is the start of a new series for you, Rogues to Riches. What’s it like starting a new series from scratch? Have any of these characters popped up in previous books/series? Quinn Wentworth, our hero from My One and Only Duke, took Grinch honors in a short story published in Tis the Season, a multi-author holiday anthology, but other than that… He makes his debut in My One and Only Duke. In a long-running series, an author has to strike a balance between allowing each book to serve as a portal to the series, and not boring faithful readers with a rehash of who is married to whom and how they met. A new series has none of those constraints. We’re all meeting the characters for the first time, and that gives the project freshness. I will always enjoy revisiting my foundation families, and eventually, the Wentworths will join their ranks. For now, though, I’m having great time with a very different sort of duke and duchess. 2….
Rain pounded the roof of the carriage, lending a cozy, intimate feel to the interior. The earl’s long legs were sprawled in front of him, and Fiona endeavored not to gawk at the wet buckskin trousers clinging to his thighs. She was not, however, entirely successful. To be fair, a certain amount of study was necessary if she were to draw him at some point—and she intended to. Her artist’s eye noted the proportions of his hips and thighs, the pronounced contours of his leg muscles, and the slight hollows on the insides of his knees. But as a woman, she noticed him, too—on a whole different level. The heat from his body. The scents of leather and soap. The light stubble on his chin. Swallowing, she considered moving to the seat oppo site him, but they had already soaked the velvet squabs of one bench and she saw no reason to sully the other. Instead, she resolved to make use of this time to advance her cause. Mustering as much dignity as she could, given her soggy gown and dripping hair, she squared her shoulders and faced the earl. “Now then,” she began. “I believe we were discussing the—”…
Horses. I love them. The bigger the better. Horses are featured prominently in my Highlanders of Balforss series. They frequently reflect and compliment the character of their owners and they are used symbolically to represent physical strength, power, loyalty, friendship, and love. In TYING THE SCOT, Alex’s horse, Goliath, is described as “the tallest thoroughbred anyone had ever seen. Seventeen hands high and a deep chestnut brown. Just seeing the spirited warmblood made Alex’s heart rate slow.” It is Goliath’s speed and endurance that help Alex save Lucy’s life. In BETTING THE SCOT, Declan’s horse, Gullfaxi is described as a “muscular dark gray gelding with a white main and tail.” Declan is influenced by his Viking heritage and holds great stock in Norse mythology. When Caya asks Declan why he named his horse Gullfaxi, he says, “Gullfaxi is the horse the Norse god, Thor, gave to his son. I ken the name means something like one with the golden mane.” In my latest novel, FORGETTING THE SCOT, horses play an even bigger role. Magnus’s horse Finbar has a personality of his own. Like Magnus, he is giant. Finbar is a Brabant, a Belgian breed of draft horse that would have…
I read a tweet this week that went something like this: “Meghan and Harry have met, fallen in love, married, and are now having a baby in under three years, and I haven’t put up the fallen towel rack in my bathroom.” Life is hard and comparing our self to others is a difficult exercise, often ending in futility. In The Butterfly Bride, I was able to explore the quest of trying to be perfect in the most unlikely vessels, Frederica Burghley. Frederica is the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Simone. In the Regency, this was a scandalous pedigree but depending on how the duke acknowledges his daughter, she would not necessarily be rejected. But Frederica’s situation is worst. She is the love child of the duke and his courtesan, a black woman he setup as his exclusive mistress. Alas, 1820 was not 2018. In that year of our Lord, you can imagine the rejections, Frederica faces as she struggles for acceptance. Classism, racism, sexism, and ignorance are slights she endures. She does so not with grievances but from the perspective of being one of the lucky ones. For now, she’s escaped following in her mother’s footsteps of becoming a…
Fake relationships: Fake fiances, marriages of convenience – however you work it, I love me some fake relationships. I’ve written quite a few MOCs because I write historicals, but I read a lot of contemporary fake fiancé books and I can never get enough of them. It reminds me of that scene in Leap Year where they’re at that farmhouse and the family makes them kiss – totally cliched, but it works! Best friends to lovers: Admittedly I’ve never written one of these myself, but I read a bunch of them. I’ve always been a sucker for this trope. Frankly I think it stems from the fact that my sister married her best friend when I was like 13 so right at that ripe age for falling in love with falling in love. You get my gist. But it’s just the best for people who already love each other to realize that love can now involve sexy times. Nerds in love: OMG! I’m not sure this is an actual trope, but we’re going to call it one for my purposes. I don’t care if it’s the hero or the heroine that’s the nerd, there’s just something about the awkward sexiness…
In its various forms, love scenes are probably one of the most discussed topics at romance writers’ conferences. Love scenes are an integral part of romance writing yet for some writers the thought of writing one can strike the same amount of fear as the dreaded synopsis. I can’t tell you there is no reason to be afraid, sex, unlike synopses, can actually have fearful roots. But I can tell you that there was a time when I found writing love scenes to be rather uncomfortable, yet now they tend to be one of my favorite scenes to write. My journey through them isn’t important, and frankly I’m not sure why everything has changed, so I can’t offer you a step-by-step guide. I can tell you that the first one I wrote (many years ago now), I just typed as fast as I could to get through it as quickly as possible. When I re-read it, it was riddled with clichés and purple prose and had zero emotion. Needless to say it needed a lot of work. The first step to writing love scenes (okay, so I lied, apparently I am giving you a step-by-step guide) is to ignore those…