Hi there!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.
Today, we're teaming up with...why yes, it IS Rachel's Random Resources, however did you guess (*giggle*) for a stop along their current promotion featuring Book 3 of author Laura Briggs' A Little Hotel in Cornwall series. From the dreaming of a wintry wonderland type title to the jingling bells synopsis, it sounds like it's going to be one holly of a read! So, if you're quite ready, let's get this party started as we take a peek between the pages of today's blog tour guest and title in the spotlight...
Sea Holly and Mistletoe Kisses
A Little Hotel in Cornwall, Book 3
by
Laura Briggs
About the book...
Christmas is coming to Port Hewer and the hotel Penmarrow, where Maisie is suffering a case of the holiday blues far from home this year — until Gavin, a young American businessman staying at the hotel through Christmas, talks her into joining him as his partner in the hotel's ice sculpting competition in a mutual pact to enjoy the holidays to the fullest.
Meanwhile, Maisie experiences the village Christmas season vicariously through Sidney, and continues writing her Poe-inspired story with only Sidney aware of her secret novel. She soon learns, however, that criticism and praise go hand in hand when he takes issue with her latest chapters, which puts pressure on their friendship, too.
But is that what's really the issue between them? Because handsome Gavin has more than ice sculpting in mind when it comes to Maisie's time, which comes as a surprise to no one who's seen them together. As Maisie faces this sudden romantic dilemma, she realizes what she wants most in her life ... and faces a question of what her heart wants most, too.
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~~~ EXCERPT ~~~
Thanks so much to Gina for letting me share an extract from my newest romance read with everyone at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers! Book Three in my new Cornish series about Maisie, a would-be writer working at a Cornish hotel, features plenty of festive, Christmas-y fun. In the scene below, Maisie is off to visit her friend Sidney, the charming groundskeeper for the local vicarage.
I paused beside the hedges in need of a trim — Sidney truly was a self-confessed not much of a handyman or groundskeeper — and kicked the cycle's stand in place. Nobody stood at the tool bench, occupied by rusty spanners, an old electric lamp without a shade, and a stack of cracked garden pots recently emptied.
I walked around to the back half of the shed, which constituted Sidney's living quarters, and knocked, but there was no answer. Its blue door had curtains drawn across its dingy glass, but was unlocked, opening to a simple room with a single bed covered by wool blankets, another worn sofa, and a kitchen chair pushed away from an old wooden table. Nobody was home.
"Where is he?" I asked Kip, who was still dancing with excitement around my feet as I closed Sidney's door. "His motorbike is here, his bicycle is here. Did he walk to the village?"
To my surprise, Kip's only upright ear perked, then he trotted off towards the vicarage, sniffing the ground along the path. He looked back at me and wagged his tail, a signal to follow.
Sidney was splitting apart kindling in the side garden outside its kitchen door, wearing the same awful wool cap full of holes and the same heavy brown coat of canvas-like material. He gathered an armload of wood at the same moment he gently fended off a frenzied round of licking from Kip's tongue. When he saw me standing by, he grinned.
"Hello," he said. "Looking for any particular person to be home?"
"For you," I said. "It's my half day. I thought maybe you would be finished with produce deliveries by now. Or is afternoon the beginning of your egg delivery run?"
"I've delivered my last cabbage head," said Sidney. "Mavis is feeling much better. Just a touch of whatever season germ is going 'round. But that's the joy of vicarage life, being tapped for small services to the village. Do you mind terribly opening the door for me? Bit heavy all this, and I don't have a free hand." He hefted the stack of wood in his arms to a more secure carrying position.
"Of course not." I turned the kitchen knob. "After you."
"Much obliged." He crossed the threshold and deposited the wood in a box in the parlor, beside the small fireplace’s hearth. On the red eye of the kitchen stove, a pot bubbled away, into which the housekeeper Mrs. Graves was heavily dispensing the contents of a spice jar.
"Hello, dearie," she said to me. "Fancy a cuppa?"
"No, thanks," I said. "I just stopped by to say hello to Sidney on my day off."
"Hotel's lovely this time of year, isn't it? All those grand decorations. I popped up to see it on my day off, and had tea with Paula Hodges. The new chef's sweets are quite decent, aren't they? Though I like a good bun better than I do those fancy French petit fours." She turned to me with a spoon offered for sampling. "Care for a taste? I'm making a bit of marmalade for a Christmas treat — it's my own recipe."
I caught Sidney's eye and he shook his head vigorously behind the housekeeper's back.
Having sampled the vicarage housekeeper's biscuits, fruit cake, and tarts, I knew to heed his warning. "Thanks, but I just ate some of the chef's red pepper dressing on my salad at lunch," I said. "I'm afraid the two flavors probably wouldn't mix very well." It was all I could do not to hold up my hand to ward off the sample as I politely declined it.
"Probably not," agreed Mrs. Graves. "Next time, have a cuppa and I'll serve it to you with a nice muffin. You'll be in for a real treat, then."
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About the author...
Laura Briggs is the author of several feel-good romance reads, including the Top 100 Amazon UK seller 'A Wedding in Cornwall'. She has a fondness for vintage style dresses (especially ones with polka dots), and reads everything from Jane Austen to modern day mysteries. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, caring for her pets, gardening, and seeing the occasional movie or play.
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Special thanks to Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for the chance to bring this tour to you. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the author, the publisher, this tour, or those on the horizon, feel free to click through the links provided above. Be sure to check out the rest of the tour for more bookish fun...
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
