It’s always a pleasure to welcome back an author friend to the blog–someone who, like me, is working hard in the writing trenches to create comforting tales of love and joy. I sure need as many of these as I can get my hands on! Today I’m wishing a happy book birthday to an author whose books I’ve consistently enjoyed, Charlotte O’Shay!
I found this small-town contemporary romance novella touching, sweet, a little steamy, and super-cozy with its setting in a charming Vermont town. There’s even a Maple Sugar Ball! I love the way the author blended serious elements (grief and PTSD) with lighter elements, and her heroine and hero were both so sympathetic and relatable. A lovely, low-stress comfort read for autumn.
After her sweetheart Joe dies in a road accident, twenty-four hours after he returns from Army service, grieving Karla Payne slams the door on love. Five years later, Karla’s tavern business is booming, and she owns her home, but she knows forever love has no part in her future.
Headed to interview for his first civilian job, retired career Army 1st Sgt. Zane Blackthorne can’t resist visiting his late buddy’s beloved Vermont hometown. He also can’t resist looking up Joe’s sweetheart, Karla, who is an alluring mix of brains, beauty, and bravery.
Loyalty to his brother-in-arms demands Zane fight his attraction to Karla. Besides, even if Karla wants him, she’ll never love him.
Can Zane say goodbye to the woman he has no right to call his own?
Even if his only true home is in her arms?
Excerpt:
She lifted the heavy steel lid of the dumpster with her left hand and held it aloft while she hoisted the garbage bag up with her right. It wasn’t the easiest maneuver to accomplish, but her chores at the tavern constituted the only exercise she’d consistently done in years. At this point, lifting these colossal bags was second nature.
“Can I give you a hand?” A guttural male voice pierced the quiet.
A scream lodged in her throat, but she froze without giving it voice, her thoughts racing. Who in hell was messing with her? She didn’t recognize the harsh voice, and Karla knew every soul in Willow Springs, not a difficult feat in her small hometown.
The garbage bag fell to the ground as she rounded on the intruder, taking an offensive stance.
“Who’s there?” Her gaze darted around the deserted alley behind her establishment. “Who is it?” she said again, injecting more aggression into her tone.
A shadow separated itself from the trees across the road, his tall figure camouflaged by black jeans and a black leather bomber jacket.
He eased toward her slowly, raised his big hands palms out and chest high in front of him.
“I didn’t mean to startle you, miss er, ma’am, ah, Karla.”
Karla? Karla? He knew her name? And she had no idea who he was? She backed up fast, her shoulders pushing into the dumpster.
“Who are you? How do you know my name?” In spite of the inner voice telling her to control her response, her voice shook. Her mind reeled before she forced it to snap back into focus. Fight or flight? Pressed as she was against the garbage container, there was no fast way to get back inside the “tavern; nor judging from the length of his limbs could she make it past him round the bend to her house down the road. Fighting this enormous guy off would not come easy even if she had a weapon to level the odds. Her gaze swept over the barren, sodden ground in search of a shovel or a broom but she already knew she wouldn’t see anything useful. Her tidy nature guaranteed every piece of equipment was where it belonged in the storage closet at the back of tavern. She opened her mouth to scream.
He kept his hands lifted in front of him as he spoke. His roughly voiced words spilled out fast.
“Don’t. It’s okay. I was…I was walking by. I saw you.” When he said, “I saw you” he jerked his chin at the name on her jacket. ARMSTRONG was stamped in black block letters over the chest pocket of Joe’s jacket. “I served with Joe.”
Her gaze flew to his face, but his expression was unreadable. She straightened her spine to her full five foot eight, assessing him and the situation with fresh perspective. Big and broad, he was taller than any of her brothers so he was probably six-foot-three or four. His demeanor was quiet and serious, his tone respectful. He called her ma’am, for crying out loud. This was Joe’s senior NCO. This was First Sergeant Zane Blackthorne. Joe had been his driver, then his friend.
“Sergeant Blackthorne?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“You scared the shit out of me just now.” Her shoulders relaxed and she cracked a rare smile. “I almost screamed the whole town awake. And please, don’t call me ma’am.”
“I won’t…er, Ms. er…Karla. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
She forced a shrug, in spite of the adrenalin still powering through her. “That’s gonna happen when you creep up on somebody at two-thirty in the morning. What are you doing in Willow Springs, sergeant?” The garbage bags weren’t going to stow themselves, so she turned back and lifted the lid of the dumpster as she asked him. He stepped around her and grabbed the garbage bag at her feet, tossing it inside the dumpster like it was a candy wrapper.
“I’m passing through on my way to a job interview. And my name is Zane.”
She tilted her head to give him a discreet onceover. What had Joe told her about this man? Something about his solitary nature and commitment to serve. What job was civilian Zane Blackthorne going for? The one and only time she’d ever met him, he’d been in his dress uniform at Joe’s funeral. She’d pushed memories of that awful day into the deep recesses of her mind. All memories of the years Joe was away were likewise lodged in the far reaches of her memory. It was the only way she knew to cope. She couldn’t forget, but she didn’t want to actively remember either. The grief counselor had urged her to live in the present while honoring the past. Impossible concepts she struggled to master every day. She wasn’t there yet. She flat out couldn’t think about the past. Why was this man here dredging up her pain?
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Award winning, NYC author Charlotte O’Shay is the middle child of a big family who married into another equally boisterous large family.
Arguing, er…negotiating skills honed at the dinner table led her to a career in law.
After four beautiful children joined the crowded family tree, Charlotte traded her legal career to write about happily ever afters in the City of Dreams.
Charlotte challenges her heroines and heroes with a crisis then watches them figure out who they are while they fall in love.
Tell us your inspiration for this story.
That’s easy. Karla Payne. I met Karla Payne, sole proprietor of the Stone Hearth Tavern when I was writing my first Deerbourne Inn romance, FOREVER IN A MOMENT. She had a chip on her shoulder so big she couldn’t help casting shade on my main character/heroine Samantha DeMartino. The two women clashed in Forever in a Moment and it was clear Karla’s pain went deep. Luckily Samantha gives as good as she gets and the two resolved their differences—eventually.
But I kept wondering why Karla was so sad underneath her bravado and my readers asked if she’d ever get her happily ever after.
Once I started to delve deeper, I saw Karla’s combative nature masked her inability to share a secret, painful event she sought to forget after the death of her beloved Joe. But those kinds of wounds fester and Karla had some emotional growing up to do. It was hard for her to go there because she was independent, self-sufficient and very successful living life on the surface with her business and her family.
When Zane arrived on the scene, she’s attracted to him and it shocks her. As ever, she wants to control the situation between them but soon all the walls she carefully constructed around her emotions and her life in her hometown begin to crumble. The question became—would she allow herself to grab another chance at happiness and with a person who appeared to be the antithesis (personality-wise) of her deceased fiancé, Joe? Or would she allow the fear of additional hurt to keep her rooted in the past?
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Good luck with the book! Can’t wait to read it!
Thanks so much, Jennifer!
Another Deerbourne Inn novella to read! Yippee! Congrats and Good luck!
Thanks, Tena 🧡
YAY! COngrats!!!!
Thank you, Peggy! 😍
Happy book birthday 🎈🍰
Thanks, Donna! 💛
Congrats on the new release! Sounds like a great happily-ever-after story!
Loved the excerpt! Sounds like a good story.