Welcome to my stop on LeeAnn Sontheimer-Murphy's Heart of the Ozarks Virtual Book Tour. Please be sure to leave a comment below for LeeAnn and use the Rafflecopter entry as she will be giving away 15 eBook copies of Heart of the Ozarks to random commenters during her tour. You can follow her blog tour here.
Title: Heart
of the Ozark
Author: Lee
Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Publisher: Rebel
Ink Press
Length: 75,000
words
Genre(s): Romance
Sub-Genre(s) Contemporary
Sub-Categories: Second
Chance at Love
Heat Level: Steamy
(Hot sex scenes/language, but not explicit)
AVAILABLE AT:
Amazon Barnes and Noble Bookstrand
All Romance eBooks
BLURB:
After
St. Louis TV weathercaster Cole Celinksi loses his almost estranged wife and
three children in a car crash, his boss orders him to take a leave of
absence. Against his will, Cole leaves
the city in late May to find the rest and relaxation everyone else thinks he
needs. Without anywhere else to go, Cole heads for Lake Dreams, a resort on the
quiet side of Lake Taneycomo in the Ozarks he visited each summer as a child
with his grandparents. Some of his best
memories were made in the lakeside vacation haven with his summer friend,
Maggie.
Upon
his arrival, Cole learns Maggie now runs the place. Twenty years have passed but from the minute
he returns, they reconnect and soon their mutual attraction ignites. He fishes in the lake, takes Maggie to visit
some of the places he remembers and begins to find out who he truly is. Before
he can heal, he must learn to deal with his loss and to see if he can create a
new family with Maggie and her children. It’s a task he’s not sure he can
handle but if he wants to be with Maggie, he must. A near tragedy brings them
all together into a close knit unit and afterward, Cole may be able to make his
dreams reality.
EXCERPT :
Maggie took
three steps forward until she stood in front of him and put one hand on his
chest. She stared at him for a moment
stretching out long and then stood on tip-toe to kiss his mouth, very gentle
and soft. It wasn’t a lover’s kiss, not
quite, but intimate and Cole’s reaction surged through his body with a
rush. Her mouth’s brief caress whispered
affection and familiarity.
“Go get
changed,” she said, “We’re not fancy at Dove Chapel but shorts won’t do. I’ll come pick you up in a half hour, okay?”
“Sure,” Cole
said, “I’ll be ready.”
When she rolled
to a stop beneath the cabin’s porch, he hurried down, wearing the single pair
of Dockers he’d brought along with a button-down shirt. Maggie smiled, dressed
now in an attractive navy blue and white print dress, hose, and dark blue
heels. She’d also put on more make-up than he’d seen her wear yet and tamed her
hair into a bun on the back of her head, held in place with a plastic clip.
“You look
lovely,” Cole said, his eyes drinking in her beauty.
“Thanks,” she
laughed, “Don’t turn my head or I’ll get nervous.”
She drove around
the winding curves along the back roads to the old church, handling the car
with skill. They didn’t talk much but she sometimes broke into song, practicing
he guessed. Cole realized he’d never
ridden with Maggie at the wheel before. He recalled during the last summer he
spent here driving Pop’s Impala with Maggie riding shotgun to Dove Chapel.
When the church
came into view Cole’s chest tightened with sudden anxiety. Too late to turn back, now he wasn’t sure he
should have come. He offered up his first prayer in a very long time and begged
God no one be present from St. Louis.
“Will people ask
who I am?” he said as they climbed out of the car.
“Probably,”
Maggie replied, “And everyone will stare at you and be nosy.”
His heart slowed
and his stomach clenched. “Tell me
you’re kidding.”
She grinned,
“I’m not, really but it’ll be fine, Cole.
Trust me, okay?”
If he hadn’t
wanted to hear her sing and watch, he’d gone back to the car but he sighed instead.
“All right, I’ll try to be on my best behavior.”
They settled
into a pew midway down the right side of the aisle. As Cole looked around the once familiar
church, he could almost believe he’d been transported back to Mayberry or to a
sound stage somewhere. The humble country church appeared to date to the early
19th century and he figured it probably did. Before he could analyze his thoughts further,
a couple in their sixties appeared and greeted Maggie.
“Oh, you look so
pretty, honey,” the woman said, “Who’s your friend?”
Cole cringed and
restrained from ducking his head like a bashful child as Maggie rested one hand
on his knee and said, “This is Cole Celinksi, an old friend. He used to spend his summers at the resort
when we were kids. Cole, this is Irene
Matthews and her husband, Tom. They used
to own a little motel over on the other side of Taneycomo, where Branson
Landing is now.”
“Hi,” Cole said,
extending his hand in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you.”
He repeated the
phrase for the next ten minutes until the service began and everyone settled
into place for worship. Maggie remained
in the pew through the opening song but then she headed up front. Cole watched,
awestruck, as she stood in front of the upright piano and clasped her
hands. From the rear of the church,
someone struck up guitar chords for the melody and she sang in a clear, full
voice. The sound of it filled the little
old church and resounded around the room.
For Cole, it seemed as if she sang to him alone. Her eyes never left his
face as she trilled out the lively song and as the message tucked within the
music penetrated his heart, tears trailed down his cheeks, slow and steady.
Until then, he’d
never realized how angry he’d been with a god who allowed his kids to die or how
high a wall he’d erected around his faith to hide it. Listening to Maggie’s
pure voice, he realized God sent joy to his people, a joy to dance about even
when the devil’s on your back. He’d shut himself off from joy and wallowed in
sorrow. In her voice, he heard echoes of
his children’s laughter and Cole moved his lips, singing along with Maggie
without sound. As soon as she finished, she came to the pew and slid in beside
him.
Cole reached out
and squeezed her hand, speechless with emotion.
As the pastor took the pulpit and began to preach, Maggie handed him a
tissue from her purse and whispered, “Are you okay?”
He nodded,
mopping away his tears. “I’m good, Maggie.
Your song touched me.”
Maggie slipped
her arm through his and leaned against him. Her whisper came like a breath of wind, for
his ears only, “I’m glad.”
Although the
sermon lasted a full thirty minutes and the volume increased, Cole didn’t hear
a word of it. His mind reflected on the
song but his awareness of Maggie beside him increased until he thought of
nothing else but her and where their friendship might go from this point.
Her soft perfume
permeated his nose and beneath it he could smell her lavender shampoo. Each breath she drew he felt and when the
congregation joined in song, her voice matched his. Since he came to Branson, Cole’d known
several quiet moments with Maggie but this one eased his inner turmoil in a
different, more powerful way.
The thought
struck him he belonged with Maggie and maybe he’d find his way home with her
help.
BOOK TRAILER:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lee Ann
Sontheimer Murphy is a full-time romance author. A native of the old historic city of St.
Joseph, Missouri, one time home to both Jesse James and the Pony Express, she
now lives and writes in the beautiful Missouri Ozark region. Her romance novels include Love Never Fails, Witness Protection
Program, Sing We Now of Christmas, A Patient Heart, In Love’s Own Time, Miss
Good Samaritan, In The Shadow of War, Guy’s Angel, and Heart
of the Ozarks, all from Rebel Ink Press.
She also has six other novels and several novellas available. Her work
also appears in more than twenty anthologies and she has multiple short
story/non-fiction credits.
She is a member
of RWA, Missouri Writers Guild, EPIC, and the Ozarks Writers League. Her work
also appears in multiple anthologies. She earned a BA degree in both English
and History from Missouri Southern State University as well as an AA Degree in
Journalism from Crowder College. She
worked in broadcast media for a decade and also has a background in education. Her weekly column “Hindsight” appears each
week in the Neosho Daily News.
She is married
to Roy W. Murphy and the couple has three children, Emily, Megan, and Patrick
Murphy.
If Lee Ann – or
Lee as many of her writing friends know her – isn’t writing, she’s reading or
spending time outdoors.
In Neosho,
Missouri, the small town she now calls home, she serves on the local library
board, is active in the annual Relay For Life fight against cancer, has worked
with the local Arts Council, and is active in her parish.
A Page In The Life: http://leeannsontheimermurphywriterauthor.blogspot.com
Rebel Writer - Lee Ann
Sontheimer Murphy: http://leeannsontheimermurphy.blogspot.com
Seanachie Stories: Tuesday Tales And More: http://seanachiestories-tuesdaytalesandmore.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/leeannwriter
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy/e/B004JPBM6I/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1Please don't forget to leave a comment below and enter the Rafflecopter form here.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for the spotlight--I've heard good things about LeeAnn's work!
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting me on the tour!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good one, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteFrancesca
I love second chance love stories. It's one of my favorite themes. This one sounds almost heartbreaking to read, but then again I do heart break too. Thank you for this post! I feel like second chance love stories are so hard to find.
ReplyDelete