Congratulations to Melissa Maygrove on her just released novel! For a limited time only you can find Precious Atonement on sale for .99 cents. Just click on the links below and get ready to read! Melissa is also sponsoring a givaway! Check it out here...
http://melissamaygrove.blogspot.com/2015/09/iwsg-september-if-you-cant-say.html
Ruined women don’t hope, killers don’t dream, and the dead don’t feel pain.
Rachel
Emerson is resigned to live as a spinster. Her parents keep her
shameful secret, and her only brother, Seth, vanished mere days after
witnessing her rape, taking her dishonor with him and giving them all an
alibi for their grief. But none of that matters. Appearances are
useless if she can’t bear the touch of a man.
Jacob
Evans welcomes pain as much as he seeks to escape it. The graves of his
wife and child remind him of his sins every day. When Lawrence Emerson
offers him a job and a chance to move west, Jacob permits himself a
fresh start. But letting go of his past is only an illusion. Lawrence’s
sweet, shy daughter captures Jacob’s heart and provides him a perfect
tool for self-torment.
Despite painful
lessons of the past, history soon threatens to repeat itself, and as
Jacob’s love for Rachel grows, so does his agony. Giving his precious
new wife the life she deserves might cost him the very thing he values
most—her.
Here is a scene from the novel:
Rachel
lifted a damp bed sheet from the basket at her feet and clipped it to the line.
Concealed by the growing curtain of laundry, she watched her father’s new hand
as cool wet cotton rippled and flapped against the side of her face.
Mr.
Evans positioned a round of oak, then swung the ax and split the log in two
with a single strike. He righted the halves and swung again. Muscles bulged
with exertion. Patches of sweat and dirt stained his shirt. Each sharp blow
echoed over the land and galvanized the part of her that registered threat. Jacob
Evans was a dangerous man.
At
least he could be if he wanted to.
But—and
this was the thing that puzzled her without end—for all the hulking,
dreadfully strong being he was, this bear of a man had a gentle spirit about
him. He spoke ably enough and he worked hard, very hard. Yet in spite of that,
he possessed a quiet humility like someone with a simple mind. Maybe he was
dull-witted. Perhaps he’d sold his stock and left his fields lying fallow
because he didn’t have the necessary faculties to manage a farm.
Mr.
Evans wouldn’t be the first man whose wife quietly managed things for a
less-than-savvy mate. And she had died.
“You’re
staring.”
Rachel
turned to find her ma staring, too. At her.
She
blushed.
Her
ma peeked through a gap in the sheets. “That man easily puts two commandments
to test. Three, if he weren’t such a gentleman and I weren’t such a devoted
wife.”
Rachel
gaped. “Ma.” But she had to bite her lip not to smile. She recognized
her mother’s scandalous comment for what it was, an effort to treat her like a
daughter—just a daughter—and Rachel loved her for it.
“Oh,
come now. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed those handsome blue eyes and that
sturdy physique.”
Rachel
feigned shock. “Have you no fear of your maker?”
Her
ma bumped shoulders with her and retrieved another sheet. “My maker put
beautiful things on this earth to be enjoyed. I plan to feast my eyes on all I
can before my mind deserts me and my senses fail.”
The
rest of the wash was hung amid shameless talk and stifled, girlish giggles.
Rachel
hoisted the empty basket onto her hip and chanced one more look between the
flapping panels of cotton.
Native
Texan Melissa Maygrove is a wife, mother, nurse, freelance editor, and
romance writer. When she's not busy caring for her tiny nursery patients
or shuttling teenagers back and forth to after-school activities, she's
hunched over her laptop, complicating the lives of her imaginary
friends and playing matchmaker. Melissa loves books with unpretentious characters and unforgettable romance, and she strives to create those same kinds of stories for her readers.
