Monday Musings with Rachelle
Stand with anybody that stands right.
Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.
–ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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Romance, Suspense, Mystery Author
Fall is the perfect time to fall in love with these clean and wholesome reads! If you’re in the mood for a romantic suspense, I’ve got you covered.
Diamond Rings are Deadly Things is a Prime Reading book! That means if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can read this book for FREE for the next month, so take advantage of it while you can.
Diamond Rings are Deadly Things by Rachelle J. Christensen
Adrielle Pyper knows how to plan a wedding, and she’s especially good at pleasing bridezillas. But when her biggest client and best friend is murdered just three days before the wedding, Adri’s world falls apart. She moves to the resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho, and starts from scratch. Thanks to Adri’s impeccable taste and unique style, she lands two celebrity clients, and her business seems headed for success—until someone vandalizes the specialty wedding dresses she imported from overseas. Adri must race to uncover the secret hidden within the yards of satin and lace before she becomes the next victim.
With a delightful blend of mystery, toe-curling kisses, humor, and spine-tingling thrills, Diamond Rings are Deadly Things will keep you turning pages long into the night.
I have some other sweet romances to share with you today. Have you read either of these books yet? Let me know what you think!
Abundantly Blessed by Rachael Eliker
Katie Holloway is content in Blessings, Kansas, the town that’s the only family she has ever known. When her best friend shows up with Will, the handsome older brother that Katie hasn’t seen in years, Katie is determined to prove to him that small-town living has its virtues.
After his father’s injury, Will Ryan reluctantly agrees to come back to help with the harvest but wants to get the job done sooner rather than later. When he sees Katie all grown up, he reconsiders his rush to leave. There’s just one problem: she’s his little sister’s best friend and that makes her off-limits.
With the harvest taking longer than anticipated, Katie puts Will to good use arranging a Thanksgiving meal for townsfolks who could use a place to go. As they grow closer, an opportunity presented to Will threatens to end it all before their love has a chance to blossom.
Sweet, shy Clara embarks to Spain to pursue her dream of becoming a travel writer, but after one run-in with her doppelgänger, Isabella, Clara’s impersonating a Flamenco dancer for a troop that’s facing financial ruin.
Spicy Teyo becomes Clara’s Flamenco mentor, teaching her to embody everything that is Isabella. Passing as someone else isn’t easy for Clara, especially since Isabella is the spice that once caught Teyo’s eye.
With no sign of Isabella’s return, Clara feels obligated to continue the switch, even if it means letting the press think Teyo and Isabella are dating.
When passion ignites between Clara and Teyo during tourist-filled days and dancing nights, Clara knows her heart’s in trouble.
Is it too much to hope that their sparks are real, or will their sugar and spice burn up on the dance floor?
Catch a Falling Star by Cindy Roland Anderson
Londyn Montgomery has had enough of doing what her parents want, especially when they’re determined to marry her to a man who isn’t faithful to her. She decides to run away, hoping to find out who she is and what she wants out of life. In her desire to escape a life of being controlled, she speeds straight past Sheriff Owen Hudson and narrowly avoids a ticket. She vows to stay off his radar, but destiny has other ideas, placing Owen and Londyn on a path that leads straight to a future neither one of them planned for.
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I LOVED Glass Slippers, Ever After, and Me! This clean, contemporary romance had the perfect infusion of romance, wit, and wisdom. Wright made me fall in love with the characters of Charlotte (Lettie) and Anders. I enjoyed reading about Lettie and her dreams of becoming a published author. I loved how this story tiptoed along, pulling Lettie further and further into the demands of social media perfection and becoming a puppet for “what the world wants”. It tugged at my heartstrings to see Lettie making tough decisions and fighting for what was right for her heart.
I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book. My husband kept asking me, “What?” and I would read him a line and he would laugh along with me. A good romantic comedy is something I’m always craving in my busy life. This book will make you smile, laugh, and ponder. Read it! I’ve read all of Julie Wright’s Proper Romance novels and trust me when I say, you don’t want to miss any of them!
Here’s more about the book:
Can the fairy tale bring Charlotte the happiness she’s looking for, or was he always there to begin with?
A modern, reimagined Cinderella story.
Charlotte Kingsley loves to write and dreams of having her reimagined fairy tales published, but she keeps getting rejected over and over. And to top it all off, her best friend, Anders, gets engaged, making her realize she s going to lose the Prince Charming who lives next door. After another rejection letter from a New York publisher, Charlotte decides to switch gears. What if she wrote a book about celebrating women for who they really are instead of trying to create a fantasy world for them to visit? She could call it The Cinderella Fiction, fill it with practical advice for living authentically, become ridiculously successful, and then find the confidence to tell Anders how she feels before it s too late.
Encouraged with her plan, Charlotte s new book practically writes itself and incredibly a small boutique publisher makes a quick offer to publish it. Though the publisher is well-known, it s a small company with limited resources. Charlotte worries about the book being successful and decides to sink her entire advance into hiring a premier publicity firm to make her book a bestseller. She also discovers that Anders has called off his engagement, and wants to try a relationship with Charlotte. Suddenly her fairy tale dreams seem to be coming true.
However, Charlotte’s publicist has very specific ideas about how to market the book and the author. Which means Charlotte with her average looks, cluttered apartment, and penchant for raspberry fudge ice cream will need to undergo a total transformation in a social media makeover which will have to exclude her best friend Anders. After all, people who see Charlotte’s perfect imperfections through a carefully curated Instagram account will relate and naturally want to buy her book. To achieve this perfect social media account, there is a chance that reading something like this mr. insta review could help to make up her mind about whether enlisting the help of an Instagram growth service will help to give her the results she wants to see. Will she do it?
At first, Charlotte is excited to enter this fantasy world and play dress up, and Anders reluctantly agrees to go along with it, even though it means he’s largely out of Charlotte’s social media life and hidden from her public life entirely. Gone are the days of posting in sweatpants, taking photos of take-out dinners, and chronicling just hanging out. And even though her life is now filled with book tours, parties, and publicity events, she wishes she could have Anders with her in private and in public to complete her fairy tale life.
The toll of her new life soon proves exhausting. Telling women to be authentic even while she herself is undergoing elaborating staging to get just the right image for her social media accounts makes her feel like a fraud. She hasn’t written anything new in months, and her relationship with Anders is falling apart. During a publicity event, Charlotte meets one of her favorite authors, someone who has more than thirty bestsellers. When she takes Charlotte under her wing, Charlotte is sure she has found her fairy godmother. Rather than helping her change her outward appearance, this seasoned author helps Charlotte see the beautiful person she already is and the worth of being authentic.
In the end, Anders feels like his relationship with Charlotte is just another one of her carefully curated images, a side-note even, and he decides to head home to his native Finland. Though she tells herself he’ll come around eventually, Charlotte needs to decide what she believes in: the fairy tale persona, or the woman Anders has always loved before he’s gone forever.
Other books you may enjoy:
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The changing of the colors is breathtaking and so are these delightful clean and wholesome romances! Every season brings a breath of romance to it, but there’s something especially great about the sweet romances read during the autumn season. Here are a few clean reads for your seasonal enjoyment!
Lost Memories and New Beginnings by Lorana Hoopes
She has no memory, no idea of who she is or how she landed in the hospital. The only thing she remembers is fear, but fear from what? Will her memory return in time to save her from danger?
Dr. Brody Cavanaugh thought he was done with love when his wife passed away. Now, a mysterious woman has appeared in his life, and something about her intrigues him. But when her past paints a different picture of her, will that tear him apart?
And what happens when the owner of the black Ford truck returns?
Totally Scrooged by Carly Morgan
After Harper catches Grayson kissing another woman, she swears off Christmas, determined to ignore everything about it. When her grandmother asks her to come to Petunia, Texas and help with the costumes for the annual play, she reluctantly agrees.
Grayson still can’t believe Harper won’t let him explain. He intended to propose and now she won’t speak to him. Heartbroken over Harper’s unwillingness to believe in him, he heads to Petunia at his grandmother’s request to help build sets for the town’s annual play, A Christmas Carol.
Even when Harper sees Grayson, she still won’t talk to him.
Can a ghost from the past, present, and future help Harper give Grayson a second chance? Or will she allow bitterness to send her down a path away from the greatest love of her life?
*** This is a standalone with a sizzling sweet happily ever after. ***
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I wrote on article on a topic that I think is important for our kids in today’s world of dating. I would love to have you read it and let me know your thoughts. Parenting teens is a tough road and I hope these are helpful tips for you and your kids. You can read it HERE:
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