A BRIDE FOR KEEPS - Melissa Jagears - One Free Book on This Blog, Plus Another Free Book for All

Here's another new author. Welcome, Melissa. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

None are a perfect reflection of me, but a lot of my characters get something from me, even if they’re my total opposite. Kind of like my children, my daughter looks a bit like me, but sometimes I wonder where she got everything else!

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

I think that would be showing off my Velociraptor impression to my college dorm mates. It requires jumping on furniture, and I like to stand on furniture for some reason. I’m part Billy goat.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

I didn’t grow up writing novels with crayons or anything, but I just had this innate sense that I could do it, not that I ever did. I threw my ideas in a box and that was that. Then when I became a stay-at-home mom and left behind the academic exercise of school and work I was desperate to exercise my mind. So I pulled out the box…

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I’m rather cliquish with my reading choices. As a kid, nothing was better than Nancy Drew, so that’s all I read. Once I was ahead of the Nancy Drew Publishing Mill, having to wait a month or so for the next to come out—I quit reading, because nothing could be better than those, right? But now I read Fiction genres: Christian Historical Romance, Historical Young Adult, and Classics and for Non-Fiction: Religion, History, Parenting, and Education Topics. However, I’ll read anything outside of those genres that have garnered serious word-of-mouth recommendations.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

When life turns hectic, I take the time to reconsider what I’m doing and deciding if this really matters? And if the answer is no, I drop it. I’ve dropped a lot of things, no TV, hardly eating out, the desire to have a nicer home, my kid’s have limited extracurricular activities, I have limited extracurricular activities, etc. Rather, I just want to focus on what is best in life for my family, and that’s time together at home doing things we love and things that are important—attempting to ignore the pressure of the western world to do more and have more.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

Some just pop in my head. The others … I look at what letters of the alphabet I haven’t used to name other characters and see if I can pull something up that fits. If all else fails, I flip through a baby name book. I just go by feel.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Somehow convincing my husband to marry me … I’m a rather strange, uncommunicative, introverted, and unromantic girl.

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

A cat, so I could sleep all day and come out to play only when I felt like it. And everyone waits on me because I deserve it. I’d love to be that selfish and not feel bad about it!

What is your favorite food?

Sugary Pastries

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Fear of Failure. Turning things over for others to criticize. How do I overcome it? Sheer willpower.

Tell us about the featured book.

A Bride for Keeps is the first novel in the Unexpected Brides Series.

Although Everett Cline can hardly keep up with the demands of his homestead, he won't humiliate himself by looking for a helpmate ever again—not after being jilted by three mail-order brides. When a well-meaning neighbor goes behind his back to bring yet another mail-order bride to town, he has good reason to doubt it will work, especially after getting a glimpse at the woman in question. She's the prettiest woman he's ever seen, and it's just not possible she's there to marry a simple homesteader like him.

Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiancé. Having finally worked up the courage to leave her life in Massachusetts, she's determined to find a place where people will value her for more than her looks. Having run out of all other options, Julia resorts to a mail-order marriage in far away Kansas.

Everett is skeptical a cultured woman like Julia could be happy in a life on the plains, while Julia, deeply wounded by a past relationship, is skittish at the idea of marriage at all. When, despite their hesitations, they agree to a marriage in name only, neither one is prepared for the feelings that soon arise to complicate their arrangement. Can two people accustomed to keeping their distance let the barricades around their hearts down long enough to fall in love?

The prequel enovella, Love by the Letter, is a free download at any bookstore offering ebooks.

Love by the Letter (An Unexpected Brides Novella) - Kindle

I love mail-order bride stories. Please give us the first page of the book.

Kansas

Spring 1876

Everett Cline loosened his grip on the mercantile’s doorknob and let the door shut behind him. Kathleen Hampden waddled straight toward him, the white feathers in her hat dancing like bluestem grass in the late March breeze. In the three years she’d been married to the store’s owner instead of him, couldn’t she have bought a new hat?

He hadn’t talked to her alone since the day she arrived in Salt Flatts with those identifying white feathers he’d been told to expect, but he hadn’t anticipated her being married to Carl before she stepped off the train. Why hadn’t she thrown her hat out a passenger car window and pretended she’d never been his mail-order bride?

“Afternoon, ma’am. Is your husband around?”

He glanced behind the long glossy counter cluttered with candy jars and sundry items and saw that the door to the empty back room stood ajar. The two overflowing shelves that cut the store into thirds kept him from being able to see into every corner. The fabric table was a jumbled mess, and a few potatoes lay on the floor in the corner, escaped from their bin. Were they the only ones in the store?

Mrs. Hampden stopped three feet from him, the tang of the wood polish on her rag warring with the leather and tobacco smell permeating the room. She was such a tiny thing, even large with child. Perhaps it was a good thing she married Carl. If she worked outside as Everett did every day, the wind would have blown her away sooner or later.

“Mr. Hampden’s away on business, otherwise he’d have rushed out at the bell. Especially since it’s you.” Her cheeks pinked.

Carl needn’t worry about him. Stealing someone’s mail-order bride was different than stealing someone’s wife.

Everett fidgeted. “He has no reason to be concerned.”

“I know.” She rubbed her swollen stomach. “But he’s still worried your good looks might make me wish I’d chosen differently.”

The skin under his collar grew warm, and he pulled at the strangling fabric. He might be a decent-looking sort of man, but a lot of good that did him.

“I hope you have better luck today than you did with me, and you know ... the others.” She bit her lip. “I’m sure this time it will be for keeps.”

He swallowed hard and eyed her. What was she talking about? Surely another rumor about him ordering a bride again wasn’t circulating. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“It’s all right. Rachel told me.” Her voice was hushed, as if someone might hear.

He leaned down and whispered back. “Told you what?”

“About the lady coming on the afternoon train. She said you’d need prayer.”

I know I’ll love this one. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Website: www.melissajagears.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissajagearsauthor

Inspirational Historical Fiction Index: http://inspirationalhistoricalfiction.blogspot.com/

Thank you, Melissa, for sharing your new book with us.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
A Bride for Keeps - Christianbook.com
Bride for Keeps, A: A novel  - Amazon.com
Bride for Keeps, A (Unexpected Brides Book #1): A novel - Kindle

Christian Book Store

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