Today it gives me great pleasure to welcome my friend and author, Annee Jones, to Romance Sweet Reads. Annee is sharing her latest release, A Christmas Dream for Destiny, part of the Mail-Order Brides' First Christmas Series.
Destiny Snow works in the sewing room of the Cleveland orphanage where she lives but longs for a better life. Even though she knows she’ll never be able to bear children and has never celebrated a real Christmas of her own, she is plagued by a recurring dream of sitting in a rocking chair next to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, singing an infant to sleep.
Desperate to escape her dreary and monotonous life, Destiny answers an ad for a mail-order bride out west. But when she meets Stuart “Stormy” Holling, a former logger turned woodworker with a peg leg, is she prepared to handle the passionate temper that earned him his nickname?
Get your copy of A Christmas Dream for Destiny on Kindle Unlimited
The tinsel on the Christmas tree glittered in the warm golden glow cast by the oil lamp on the nearby table. The rhythmic rocking of the big wooden rocker was lulling not only her baby, but herself to sleep. She yawned and bent her neck to kiss the child’s downy brow. The baby sighed and nestled her tiny head deeper into the folds of the soft white blanket.
“Doesn’t she look beautiful on her first Christmas?” Destiny asked her husband, who was sitting in a chair beside her. Try as she might, she couldn’t make out his face but somehow knew he was nodding and smiling. How she loved him and their child. She’d never been so happy.
“Destiny Snow, you overslept again and missed breakfast.” The orphanage headmistress’s voice was sharp. “You have work to do, and the younger ones are waiting for you in the sewing room. Now hurry and dress quickly. The pile of clothes needing mending seems to be growing by the hour. Mrs. Staton also dropped off several dresses she needs hemmed by Thursday.”
“Yes, Mrs. Thackeray,” Destiny replied, but the door had already clicked shut. The wooden floorboards felt cold to her bare feet. She knelt beside the bed to pull the little trundle containing her garments out from underneath it, knowing all too well, however, that none of the contents actually belonged to her. She’d been taken in by the Cleveland Protectory for Girls at the age of two when both her parents died of typhoid, leaving her an orphan. Mrs. Thackeray had been the headmistress at the institution for as long as she could remember, and since she was eighteen years of age, that would be at least sixteen years per her calculation. Although, how old Mrs. Thackeray was, was anybody’s guess. She’d always seemed ancient to Destiny, with her slow, heavy-set body, gray hair pulled tightly into a low bun at the nape of her neck, and permanent aura of weariness.
Grabbing one of the dresses she’d sewn herself, she changed out of her nightclothes and hurried, shivering, to put on the layers of undergarments necessary at this time of year for warmth. While still tying the laces of her bodice, she shoved her stockinged feet into a pair of black shoes long overdue for a polish and ran from the room and down the hallway toward the stairs.
Why did she keep having that dream? It plagued her with its impossible beauty. It was heavenly – a real Christmas with a family of her own. She looked forward to going to sleep each and every night in hopes it would come to her again. She couldn’t seem to control it, though. Most nights she slept heavily, fatigue having eaten into her bones by the time the sun went down, and when she woke, couldn’t recollect having dreamt anything at all. Days were long at the orphanage, filled with cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Despite the toil, she was glad of the institution’s mission to equip the girls with a trade and the meager extra funds the mending work brought in. Otherwise, all they had to rely on was charity. Thankfully, Destiny had readily taken to the sewing machine and was the orphanage’s best seamstress, as well as the oldest girl still in residence, now that Charlotte had left.
Annee Jones is a heartwarming romance and soon-to-be cozy mystery novelist who enjoys sharing her heart and imagination with others. She is passionate about writing stories that offer readers a place where dreams come true!
Professionally, Annee works as a disability counselor where she helps her clients navigate through complex medical and legal systems while rediscovering their wholeness in Spirit.
Annee also enjoys freelance writing for Publishers Weekly and multiple publishing companies.
You can find all the books in the Mail-Order Brides' First Christmas Series on
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Thank you so much for stopping by. Please come back soon for more wonderful authors and great books.
Blessings,
Nancy
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