Title: Dakota's Bride

Authors: Christine Young

Genres: Historical, Romance

Available: Feb 18, 2010Online Link:

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.aspx?daoid=5969Score:

4.25 / 5

Review:

Emma St. John is on the run from a very dangerous and evil man, her stepfather. Upon her mother's mysterious death after a long illness, Emma overhears her stepfather discussing how he systematically poisoned her mother until she died. After hearing this devastating news, as well as hearing her stepfather's horrible plan for her, Emma decides to run away taking her younger sister Clare with her. They are both now on the run and Emma's stepfather has accused her of murdering her own mother, kidnapping her younger sister and stealing her own inheritance money.

Emma has an older brother, Jacob, who left years before their mother died, to make a life of his own away from their stepfather. The only resource Emma has is to follow the instructions left by her own brother in a letter on the day he left, telling her that if she should ever need help to seek out Dakota Barringer for assistance. Paying for passage on the paddle wheeler boat owned by Dakota, Emma and her sister have a room aboard the ship; however, Emma is expected to work as a serving girl to the many men on board. By the turn of luck she ends up assigned to serve at Dakota's table, but before she has the time to let him know who she is and what she needs, their chemistry for each other, and a little wine, do the trick to bring these two together in other enticing ways.

Betrayals, hidden agendas, dangerous Pinkertons looking to collect on the reward offered for Emma's capture and an endearing love story outline this unforgettable tale. I followed along the trails with Emma and Dakota eagerly awaiting the resolution of their story. This is definitely a page-turner you will not want to put down.

Purchase ebook or print at: http://www.roguephoenixpress.com/

Sunshine Award Paty Jager

gave my blog a Sunshine Award.

Thanks Paty!

According to the guidelines, now that I picked your blog you need to:

Put the logo on your blog in a post.

Pass the award onto 12 bloggers. Link the nominees within this post.

Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award. So here are my twelve Sunshine

Award nominees:

Rogue's Angels

Genene Valleau

Alice Sharpe

Anne Patrick

K.J. Dahlen

Kevin Voglino

Melody Tink

Nickie Flemming

Preston Sexton

G.L. Loyd

G.L Didadelusky

Clay Renick

Scene writing 101:

Even if you are a panster, like me, plotting each scene is way too important to forego. I go through many steps when I decide what will happen in my scenes.

First: I make sure I know whose POV I'm in.

Second: I write the first sentence and try to write the last sentence. Knowing how the scene will end and making it a cliff hangar sot the reader will keep turning the pages is important.

Third: the scene has to be set.

I always include the internal and external conflict. The hurdle that has to be jumped as well as the character change. Every scene must move the characters forward on their journey.

Knowing who your characters are and how they will react to everything is of ultimate importance. Your characters cannot grow through the story unless the author knows where they came from. Their past will create their future.

Have fun writing scenes but if you're a panster like me, you should still take a real look at plotting your scenes if not the entire book.

Dakota's Bride,

I'm celebrating the rerelease of Dakota's Bride. Twelve years ago in December, Dakota's Bride was released by Kensington. It was my first published book and I had the great honor of Kate Duffy editing my book. Kate was a legend in the field of publishing. She passed away this last fall and the writing world mourned her loss. She was great fun and had a fantastic sense of humor.

Dakota's Bride is the first published book in the series that began with a book called Ghost Dance. Other books in the series include: My Angel, The Locket, The Talisman, and Forevr His.

www.roguephoenixpress.com