#RomanceSunday #SweetSexySadie

Title: Sweet Sexy Sadie

Author: Christine Young

Email: achristay@aol.com

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Book Heat Level: 5

Buy at Amazon

REVIEW: Sweet Sexy Sadie

Carin for My Reading Obsession

Sweet Sexy Sadie is a quick read with a fun plot line, Sadie is researching the migration of butterflies for her thesis she meets Brody when her car overheats in the desert pretty soon the car isn't the only thing overheating. Sadie also has a stalker of a paranormal variety. 

The action happens quick and without a lot of back story to have this come out novella length. I enjoyed the chemistry that is immediate between Brody and Sadie. I liked the paranormal element to her stalker and the bond that Sadie and Brody share to overcome the trials in their path to happiness. 

This time of year with the kids in school you have lots of chances to sit and wait this is the perfect length book for those times and you can get in a fun love story while you are at it.

BLURB: Sweet Sexy Sadie

From the first time Sadie’s eyes met those of Brody McKenna in the hot Sierra Madre Mountains, theirs was a potent attraction—not gentle, slow, and easy, but hot, hard, and all-consuming.The daughter of a dysfunctional family, Sadie had dreams no man could wrench from her with hot sex and an all-consuming passion. She’d challenge this alpha male with all the strength she possessed. But her red hair, fiery temperament, and indomitable spirit obsessed Brody...and he knew he had to find a way to show her he was more than he appeared and convince her to make a life with him.

EXCERPT: Sweet Sexy Sadie

Princess... 

Brody prowled through the boulders and sparse timber. Heat from the sun warmed the earth. He'd just finished his daily run and was about to shift back to his human form when he caught sight of the sexy lady in short shorts. He lifted his head and sniffed, smelling the wind and finding the heady scent of lemon in the air. 

My God! The sight of the girl sent shock waves reverberating through him. Tremors swept through his body, his heart lurching then stopping for a split second. Brody needed to see this lady close up. He'd had dreams about her—he just 

didn't know who she was or what she was going to be to him. And he'd never clearly seen her face. He was about to do just that. He'd never thought he would meet the woman he'd been dreaming about. And there she was, standing beside her overheated 1990's mustang. 

His heart screamed at him. His senses whirled on overload and every nerve ending felt as if it snapped. Currents of electricity jolted through him in a tat-tat-tat machine gun blast. The sensations were even more intense than when he shifted to his jaguar form. He found his clothes then changed into human form, hopping on one foot as he tried to get both feet into his jeans. Then jumping as if that movement would help the zipper close. 

Wiping sweat from his brow then checking to see if he'd fastened his pants, he sauntered toward the girl who had let her car overheat in the desert. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to say, but he'd figure that out as soon as possible. Nice to meet you seemed boring. 

A good pick up line here would be nice. Every rational and coherent thought vanished from his head. Numb and empty, he stood behind her and rocked back on his heels. Sweat beaded on his forehead then trickled down the side of his face. He couldn't take his eyes off her cute little butt, which was sticking up in the air as she seemed to study the engine of her car. When she shifted feet and her rear swayed from one side to the other, he knew he needed to put his hands there, on her hips and oh so gorgeous curves. 

Princess... 

"Uhh..." he began. 

She jumped. "Oh!" Then turned and her smile melted his once jaded heart. Damn and double damn. This was all good, so good. And she was real good. 

"Need some help?" Brody asked as he pointed to the car and the sizzling engine that appeared to need water. Lord, but he needed some of that H2O stuff. His parched mouth cried out for help and liquid. All his smooth evaporated. 

She kicked the tire with a flip-flop clad foot. "I need this piece of junk to run and it doesn't want to." Flipping her hair to the side, she looked back at the object of her wrath and obvious frustration. 

"Let me see." He walked to the front of the car and peered inside. If anything, he was trying to give himself time to think of something intelligent to say. At the moment, the thoughts forming in his mind would send her running in the opposite direction. 

Excerpt: Sweet Sexy Sadie

Sadie didn't know what to make of Brody. Exceptionally handsome and charismatic, he'd made her smile the first time she saw him sauntering down the road toward her. Good lord, but he looked as if he owned the world. Tall, tanned from the sun, amber-green eyes that sparkled as if he saw some light humor in everything. He was wiry and sleek; a quickness about him surprised her. His blue-black hair was tied back with a leather thong, his chin angular.

Perhaps he did own this part of the Sierra Madres. His family seemed to own most of this town.

Her research had brought her to this place, Cactus Junction. Now the prospect of getting to know an interesting man would be an added perk. In the bathroom she slipped out of her clothes and into a tepid shower. A few minutes later she emerged squeaky clean and ready for the next part of her adventure.

Unpacking her clothes and taking out her laptop, she opened it. What do explosive experts do? Hmmm....

Why, they blow up things. What would he blow up around here? 

Lord but that sounded crazy to her. Before typing in the necessary info to pull something up on Google, she leaned back, relaxing into her chair. The wallpaper was outdated, and the old fan complimented the air conditioning. She realized she liked the atmosphere.

Enough musing. Mining in the Sierra Madres. Let's see, it says here they mined silver as early as 1521.

Sadie scrolled down the paper. Ok… Montezuma, in 1492, was already drinking hot chocolate from goblets made of gold. Maybe she should be studying this instead of her research thesis. The migration of butterflies. Once she'd thought the topic was romantic. Chasing after butterflies…

So what are they doing now? Junior drilling companies…She wondered if that was what the McKenna Clan was, a junior company. How soon was too soon to ask? Probably not on their first dinner together. Knowledge brought power and she firmly believed everything happened for a reason. Then her chance encounter in this place was not a coincidence.

This says the companies are drilling to find the ore. So… Do they still need explosives? If not, he didn't do much for his day job. Perhaps the family had millions stashed away. At first glance this hotel was theirs and Brody had told her the land this town sat on belonged to them. But millions in the Caymans? Probably not.

She closed her laptop. Then leaning back, she shut her eyes and tried to cleanse her mind of all thought. A little catnap might be in order, but her heartbeat so fast she didn't think sleeping was a plausible scenario. Eager to meet the McKenna Clan and begin her research, her body was wound tight as a rubber band ready to snap.

The bag of chips in her purse seemed to call to her just after her stomach growled its discontent. Trying to ignore the excessive calories and her empty belly, she rose and wandered to the window. Dinner would be that much better if she waited. Outside, the sun still beat down and one could see heat waves decorate the street. 

The air conditioner chose that moment to blow out cold air. Sadie wrapped her arms around herself then turned the monitor down a notch.

Back at the window she looked at the street below. A man walked down the sidewalk, and as he grew closer, he stopped and shielded his eyes then gazed up to her room. Sadie's breath caught in the back of her throat and another chill swept through her. This time it wasn't caused by the air conditioner. The sight of the man sent an eerie feeling to the pit of her stomach. She stepped back in an attempt to remove herself from his line of sight.

The knock startled her away from the window. She jumped, afraid it might be the man she'd just seen but knowing it wasn't.

"Sadie? Sadie, you in there?" Brody called from outside the door. Damn, but she'd recognize his voice anywhere. A smile crossed her face. She meant to forget the stranger.

"Come in." Sadie looked back to the street below. No one was there. Once again she rubbed her arms. She felt as if a ghost had just swept through her, leaving her cold from her core outward.

"You okay?" Brody stepped inside, looking concerned. 

"No, I don't think so. I…" Pausing, she hesitated to tell him what had just happened. What she'd felt. He'd think she was crazy. 

#Sci/FiFantasySaturday #OnceUponAChristmasMoon

Title: More Than a Star Traveler

Author: Genie Gabriel

Genre: Paranormal

Book Heat Level: 1

Buy at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Read first chapter

TAGLINE

Chessie Durand and her collie travel through stargates on angel assignments, discovering different worlds and the extent of her supernatural powers through a merkaba necklace gifted from a man who has loved her for many lifetimes.

BLURB: More Than s Star Traveler

To come back to Earth Three in his collie form, Chap agrees to go on Angel Assignments with his beloved human. Chessie Durand is sometimes amazed and sometimes frustrated as she learns how to use the powers of a mystical necklace given to her by a man who has loved her for many lifetimes. 

Peter Stravel knows Chessie is his Chosen One when he travels through the stargate to her dimension. However, their love and their lives are threatened by those who want to destroy Chessie before she realizes her full power as the One who travels in the light of the merkaba. 

Their survival depends on learning to trust their love and use their supernatural powers, as they team up with animals who play a special role in their lives.

EXCERPT: More Than a Star Traveler

I smell smoke.Chap lifted his nose to the air, then climbed out of his bed next to Chessie’s to open the french doors into the conservatory in the middle of the farmhouse.

Stars twinkled in the night-time sky, seeming unaware of the curl of smoke rising from the trees to the west of the farmhouse.

“Woof!” Chap returned to Chessie’s bed and nudged her awake. I smell smoke and it’s close. Too close!

The sleepiness instantly cleared from Chessie’s brain. She shoved her feet into the shoes that constantly waited beside her bed since she and Chap had started their angel assignments, then rushed out into the conservatory. “Omigosh! Wake the others and let’s get the sprinklers going to soak down the buildings.”

As the others stumbled from their beds, RT shouted, “Go to the barns, Chessie, and talk to the animals to calm them. I’ll turn on the pump in the creek to start the sprinklers.”

Peter joined Chessie as she ran toward the barn. “I can see flames. This fire is moving fast.”

“Let’s get the animals to the stargate. We can escape through there.”

Peter turned in a slow circle. “It’s all around us. This is no accident.”

Chessie followed his gaze and realized Peter was right. “Bring the animals to the pool. I’m going see how the merkaba commands water.”

When Chessie touched her necklace, she instantly materialized in the middle of the pool, envisioning the waters splitting to flow around the farm and extinguish the flames.

Soon, Peter and Kiki and the dogs appeared, shepherding the animals from the barns toward the water. The animals milled around, uneasy as the fire closed in around them.

RT splashed alongside the creek to help, coughing from the smoke now settling over the meadow. “The water’s rising in the creek, but we need more. The flames are still coming closer.”

“Chap, what can you do with angelic connections?”

Calling on them now.

I’m here too.Grandfather Alston appeared among the flames. Why didn’t you call me earlier?

“Knew you’d want to come in at the last minute and play the hero.”

“Maybe we can add some rain to go with the waters of the creek,” Peter said.

When Peter took Chessie’s hand, fat raindrops began falling around them.

“Did you feel that surge of energy?” Chessie touched Chap and the rain increased. “Kiki, put your hand on Chap’s head. RT, Grandfather–”

On it.Alston’s image shimmered between Kiki and Peter, forming a human and angelic chain between the advancing fire and the animals.

“The creek’s rising again and spreading out.” RT yelled as the rains fell harder and harder.

The roaring beast of fire hissed as the waters of the creek challenged its advance, and the rains pounded the flames from above. With the roar of the flames muffled by the water, the reassuring sound of sirens became audible in the distance.

Before the group could catch a breath of relief, human screams erupted as a strange man ran across the meadow grass toward them.

No, not a stranger.

“I’ve seen that man before,” Chessie said.

The arsonist we saw in the park planning to frame someone else for a fire he started. He’s also the man we saw by the fire near Gio the Cat’s house.Chap stood protectively between Chessie and the man now close enough to see the fury etched on his face.

“You cannot take this victory away from me!” He threw the contents of a red can toward the group then flicked a lighter. The shield of the merkaba activated instantly, forming a clear, glass-like container that trapped the arsonist inside with the gasoline and the flames.

Close behind him, Deputy Doug Burkhart drove across the bumpy ground in a sheriff’s SUV. He screeched to a stop and flung open the door, staring at the sight in front of him. “What the–”

The arsonist stood encased in a clear shield. Flames still burned, though all that remained of the man was the expression of impotent fury on his face.

Doug slowly approached and walked around the crystalline flame sculpture, then lifted his phone to snap a photo of the arsonist. “I guess Brant Aagney truly went out in a blaze of infamy.”

Only the first media cameras to reach the scene recorded the mysterious face in the flame. By morning’s light when law enforcement wrapped up their investigation, no sign of what used to be a human remained. Only a beautiful crystalline sculpture in the shape of a flame.

Website URL: http://www.GenieGabriel.com

Blog URL:http://quantumcanines.blogspot.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GenieGabriel/

#Friday'sFeaturedTitle #Storm'sPassion

Title: Storm's Passion

The fifth book in the Twelve Dancing Princesses Series

Author: Christine Young

Email: aandcyoung@aol.com

Genre: Historical Romance

Excerpt Heat Level: 2

Book Heat Level: 3

Buy at: Amazon,

REVIEW: Storm's Passion

Reviewed by Kinky Vanilla

http://www.kinkyvanillaromance.blogspot.com/


By all accounts, Storm Graham is brazen, strong-willed, and beautiful. She despises her father and loves her horses. So when Storm discovers that her father has signed a contract that forces her (and her horses) into the hands of one of the region's wealthiest and most despicable bachelors, she does not take it lying down.

After evaluating her options, she determines that her best bet is to convince the region's wealthiest bachelor to marry her. She believes that Hadden Johnston's money and power can protect her from the evil clutches of Charles Robertson (and his father). In return, she can offer her interest in the family's horse and brewery businesses. The problem? Hadden and Storm are merely business acquaintances and neither is really interested in getting married. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Storm has nothing to lose by proposing marriage. Well, maybe a little pride. And Hadden knows all too well the ugliness that lurks in Charles' mind. How could he not try to intervene on her behalf? Combine that with the sparks of attraction between Hadden and Storm, and you'll end up with a marriage of convenience that had me wanting my own Hadden. 

"This is an outrageous game you're playing Miss Graham. But I do understand how loathsome marrying Charles would be. I wouldn't wish it on my best friend and for some reason I've a need to protect you." -  Hadden Johnston

Rich, powerful, and cruel, Charles is also not one to take things lying down... 

Storm's Passion is a fast-paced, easy-to-read novel. I read it over a weekend. Luckily for us readers, the marriage turns out to be more than Hadden and Storm bargained for. They have a chemistry that is fun to read and watch grow. Storm isn't the stereotypical damsel in distress. She is a heroine that you really get behind and pull for as the story plays out.

I think that Storm's Passion is a great choice for people who enjoy historical romance stories. I must admit, I was a little thrown off by the book cover at first. It didn't really scream historical romance to me. But don't let all that hunkiness fool you. The book is set in England in 1818.

I look forward to reading more of Christine Young's work.

Blurb: Storm's Passion

SHE MADE A PROPOSAL...

Life strikes Storm Graham a shattering blow when she learns her father has bartered her to a man she detests. Storm is beautiful, self–assured and fiercely independent, and refuses to be a pawn in her father’s schemes, yet she can find no way out of this bargain made in hell. Going on the offensive she asks the wealthiest man on the eastern coast of England to marry her, never believing she might fall in love. 

HE TRIED TO REFUSE...

For Hadden Johnston life has provided everything he ever wanted, including a sanctuary for homeless children. He is wealthy, handsome and happily unencumbered...until stunning Storm Graham marches into his life and proposes a marriage of convenience. Yet this type of marriage to a woman who inflames his senses is far from acceptable. If he’s going to be tied down, he will move heaven and earth to have this woman warming his bed.

EXCERPT: Storm's Passion

“Did you or did you not set out to seduce me?” he queried, laughing a bit inside but relishing her innocence.

“Yes, yes I did,” she told him.

Her honesty might just be his undoing. “What if I told you your plan was a success? Consider me thoroughly seduced and ready for your next plot.”

“Oh, I don’t have one.” She lowered her lashes before looking back to him.

He bent over and kissed her, their lips melding together. Take it slow. Don’t scare her. You don’t want her to tell you to stop.He groaned, bloody hell that would be hard. For a moment, he wished she did have an agenda because he bloody well wasn’t sure about his.

His tongue traced the seam of her lips, parting them slightly. They’d been down this road before, and he hoped she remembered the other kisses, sweet poignant kisses but innocent as hell.

Smiling when he heard a tiny moan of pleasure, he deepened the kiss. His hands around her waist, he pulled her closer, and the feel of her breasts against his chest sent a funnel cloud of heat coursing through him.

Sensations so deep he’d never felt anything like these flowed inside. Spreading his hand on her back, he waited for another response as his tongue reached inside her mouth, tasting her, exploring.

She ran her fingers through his hair then tugged his head closer before releasing him and their first contact.

“Is this how seduction feels?” Her warm breath feathered across his cheek.

When he looked down, he saw breasts and shadowed, titillating cleavage. Deep evocative sensations pulsed through him. He moved his hand from her waist across her bared shoulder, the contrast mercuric. The urge to dip his finger into the valley between her breasts overpowered common sense. She’d purposely designed the dress for him, for his touch. She was lush and ripe, and he realized she was not protesting as he had expected.

.

#HighlandMagic #HistoricalRomance

Highland Magic

Christine Young

Excerpt Heat Level: 1

Book Heat Level: 3

Buy at Amazon: 

REVIEW: Highland Magic

4.0 out of 5 stars February 24, 2013 By  H. Murphy "H"

I have enjoyed this series. Strong alpha highlanders....what more could a girl want. The heroin is strong but sometimes just doesn't think....but that makes for the drama. Off to the third book.

BLURB: Highland Magic

Throughout the Highlands she is known as Keely, the witch woman. She is a great healer-a woman whose dreams come true. Ian MacPherson is a man who puts honor, loyalty and duty above everything. Their lives are entwined when Ian is sent by the Scottish King to bring Keely to trial for witchcraft. He is attacked and left for dead, but Keely rescues him. When he wakes, he discovers he has no memory. As he remembers his lost past, Ian finds that his need to protect the woman who has saved his life eclipses his duty to his king and country. He is a man torn between honor and duty to his country and the woman he loves.

Excerpt: Highland Magic

Scotland, Summer 1513:

For a moment the man's gaze met hers, bored into her heart, questioned. Blood curdling war cries rode the wings of death through the timeless night. Claymores clashed. Dark eyes the color of midnight flashed a challenge. The holy man's opponents hesitated then lunged once more.

Moonbeams reflected light from the gold chain he wore around his neck. Brown robes fell from massive shoulders. Three more enemies appeared from the trees. The priest fell to the ground, wounded by the broadside of his enemy's weapon. Motionless, he lay on her flower-strewn meadow, blood staining the grass and wildflowers, marring the colorful, summer landscape.

Keely Gray woke, heart pounding a rapid staccato. She pressed against her throbbing temples with sweat-slick palms, hoping to ease the horrific pain that always accompanied the dreams. Death--the scent of blood, fear and treachery still hung heavy in the darkened hut. The prickling sensation radiating from her spine to encompass her body was too familiar.

She listened and heard nothing.

A dark void impaled her. The usual night sounds stilled. She heard no hoot of owl, no chirp of crickets, no croak of frogs, nor could she hear the mournful sighing of the wind through the branches of the old oak trees.

Silence emptied her heart as well as her soul, leaving only an ever-present loneliness.

Keely wanted nothing more than to cuddle into her bed and pull the covers over her head. Despite the unspeakable agony deep in the pit of her stomach, she rose from her pallet. Her limbs trembling, she slipped a shapeless tunic over her head and soft-soled shoes onto her feet. As she swept past the front door, she grabbed her woolen cloak.

Light from a full moon illuminated the path. She could see, but she could also be seen, the moonlight both a curse and a blessing. Approaching the meadow she'd watched in her dreams, she slowed her pace and waited. Her fingers wound tightly around the amber pendant she always wore, her only keepsake from her mother.

The sounds and scents hovering on the wind would tell her if danger still lurked. Caution guided her. A vigilance she'd learned long ago held her motionless.

 A familiar dragging sound reassured her she wasn't alone. "Whipple?" she whispered.

A self-appointed guardian angel appeared as if from nowhere then nodded, though there was a wary cast to his faded blue eyes. "Aye, lass, I'm here. I heard ye leave your hut. I would not leave ye alone to face whatever dangerous mission awaited."

Keely waited for Whipple to close the distance between them before she spoke. "I would argue with you about your appearance here at this great hour, but I ken it would do no good. You should not be here. Your heart--"

Whipple spat. "My heart is fine."

She determinedly stepped forward, approaching the meadow of her dream, knowing she wouldn't like what she found.

"Have it your way, then." Given a choice, Keely wouldn't have come to this meadow. But she had to know the truth--had she seen the future or something happening at that very moment?

Whipple didn't reply. On his clubfoot, he followed her, his trailing leg sliding behind him with a soft swish. The hard thud of his crooked oak cane followed at a slightly skewed interval.

Together they crested the hill. Below her, she saw her dream. A priest lay on the ground, his head twisted at an odd angle. For a moment her heart stopped. She bit down on her lower lip while she studied the man.

#HighlandHonor #HistoricalRomance

Highland Honor

Christine Young

Excerpt Heat Level: 1

Book Heat Level: 3

Buy at Amazon: 

BLURB: Highland Honor

Highland Honor

The first book in the Highland Series

Willfully stubborn, innocently courageous, Callie Whitcomb braves a journey through the treacherous highlands to the Macpherson castle. Callie flees from an unwanted marriage as well as her ruthless half brother. Naively she believes Colin MacPherson, the head of the clan, is loyal to her father and will give her sanctuary, protecting her from the vile plans that have been made for her.

As hard and as unyielding as the winter storms that sweep through the countryside, Colin is irresistibly drawn to the impetuous beauty who has magically appeared on his doorsteps. Despite his vows of revenge against her father, she stirs his passion as well as his sense of justice...but to love her would violate all his vows of revenge.

EXCERPT: Highland Honor

Scotland November 1512: 

A heavy frost sat on the frozen earth, and a full moon shone clearly between the heavy clouds dotting the sky. Lady Callie Whitcomb looked over her shoulder as she raced through the deepening gloom toward the lighted tavern ahead. Every shadow, every mournful sigh of the wind sweeping through the trees, every chilling animal sound filled her with terror. Fear for her life drove her to put all thoughts of danger aside. He would follow her, find her, and drag her home. 

Home. 

"Don't think of that now," she reminded herself fiercely, even while tears stung in the back of her throat and fear made her limbs tremble. "Don't ye dare think of home. It no longer exists." Nothing and no one could coax her back or make her believe there was naught but terror in the home where she'd been born. 

"I will never marry Lord Huntington. Never!" she whispered fiercely, the chill night air solemnly echoing her words. 

Her stepbrother, Archibald Covington III, made sure she could never return. 

"There ye be, lass! I've been waiting for you." 

The voice rose from nowhere and surprised her. Her heart froze, lurched, then began an erratic beat, while raw nerves snapped, sending a myriad of sensations racing down her spine. 

"Archibald--" she whispered, panic sweeping through her. "He's found me." All she could hear was the pounding of blood in her ears. 

Before she could reach her destination, before she could find safe refuge from him, his men had found her. No! Not now. Not when she thought she had eluded them all. 

A wave of fear sweeping through her reminded her, that if caught, she would be taken back to Archibald and forced to marry Lord Huntington. 

"I'll help you down, lass." 

"No." 

Before she could react and spur her horse forward, callous, rough hands centered on her waist then pulled her from her mount. 

"No!" She cried out to no avail. Regaining her wits, she beat fiercely upon the man's broad chest, tearing at his face and his thick beard with her fingers. 

"Ach, lass! Hold still! I mean ye no harm. Stop this--" His voice was gruff and impatient. 

Fear for her life had spurred her haste. Terror she might see Huntington or Archibald with each turn of the road haunted every hour of her journey. Archibald had retainers everywhere. Messages would have been sent. A highlander could be bought. 

"Ruffian! Unhand me! Ye barbarous Scotsman." 

If Archibald had guessed what path she followed... 

"Verra well, ne'er let it be said that I dinna do a lass' bidding." Just as suddenly as he'd grabbed her, his hold upon her vanished. She stumbled backward. 

Instantly, she found herself sitting on the frozen earth. The man towering above her watched her with concerned dark eyes. Despite the scar stretching from forehead to chin, his mouth quirked upward in a humorous slant. 

"Ye be a handful, lass." 

Mary of A Romance Review says, "Overall I liked the story and can recommend it as a worthwhile read. The author has a lot of talent and the plot and tension of the story are well handled."

#TellTaleTuesday #TheJamSetter

Title: The Jam Setter

Author: Susan Downham

Genre: Women's Fiction

Book Heat Level: 3

Buy at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Blurb: The Jam Setter

Von has been the keeper of the family secrets for half her lifetime. She has kept them close to her heart but after a visit from her favourite niece she decides it is time to share them. As the secrets are shared, two distant families collide. Von leaves her picturesque haven of Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania for Scotland. Her niece Jennifer travels with her. It is in Scotland that she finds her own peace as she puts the family’s secrets to rest. As everyone reveals their own truth about the past, Jennifer, Von’s niece finds love in the most unlikely of places.

EXCERPT: The Jam Setter

Von Ellis loved playing bowls. She had taken it up after her husband passed away, and to her amazement, loved it. She wouldn't admit to anyone she wished she'd taken it up years earlier when her knees were in better shape and her joints didn't ache so much on winter mornings. Von had never been the sporty type, more the traditional homemaker type. A handful of close friends and Dougie by her side, she hadn't thought she needed anyone else. 

When she first joined the local bowls club, she thought she would never fit in. It was her old friend Gwen who insisted she join. Gwen needed something to keep her mind busy, and besides Von knew she couldn't just stay at home moping about being shitty with the world because she lost her Dougie. Though some days were still a struggle she now had new reasons to get out of bed.

She had to admit she was shitty with the world. There seemed nothing fair about the whole thing. Dougie retired, they had plans, and they had a whole life to live together without the burden of a mortgage, children to raise or school fees to pay. The freedom of being children free often brought couples unstuck, and over the years Von had seen a few parents split once the kids left home. They had a name for it now, empty nest syndrome, but back then when she and Doug found themselves as empty nesters she didn't have a fancy name for it, but she knew it smelt like freedom. Not that she had ever felt burdened with the children, far from it, she'd loved being a fulltime mother and never regretted the choices she made. When they found themselves alone, she and Doug thrived. Not long after they had the house on their own her cycle slowed to almost a stop. This did wonders for their sex life. She knew for others it didn't always work that way, but for Von, who always suffered, she felt like she had been born again, a whole new woman. 

They'd talked about Doug's retirement for the five years before the day finally arrived. They bought a campervan second hand, and Doug fixed it up so it looked brand new, and inside they revamped it so it had every mod con they could think of. Von, a list maker, made a list of the things they already had that they would need to pack into the campervan and another list of what they would need to buy. She had lists stuck inside the cupboards of what food would be going where so she knew what food would fit. It made Maureen laugh and tell her there were supermarkets on the mainland. Von knew this but she had concerns about being stuck out on the Nullarbor without enough food to eat. She hated to go hungry and didn't want to ever do that again.

They had been into the city to the map shop and spent an hour with the lovely lady who helped them choose a plethora of maps and travel guides. They had three maps pinned up around the lounge-room and made notes on them all, as they worked out the route they intended to take. Doug had friends he'd worked with who spent four months a year in a caravan park in Queensland, and they marked out a month to spend with them. Von also had a sister who moved to Alice Springs in the early nineties and they made plans to visit her.

When they had first told Maureen and Kathryn about their big adventure, the girls weren't very interested, but as the date edged closer, so did their nerves. Maureen didn't want them to go at all. She was worried who would look after the children if she and Eric wanted a night out. Kathryn just worried her parents were too old and too clueless to manage such a trip. They never had anything positive to say about their parent's plans. Steven simply shrugged his shoulders, and as long as he wasn't needed to do anything, he didn't care. He'd always been like that even as a toddler. He was only concerned with what was going on in his world and not with what was going on outside of it. Because he seemed different to the girls, Von asked her doctor about him several times but she told her Steven was just Steven and all children were different.

He didn't have any learning difficulties, in fact he was quite the opposite, he seemed to learn at an accelerated rate and adapted to the IT world like a fish to water. It had never been something either Von or Doug understood. He just understood how anything electronic worked, pulled things apart and fixed them and when he got into computing he learned how to write complex programs. He'd wanted to join the army straight out of high school, but Doug wouldn't hear a thing about it. He had older cousins who fought in the Second World War and neither of the two nephews who had been drafted into the Vietnam War came home. He was as patriotic as the next man, and if there was a war in his own backyard, he told Steven he would fight. He wasn't going to let his son go off and fight someone else's war in a foreign country. Steven waited until he was in second Year University, and then he enrolled. He came home with the paperwork all filled in; being over eighteen he didn't need his parents' permission or approval.

Doug told Steven he was a bloody fool and walked out of the house. Von cried and tried to talk Steven out of it. It didn't matter as his mind was made up. Now he was forty-six and still working for the army. He'd been deployed in all the hot spots and now he was in a consulting role, which Von didn't understand. His last mission had him travelling to the Middle East acting as a political advisor.

After Doug's funeral the girls decided, without consulting their mother, that the house in Stewart's Bay would be sold and she would go and live with one of them. Maureen wanted her more than Kathryn, but Kathryn was keen for her mother to visit for a month in the January school holidays. Neither of the girls thought to involve Von in their plans. They even talked to a real estate company to arrange an inspection before telling their mother of their plans.

Von had been livid, and she wondered how she managed to raise such self-obsessed insensitive girls. Prior to the real estate agent turning up unannounced on a Wednesday morning only weeks after the funeral, Von had been thinking of asking Maureen if she could spend two nights a week with her and Eric and the children, so she wasn't completely on her own.

The day the real estate agent turned up Von wasn't sure what he was doing there. Still she made him a cuppa then showed him through the house. He was impressed and told her so when they sat on the front porch with him talking about how the values of the houses in the area had gone up. It had once been a haven for holiday makers who built little shacks for the summer holidays. With an aging population, many people moved permanently into the area. This pushed the prices to new sky high levels. Von clicked what was going on half way through the house tour, and after a cuppa and pleasant chat, she'd given the real estate agent his marching orders. He apologized and explained how Maureen had contacted him and told him she wanted to sell. She denied her own need for company by vowing never to sleep under her daughter's roof again. 

That was what Doug loved about her; she was pig headed, stubborn, honest and real. That's what he used to say about her. She always stuck to her guns. Staying at Stewart's Bay was the same thing. She stuck to her guns and wouldn't be moved by anyone. She wished she'dbeen able to just pack up the campervan and take off as she and Doug planned, but she couldn't. It wouldn't have been the same without him. They'd planned to go skinny dipping at Monkey Mia, make love in a tent at Uluru, make love in the ocean at Cable Beach and a lot of other things that included being naked and being in love. At fifty-six, when Doug's heart gave way, people were surprised because they thought him to be much younger than his years. His mother had been the same.

She missed the sex, Doug had been a very demanding husband, and she always enjoyed being naked with him. Of all the things about Doug she could miss, it was lying naked in bed with him, feeling his arms wrap around her from behind him hard against her, rubbing himself on her bottom or back. Sometimes it used to drive her spare that he wasn't more romantic in the bedroom, and now it was the one thing she missed the most.

It was also something she never talked to the girls about. She grinned as she thought of what their faces would look like if she said to them I miss your father's hard penis rubbing against the back of me. She smiled and tried to focus on what was being said.

She wished this day was a bowls day, but it wasn't. Instead seated at her kitchen table yabbering on was her youngest daughter who arrived unannounced the night before, seemingly to chastise her for her lack of a decent diet and her obsession with beach walking.

Von did wonder who's business it was if she went beach walking or not. It was her life and she was feeling determined to live it out any way she chose to. Not that her children were at all happy with her decision. They were still on to her to sell the house and move back up to the city with one of them, permanently. Someday she walked up and down Stewart's Bay Beach, which was a short four hundred meters long. Other days she walked along Half Moon Bay Beach or Eagle Hawk Neck Beach or she went around to Premaydena and walked out there in the shallows.Mostly she walked with Gwen and Harriett, her two best friends. 

Von was a lot of things, she mused to herself as her daughter turned the pages of the newspaper and sipped her coffee, but stupid was not one of them. Von was still eighteen in her head, young and virile and full of life.

"I am serious, Mum, it worries us you are down here all alone and, well, what if you had a fall or something?"

"If I have a fall, Maureen, I will pick myself back up and ring the ambulance."

"What if you can't pick yourself up?"

"Then I will pull my mobile phone out of my pocket and ring the ambulance."

"I don't think that is the answer, you have all those stairs off the deck. What if you slipped down those?"

"How old do you think I am, Maureen? I am only sixty seven."

"Only sixty-seven" she said, not keeping any of her sarcasm out of her voice.

"God, Mum, you will be seventy in a couple of years, but you think you are a young woman, and you aren't."

Von turned her back on Maureen and stared outside at the strip of bright green grass that was being flood lit by the sun pushing through the trees at the side.

She remembered it was Thursday, which meant Harold had to be coming to get the gardening done. She liked Thursdays, as she liked talking to Harold. At least he was close to her age and remembered all the things she did. 

"Are you listening to me, Mum?" Maureen's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes, dear, I am listening to you, and I get it, the three of you are worried about poor old me sitting down here, on the peninsula on my lonesome, about to drop off the perch at any day. It has just occurred to you that in three years I will be the ripe old age of seventy and you will need to measure me up for a wooden casket." She hadn't meant it to come out so sarcastic; she never used to be sarcastic. She found it was something that was coming with age, and it seemed it ran in the family. 

"Mum, now you are being ridiculous. We are just worried about you all alone, and I have a big house. You could come and live with us up there," she spat. Von noticed what it was Maureen didn't say. She didn't say her husband's name. She thought back to the night before and she couldn't remember Maureen saying Eric's name once. She talked about the kids, about her charity work and about her friends, a subject Von neither cared nor wanted to know about, but apart from her asking Maureen how Eric was, his name hadn't come up. 

"Oh, am I dear? Sorry, I do know how you hate me to be ridiculous," Von flicked the kettle on again and got two cups out.

"I don't want another cuppa, Mum," Maureen said, flicking the newspaper loudly.

"It's alright, Maureen, I wasn't getting a cup out for you," she said spooning the coffee in and turning the cups around so the handles were facing the outside of the bench. 

"Oh, god no, Steven was right, you are losing it." Maureen said.

Von rolled her eyes, wondering to herself if stabbing her daughter was wrong. She knew it was but still the thought gave her some relief. She wondered what was going on with Maureen; she dared not ask her if it was change of life. The last time she mentioned the idea Maureen turned a horrible shade of white and nearly slapped her face. 

She poured the boiling water in and gave the cup a stir, checking the clock up on the wall, the background around the numbers faded and the black plastic now grey in places. It had been a gift a long time ago from Dougie. Even though Maureen and Kathryn gave her new clocks over the years, she just couldn't bring herself to take this one down.