It's been a year since I published my last book, A Bride for Brynmor (book 1 in my Songbird Junction series), but today I have a new book to share with you...
A Bride for Heddwyn (Songbird Junction, book 2)
now on pre-order & going live tomorrow, Oct 2!
To celebrate, I've put both books 1 & 2 on sale for $0.99 until Oct 9th. Or you can read them (like all of my books except for the one for my newsletter subscribers) for free any day with Kindle Unlimited.
What's this story about?
Well...there's a Welshman (named Heddwyn) who can't stand still and an Irish-Cree Métis musician (named Oriole) who's running away from her troupe manager...and every lie she's ever told. And she's told quite a few!
A Bride for Heddwyn - Opening Paragraph
Denver, Colorado
January 1878
The church bells rang for Lark and her husband, but they’d never ring for Oriole. Unlike her sister, Oriole couldn’t depend on love, and no one could depend on her. All she could do was run from her past and present, which included the dangerously distracting Welshman who kept glancing over his shoulder and insisting they needed to talk.
A Bride for Heddwyn - Book Blurb
Secrets are everywhere…
From the moment she met her sisters in a Qu’Appelle Valley orphanage, Oriole has rewritten her past to protect her present. Now Lark is married, Wren is lost, and Oriole is on a mission to find Wren before their cruel and controlling troupe manager does. In order to succeed, she must cling to her lies and evade the only man she ever let come close, the fast-talking Llewellyn brother who deserted her without a word.
Second chances are few…
From the moment he first heard Oriole sing with her sisters in a Cheyenne saloon, notoriously scatterbrained Heddwyn Llewellyn’s desire to change gained focus. Until tragedy struck. To protect his brothers and sister, Heddwyn turned his back on love and the only woman who’d ever riveted his attention—all while refusing to talk to him. Now, after two years apart, Oriole’s finally back in his life and so is a shot at redemption.
The Songbird Sisters’ quest for freedom may have reunited Oriole and Heddwyn, but it’s also tearing them apart. Her sadistic troupe manager is more than happy to maim and murder to get his money-making musicians back. Can two hearts always on the run finally stand still long enough to save each other and their love too?
And who will help them?
Friends & family from Noelle & Denver, that's who!
A Bride for Heddwyn (set in January 1878) is book 2 in my Songbird Junction series, but it contains several characters from my Christmas stories: The Calling Birds, set in 1876, and Robyn: a Christmas Bride, set in 1877.
And of course, those characters include Grandpa Gus Peregrine! When there's meddling to be done, Gus will never be content to stay behind Peregrines' Post and Freight's counter sorting the mail. Not when he can get out and give advice for fixin' young folks' lives. And what does Gus have to say about (or at least say in) Heddwyn and Oriole's story?
Something about "Horsefeathers" 🤠 And even though I know that word wasn't used until 1927, I feel Gus is a visionary in many areas, including his colorful vocabulary.
The owner of Denver's Music Emporium, Mrs. Fitzgerald (first seen in A Bride for Brynmor), is back as well. And she's giving Gus a run for his money in the meddling department. Her word in this story is "fiddlesticks," which luckily is a word first recorded in the 1620s. Mrs. Fitzgerald likes order as you'll see from this snippet...
The shop owner shook her head so vigorously her expertly styled—and controlled—cloud of white hair appeared in danger of falling. “Fiddlesticks. You cannot turn your back on your birthright or your talent.”
No matter when a word was first used, I hope you enjoy the words I've written and will join Heddwyn & Oriole for their Wild West adventure in Colorado 1878.
And if you'd like to read a longer excerpt, click here to visit A Bride for Heddwyn's book page on my website.
Jacqui ❤️
Fall in love with a new Old West...where the men are steadfast & the women are adventurous.
Website: JacquiNelson.com
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