Welcome back to Romance Sweet Reads. Today we're going to continue our Christmas in July celebration with the next book in a brand-new, eight book, multi-author series. Christmas Bride Dilemma is sure to put you in the mood and, if you're in the middle of a hot summer, we might cool you off a bit, too!
The second book in the series is Trapped in Grantville, by bestselling and award-winning author, Margaret Tanner.
The train carrying Elly and Clay is forced to stop in Grantville because of a landslide.
When a drifter is murdered by the son of a corrupt rich man, Clay is blamed. Incarcerated in the town jail, things are looking grim for him.
Will Elly’s help, combined with a little Christmas magic, allow him to escape?
If so, can he and Elly find happiness together, or will their lives always be tainted by the evil happenings in Grantville?
Available on Kindle Unlimited
Closing her eyes, Ellie tried to sleep to fill in time. What would Laramie be like? Would she be able to make friends there? What if she didn’t like the owner of the Golden Eagle? Maybe he would be an unsavory individual. Fretting and worrying made her fidget. When she moved, her elbow connected with the arm of the man sitting next to her. “Sorry.”
He grunted something incomprehensible.
“I’ve apologized for disturbing you, and a gentleman would accept my apology.” The words shot out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“What? Oh, sorry. It’s all right, Ma’am, I know it wasn’t intentional. Was it?”
“Of course not. I’m anxious and it makes me fidgety.”
“What’s a pretty gal like you got to be anxious about?”
“Yeah, well, I guess I am. Sorry for being so surly, I’m not feeling myself. I’ve been to a funeral.”
“Oh, I am sorry.” Instinctively she touched his gloved hand. “Was it a close family member?”
“Not family, it was an old army friend, but he was closer to me than any brother.”
“You have my sincerest sympathy. I’ll leave you in peace. When I’m nervous my tongue seems to run away with me,” Ellie said.
“What are you nervous about?” he asked.
“Um, I’m going to Laramie to start a new job at the Golden Eagle hotel. Do you know it?”
He shook his head. “Why did you leave your other job?”
“I worked at a small hotel in Denver and …”
“He fired you.”
“Well, not exactly.” Even as she explained what had transpired, Ellie wondered why she bothered; the man certainly wouldn’t be interested in her problems when he had recently lost a close friend.
“Under the circumstances you mentioned, Ma’am, I think you’re worrying for nothing.”
“Don’t keep calling me Ma’am, it makes me feel like I’m about fifty. I’m Eleanor Lewis but my friends call me Ellie.”
He hesitated for a moment. “Howdy, Ellie, I’m Clayton Garrison, but most people call me Clay.”
She smiled. “I’m pleased to meet you, Clay. Aren’t you hot, all wrapped up like that?”
He shrugged. “I’m comfortable.”
His reply was so short she knew he was annoyed. “I haven’t ridden on a train before,” she said trying to put normality back into the conversation. It hadn’t been really friendly before, now it was as cold as the ice flurries slamming against the windows.
“Except for catching the train to get to the funeral, the last one of these I rode in was a hospital train.”
“During the war?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how I survived the trip, to be honest.”
“You must have been young.”
“I put my age up, thinking I was headed for a great adventure. Fool that I was, I soon learned different.”
“I’m sorry. Were you badly wounded?”
“Yeah, I was. Look, Ellie, I don’t like talking about it. If you don’t mind, I want to try and get some sleep. I haven’t had much over the last couple of days.”
Margaret Tanner is an Award winning, Amazon Best Selling author. She writes sweet Historical Western romance now. Having always loved history, she started out writing Australian historical romance then graduated to westerns
She lives in Australia, is married and has three grown up sons and two gorgeous little granddaughters.
Frontier Australia and frontier America, have many similarities, isolated communities, a large single male population and a lack of eligible women. This leads to many interesting plots.
She has always loved Westerns, soaking up all the Western TV shows and movies when she was young. Bonanza was her all-time favorite show. Little Joe Cartwright was her hero. Western Author, Zane Grey was her favorite author.
You can find the entire Christmas Bride Dilemma series
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A special thanks to Cheryl Wright for the use of her tagline graphics to go with our excerpt posts. It was so wonderful to see everyone here today. Please come back again on Wednesday, July 12th, when we'll take a peek at Book #3.
Blessings,
Nancy
