Are you ready for a gorgeous cover reveal? Well, look no further. I adore this cover. Something just feels homey about it. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it has a beautiful red head and smokin hot man candy on the cover!
Presenting...... Finding Home by Ninette Swan. Drool over the cover, read an awesome excerpt and don't forget to visit her links!
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Blurb:
"Jessica Deitermeier is on the run from her family and from herself. The rings her mother bequeathed to her upon her untimely death are worth millions, and her uncle will apparently stop at nothing to get them.
She makes her way from Boston to Minnesota and finds work on a small farm. Everything goes smoothly for six months...until the farmer's 'prodigal son' comes home. The dark, moody Ben Elkers shakes Jessica on a level she doesn't understand. When she sees the way the family pulls together, she makes a decision. Even though she wants to stay and see things through with Ben, she has to go home and stand up to her own family.
Ben Elkers is a failed businessman. When he loses all his money in bad investments, he makes his way home to Sauk Centre. After leaving his parents without so much as a phone call for the holidays, he's surprised when they welcome him with open arms, but even more surprised at the fiery red-headed girl sleeping in his old bed.
After a whirlwind Christmas, she up and leaves, and Ben starts to understand what he must have done to his small-town family and friends. When a business decision finally goes right, he takes off to find Jessica, this time taking pains to stay in touch with his roots.
Will either of them ever find home?"
She makes her way from Boston to Minnesota and finds work on a small farm. Everything goes smoothly for six months...until the farmer's 'prodigal son' comes home. The dark, moody Ben Elkers shakes Jessica on a level she doesn't understand. When she sees the way the family pulls together, she makes a decision. Even though she wants to stay and see things through with Ben, she has to go home and stand up to her own family.
Ben Elkers is a failed businessman. When he loses all his money in bad investments, he makes his way home to Sauk Centre. After leaving his parents without so much as a phone call for the holidays, he's surprised when they welcome him with open arms, but even more surprised at the fiery red-headed girl sleeping in his old bed.
After a whirlwind Christmas, she up and leaves, and Ben starts to understand what he must have done to his small-town family and friends. When a business decision finally goes right, he takes off to find Jessica, this time taking pains to stay in touch with his roots.
Will either of them ever find home?"
Excerpt from Finding Home
Jessica Deitermeier twisted a wet cloth in her hands, relishing
the feel of the warm water against the frigid December air. Taking a job on a
Minnesota farm had been both the best and worst decision she’d ever made. Since
starting during the summer, she’d seen her hands chafe then crack, the skin
drying from keeping stalls clean and milking the cows. Her heart ached with
loneliness. The farmer and his wife were kind employers. They put her up in
their son’s old room and kept her warm and fed on top of her small salary, but
they had no money for additional staff, and Jessica spent most of her days
alone.
She was homesick, but it was better than sticking out a
miserable life in her lonely Boston apartment with her only family an extended
one she didn’t know and couldn’t trust. When she’d left the city all those
months ago, she’d had only enough money for a train ticket. The farthest she
could get was Minnesota.
She gritted her teeth and shivered into her down parka. Cold as
it was in Sauk Centre, it was better than shelving groceries in Boston for
minimum wage. She lived with kind people now. And her uncle would never find
her here.
Jessica swept her eyes over the now-clean barn, looking for
messes she may have missed. The old farmer, Harold, had joined with a half
dozen other farmers in the vicinity, forming an alliance to bring in more money
for local produce. He’d been gone for two weeks, on a sales pitch around the
state to expand their farm’s exports. It was up to Jessica to keep everything
running in the barns until he got home.
Ellie, the farmer’s wife, baked pastries and scrubbed
vegetables to sell at local flea and farmers markets. As the winter set in,
Ellie had taken to canning goods and helping Jessica care for their animals.
She set down the rag, took off her wool cap and shook out her coppery tresses.
Her red hair and green eyes often garnered her stares in town, and to combat
it, she walked with her head down and a cap firmly over her unruly mane.
Her goal here was to be unnoticed, quiet and safe.
The sun was setting, meaning it was past four p.m. Ellie, the
farmer’s wife, would need help with dinner, as Harold was set to return
tonight. Jessica smiled to herself as she thought of the love between the
simple couple. She was sure Ellie would prepare a feast. The farm had been
quiet in Harold’s absence, and his easy presence would be welcomed back with
open arms.
Tugging on her snow boots, Jessica tucked her old jeans into
the cuffs to battle the three-foot drifts then started the trek back to the house.
She reached into her coat pocket, pulling out a flashlight and clicked it on,
even though the last thin beams of sunlight still shown over the ground. Better
to scare any animals she might meet before they had a chance to scare her.
* * * *
Ben Elkers sat in the warmth of his battered Ford SUV and
looked up the steep driveway with a mixture of longing and unrest. It had been
three years since he’d last set foot in his childhood home. He hadn’t meant to
never visit his parents, but after spending his youth immersed in farmhand
life, he’d been so excited to set off in business, he’d made little time for
his past.
Those dreams of a corner office with a view of Manhattan’s
skyline had shriveled in front of his eyes when his major investor had pulled
the plug on his fledgling business idea. Defeated and alone, Ben had nowhere to
be this Christmas. So he decided to go home.
Apprehension twisted in his gut. Would his parents welcome him
back with open arms? Would they turn him away? He’d been too nervous to call
ahead of time. His mother would cry, but would they be tears of joy or
disappointment? Lord knew he was disappointed in himself. To have to start over
at age thirty, to have to make amends to the only people who’d ever loved him,
the very people he’d spurned in favor of a bright new future, it was humbling.
The driveway hadn’t been plowed. His father must not be home.
Either that or he was too old to do it. Plowing had always been Ben’s job,
anyway. He turned off his truck’s old engine and grabbed his overnight bag from
the back. The other suitcases would have to wait. Even Ben, with his lean
muscle and strong frame couldn’t wrangle the boxes up the hill leading to the
house.
He shivered against the sub-zero temperatures and pulled his
hood over his black hair, thankful that he’d let it grow out a bit. The ends
nearly covered his ears, giving him added heat. Slinging the bag over his
shoulder, he trudged up drive, the sound of crunching snow giving him a deep
sense of home and belonging as he went.
He could almost smell his mother’s apple pie, and his mouth
watered for her beef stew. It had been hours since he’d eaten anything and
years since he’d had anything worth eating. He started going over his entrance
speech in his head when a flash of light dragged him out of his thoughts.
“Hello!” he shouted. “Who’s there?”
The light switched off.
Ben stopped, listening closely, but he heard nothing except
occasional snow dropping off the pines.
Shrugging, he continued. It was probably just his dad coming
back from the barn.
* * * *
Ninette Swann is a 30-year-old romantic suspense writer. She's published two other books at Resplendence Publishing: Hit and Stay and Body Combat. Finding Home will be released December 19th. She has a menage thriller coming out in the new year through No Boundaries Press. In her other life, she spends her time parenting her four-year-old twins, and writing news articles. You can find her work on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble, among other booksellers.
Links:
@ninetteswann
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