Happy Boxing Day!

I’m celebrating a Book Birthday today for Christmastide Kisses, A Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends.

There are holiday stories here from Jude Knight, Carolyn Warfield, Susana Ellis, Ruth Casie, Aileen Fish, and me!

Twelfth Night Treasure

My contribution is Twelfth Night Treasure, a story about a stuffy clergyman and a lady with a murky past who find themselves snowbound on Twelfth Night:

Though the Reverend Mr. Matthew Gurnwood longs to marry, he can’t afford a wife, not one without a dowry. One had to allow for the possibility of children, for it was a fact that a so-called white marriage would not do for him, at least not with the sort of woman he’d want to marry—a sort of woman like the mysterious Miss Dubia Hastings.

Disguised as a lady’s companion, Dubia Hastings has been hiding from a scandalous past, a mercenary cousin, and an impossible attraction to the very proper clergyman, Mr. Gurnwood. When they’re stranded together alone on Twelfth Night, dare she risk everything to tell him the truth?

If you’ve read two earlier stories of mine, A Leap Into Love and last year’s Flowers for His Lady, you’ll recognize Matthew Gurnwood. He’s mentioned in the first (and not in a complimentary way) and appears as somewhat of a villain in the second. His superior, however, has been working on “smoothing his rough edges”. It was great fun finding the perfect match for this imperfect fellow.

Here’s a bit about the collection:

The Bluestocking Belles and Friends brighten your holidays with:

• A beleaguered uncle whose wards have run off every governess–what he needs is a wife, if only he can persuade the latest applicant
• A country solicitor who becomes an earl and then finds a secret that changes everything
• A very proper clergyman who battles very improper urges when he and a lady with a murky past find themselves snowbound
• A viscount whose search to unearth generations-old family secrets kindles the fire of love for his lovely search partner
• A former army captain who wonders if the best friend of his ex-fiancee is the woman he should have married
• A vicar with a misspent youth and the duke’s daughter who brings out the best in him

Six gentlemen and the ladies with whom they discover the power of a Christmastide Kiss.

Christmastide Kisses is available from all major booksellers:

https://books2read.com/u/m26VG6