E.E. Burke's Valentine Unveiled

Valentine's Special: 99 cents 

Meet a hero named Valentine

The first book in my series The Bride Train features an English aristocrat named Valentine. It wasn't by accident that I chose the name. Releasing a book around Valentine's Day might've had something to do with it. I wondered where the name had come from, and in researching the origins, conceived a story about a man who sets out on a journey to live up to his name.

The surname Valentine is a very old, distinguished Anglo-Saxon name, and my hero, Constantine Valentine, is a second son of one England’s noblest families. 

In the late nineteenth century, a number of aristocratic families sent their sons to America to toughen them up, and in hopes that they might make their fortunes, or at least make something meaningful out of their lives. 

Val sails to America after losing his inheritance and embarrassing his family with his flagrant lifestyle. He hopes to regain his fortune and return home to repair his tarnished reputation.

What's in a name?

Valentine comes from a Latin name Valentinus, from the root word valens, which means strong and healthy. The word “valor” comes from this root. 

Indeed, Val is very strong man. He stands six feet-six inches, which in his day meant he towered over other men. He’s also strong willed. But even a strong man is bound to have a weakness. In Val’s case, he suffers from what we know today as Attention Deficit Disorder. Being misunderstood and ridiculed for his impetuous nature has a devastating impact on his life, and it takes a special woman with a great capacity for love to help Val overcome his past.

Meet Valentine's Rose

Rose Muldoon, an Irish laundress, grew up in Five Points, a crime-ridden slum in New York City that housed a large Irish immigrant population. After tragedy strikes, Rose signs on with The Bride Train, and heads west to replace what she's lost. Val’s aristocratic background as far from her world as the sun is from the moon, but Rose is determined and knows what it means to fight for what’s important, things like family and love. 

I won’t spoil the story by telling you how Rose and Val end up together, but I will say these characters discover things in each other, and themselves, that make them a surprisingly well-suited couple. It just takes awhile for Val to realize this.

I’m running a Valentine’s Special on this book through February 15. Buy it for only 99 cents (normally $2.99). 

Apple iBooks | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | 

Tomorrow, I’ll give you a sneak peek at Book 4 in The Bride Train series, with a cover reveal and exclusive excerpt.

Win a sweet treat!

Over the next two days, you can enter a Valentine’s drawing for a chance to win artisan chocolates from Christopher Elbow (my favorite local Kansas City chocolate artist), or a copy of Valentine's Rose.

Do you remember your first or favorite Valentine? It can be a card or a gift or a story. 

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