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About the books:

All She Wants –

Homeless! Lenise Reid never thought that would be her story.

Widowed with a baby, Lenise was making it work as a single mother until a fraudulent transaction wipes out her balance at the bank leaving her with no money. Living paycheck to paycheck takes on new meaning as her world is turned upside down, and she ends up sleeping in her car.

Cole Bennett’s first date with Lenise was all he needed to know she was a woman he wanted to pursue, so when she ghosts him, he goes on a mission to find out why. What he finds is a woman so wounded that even in her most desperate state she struggles with his charity.

Cole has more to give than Lenise knows how to receive. Will past hurt keep her from accepting the most precious gift God has to offer?

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All He Needs –

People marry for financial reasons all the time, but it’s usually not to get their own money!

Marriage settles a man or at least that’s what Zeke Bennett’s great-grandmother believed. Only a settled man will inherit her millions. Fast forward 70 years and the only settling Zeke wants to do is on a business deal. The opportunity of a lifetime is dangling in front of him, but poor Zeke doesn’t even have a girlfriend. Well, he does, but she’s his best friend and he can’t marry her—can he?
Rachel Ingram is in love with her best friend, Zeke, but he doesn’t know it. Fortunately for her, she has a Team Ingram—five sisters with a plan for how to turn Zeke’s head and heart in Rachel’s direction. In a game that begins with lies and manipulation, Rachel must fight hard to flip her fake marriage to a real one. Will she discover God’s plan would have been better?

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All They Need –

It was his second chance and nothing was going to keep them apart.

Harper Ingram needed the job her ex, Logan Bennett, had to offer. Without it, her design firm would be bankrupt in months. But working for Logan was proving to be more difficult than she imagined. Long hours, hot Vegas nights, and an irresistible attraction make her easy prey for his affection. Just when she’s ready to risk it all, an ugly accusation leaves her wondering if she knows him at all.

Logan walked away from Harper before, and he never told her why. He’s determined to get her back by any means necessary. A chance meeting opens the door for opportunity neither can resist. Can Logan convince her to trust him again, and is he willing to tell her why he broke her heart the first time?

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All The Cowboy Wants –

He has something she needs.

She has something he wants.

Neither expected the complication called love.

Journalist Addison Ingram has yearned for more serious bylines and being assigned to interview Stone Bennett of the upcoming “Bachelors of Atlanta” series isn’t a part of her plan. She loathes rich, entitled men like Stone but interviewing him is a means to even meatier stories. However, Stone is not the man she thought he was and that discovery could lead to more than she bargained for.

Stone Bennett wrangles horses and women but he never gets attached. No woman has held his attention for more than a night and he doesn’t expect things to be any different with Addison Ingram. Then he hires her as a ghostwriter for his passion project and the chemistry between them makes him yearn for more than a business relationship. Stone thought he didn’t need love, but will he discover Addison’s heart is what he wants?

This is a novel length sweet romance.

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All They Want –

One betrayal led to another. Will Ethan and Lauren forgive each other and find their way forward?

Lauren Ingram is out of time. The secrets she’s kept and the lies she’s told are unraveling all around her. It doesn’t help that the love of her life, Ethan Bennett, has changed into a shrewd businessman who is determined to have his way no matter who he hurts, including her.

Ethan has always loved Lauren, but when she comes home carrying a secret that breaks his heart, he’s not sure if he can trust her, ever again. Her manipulative ways are revealed over and over. He questions what there really is to love about her, and whether he’s just obsessed with having her because he likes to win.
Lauren denies her love for Ethan. A girl has to protect her heart. She also wonders if anyone, including her sisters, will ever forgive her and more importantly, can she forgive herself and God? When a horrible accident happens, Lauren has to decide if she can risk being vulnerable to discover the happiness she’s always wanted.

This is a novel length Christian romance.

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All The Pastor Wants –

Rory Bennett is a pastor with deep pockets and a heart of gold. Though he loves his ministry, all he wants for Christmas is for Sweet Delights Bakery owner, Robin Pendleton, to see him as a man and not just a preacher.

Robin Pendleton has been fighting her attraction to her handsome pastor/long-time friend Rory, but she has hurt, responsibilities, and secrets that make her question if she’s worthy of all he has to offer.

Will a meeting under the mistletoe change their lives this holiday season?

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All She Needs – Jackson Bennett and Meisha Merriweather

Pre-order HERE

New Releases

What’s new and coming soon in faith based fiction?

Available Now!

It seems like a dream come true . . . until it forces her to question everything.

Brielle Adebayo is fully content teaching at a New York City public school and taking annual summer vacations with her mother to Martha’s Vineyard. But everything changes when her mom drops a bombshell–Brielle is really a princess in the island kingdom of Ọlọrọ Ilé, off the coast of Africa, and she must immediately assume her royal position, since the health of her grandfather, the king, is failing.

Distraught by all the secrets her mother kept, Brielle is further left spinning when the Ọlọrọ Ilé Royal Council brings up an old edict that states she must marry before her coronation, or the crown will pass to another. Brielle is uncertain if she even wants the throne, and with her world totally shaken, where will she find the courage to take a chance on love and brave the perils a wrong decision may bring?

Click Here to purchase.

Available February 22, 2022

Separated at birth

and determined to become a family.

“She looks like me!” When her orphaned niece utters those words, Kelsey Harris is shocked—not only that Morgan has a long-lost twin but that the grieving five-year-old spoke at all. Overjoyed by Morgan and Mia’s instant connection, Kelsey and Zach Johnson, Mia’s widowed adoptive father, agree to be friends—and only friends. But can they ignore their growing feelings when the matchmaking sisters put their plan into action?

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Available March 4, 2022

Mustafa DuBois-Arazi doesn’t give second chances.

But Zaina Bakari needs one to redeem herself.

The legacy of his family’s luxury resort, Grand Amour is on the line, and he’ll stop at nothing to preserve it. Even if it means working with the woman, he vowed never to set eyes on again.

For Zaina, life is great, well almost. The way she handled Mustafa, constantly weighs on her conscience. Years later, she’s in his presence again as his environmental consultant. She wants a chance to explain but he’s not the same man she once knew.

Click HERE to preorder.

Available March 8, 2022

When three women find their lives inextricably linked after a terrible mistake, they must work together to make the most of their futures.

Alexis Marshall never meant to cause the accident that left Jon-Jon Robinson paralyzed—but though guilt plagues her, her husband hopes to put the past behind them. After all, he’s in the middle of selling a tech business—and if Alexis admits to texting while driving, the deal could collapse and cost them millions. Meanwhile, Alexis’s life is not as shiny and perfect as it may seem from the outside. She has secrets of her own. As she becomes consumed with thoughts of the young man she hit, can she reconcile her mistake with her husband’s expectations?

Trish Robinson is just trying to hold it together after the accident that left Jon-Jon dependent and depressed. As the bills pile up, Trish and her husband, Dwayne, find themselves at odds. Trish wants to forgive and move on, but Dwayne is filled with rage toward the entitled woman who altered their lives forever. Trish can’t see how anything good can come from so much hate and strife, so she determines to pray until God intervenes. Then one afternoon Marquita Lewis rings their doorbell with a baby in her arms and changes everything.

Vanessa Miller’s latest inspirational novel reminds readers that differences may separate us, but if we cling to each other, God can bring something good out of our very worst moments.

Click Here to preorder

Available March 29, 2022

Founded by the ton‘s most ingenious countess, the secret society The Widow’s Grace comes to the aid of ill-treated widows and wives and helps them regain their fortunes, their families, and sometimes discover true love. . .

For adventurous heiress Cecilia Charity Thomas, marrying charming military lieutenant Viscount Gantry to save him from danger—and herself from mercenary suitors—was a painful mistake. Instead of a passionate life together, she’s stranded at his chilly mansion with his unaccepting family. Worse, she finds he is actually a spy dedicated to duty over wedlock—and secrets over trust. So when she hears her sister has been driven to her death, Cecilia is determined to expose the powerful man responsible. Assisted by The Widow’s Grace, she flees to Covent Garden with a new identity. But can she elude her formidable husband—even as the desire between them continues to flare even hotter?

Always calm, forever controlled, Gantry has put everything aside to hunt down the traitor who nearly killed him. It’s only when Cecilia leaves that he realizes his real duty should have been to her. As she continually outwits him through London’s most perilous streets, Gantry realizes his wife is a resourceful, courageous woman he longs to truly know. But when her pursuit threatens influential enemies, will his and Cecilia’s only chance to gain justice separate them once and for all?

RAVES FOR VANESSA RILEY

“Bridgerton fans, if you read just one book on this list, make sure it’s Vanessa Riley’s terrific An Earl, the Girl, and a Toddler.”
—Popsugar

“Riley gifts readers a sparkling love story.”
—Entertainment Weekly on A Duke, The Lady, and a Baby

Click HERE to preorder

Island Queen

Vanessa Riley’s Island Queen is on sale for $2.99!!!


A remarkable, sweeping historical novel based on the incredible true-life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of color who rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful
landowners in the colonial West Indies.
 
“Richly detailed, vividly depicted, and sweeping in scope, Island Queen is historical fiction at its absolute finest. A stunning must-read!”
— Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba
 
“Island Queen is the magnificently reconstructed life story of Dorothy “Doll” Kirwan Thomas, whose fascinating legacy of grit and success desperately deserves to be better known. With lush prose and raw emotion, Riley vividly captures the complexity of bringing to life a time of rebellion and possibility.”
   — New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Stephanie Dray
 
“Reading Island Queen and I am riveted. RIVETED, I tell you! Whew!
That woman can WRITE! What a book!”
   — Kristan Higgins, from Twitter
Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom—and that of her sister and her mother—from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent.
 
Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.
 
From the bustling port cities of the West Indies to the forbidding drawing rooms of London’s elite, Island Queen is a sweeping epic of an adventurer and a survivor who answered to no one but herself as she rose to power and autonomy against all odds, defying rigid eighteenth-century morality and the oppression of women as well as people of color. It is an unforgettable portrait of a true larger-than-life woman who made her mark on history.

Locate at your favorite eBook retailer:
https://vanessariley.com/currentsale101.htm

Tonight on the Write Stuff — Scriptures for Writers with Shoshanna Gabriel **REBROADCAST**

Very inspiring. She will be missed.

The Write Stuff Radio Show

SHOSHANNAImage result for bible stock images

A number of my author friends, and yours truly included, are having a particularly difficult time right now. We who know each other have cried and prayed together.

I’m so glad to rebroadcast this show from two years ago. My guest is Shoshanna Gabriel. When this show first aired, she had recently given up her lucrative career as an erotica author to write Christian inspirational romances. Her story and the encouragment within this broadcast I think are timeless. I hope you’re blessed by them too!

__________________________________________

**REBROADCAST**

I remember a scene from the movie, A Beautiful Mind, when Jennifer Connelly studies a painting and she makes the comment, “God must be a painter.” I thought about this as I write the show description for this episode of the Write Stuff. Within the vastness of everything that the Lord is, He is an artist. A painter, a writer, a musician, a…

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I’m Ready For Something Good…

When three women find their lives inextricably linked after a terrible mistake, they must work together to make the most of their futures.

Alexis Marshall never meant to cause the accident that left Jon-Jon Robinson paralyzed—but though guilt plagues her, her husband hopes to put the past behind them. After all, he’s in the middle of selling a tech business—and if Alexis admits to texting while driving, the deal could collapse and cost them millions. Meanwhile, Alexis’s life is not as shiny and perfect as it may seem from the outside. She has secrets of her own. As she becomes consumed with thoughts of the young man she hit, can she reconcile her mistake with her husband’s expectations?

Trish Robinson is just trying to hold it together after the accident that left Jon-Jon dependent and depressed. As the bills pile up, Trish and her husband, Dwayne, find themselves at odds. Trish wants to forgive and move on, but Dwayne is filled with rage toward the entitled white woman who altered their lives forever. Trish can’t see how anything good can come from so much hate and strife, so she determines to pray until God intervenes. Then one afternoon Marquita Lewis rings their doorbell with a baby in her arms and changes everything.

Vanessa Miller’s latest inspirational novel reminds readers that differences may separate us, but if we cling to each other, God can bring something good out of our very worst moments.

Available March 8, 2022. Pre-order Here https://linktr.ee/authorvanessamiller

A Southern Treasure…

Southern traditions, history, and hope come together in author Piper Huguley’s heartfelt romance from Hallmark Publishing.

Althea Dailey has succeeded beyond her wildest dreams: she’s about to make partner at her prestigious law firm in New York. So why doesn’t she feel more excited about it? When she has to travel South for a case, she pays a long-overdue visit back home to Milford, Georgia. To her surprise, a white man she’s never met has befriended her grandmother.

Jack Darwent wasn’t interested in the definition of success dictated by Southern high society. His passion for cooking led him to his current project: a documentary and cookbook about authentic Southern food. Althea’s grandmother is famous for her cooking at Milford College, a historically Black institution. But Althea suspects Jack of trying to steal her grandmother’s recipes.

Despite Althea and Jack’s first impressions of one another, they discover they have more in common than they’d guessed…and even as they learn about one another’s pasts, they both see glimmers of a better future. 

This Southern small-town romance includes a free Hallmark original recipe for Grandma’s Biscuits and Gravy.

Available now from Hallmark Publishing Click HERE to buy.

My Review:

I need to approach this review with truth. I’m biased. I am a huge fan of Piper Huguley’s work. I have loved every single thing she as written. I would probably enjoy reading her middle school essays if she gave them to me, but this book…this book was so much more than I expected.

I opened this book without reading the back cover copy. I tend to do that with books by authors I love. The blurb is not going to determine whether I buy or read the book. I prefer to let the experience happen organically and because Piper Huguley fits in the category of authors I love to read, I opened Sweet Tea blind. I had no idea I was in for not only a thoroughly satisfying romance, but a southern culinary journey. There was food. Lots of Southern food like fried chicken and homemade biscuits and collard greens. The desserts were not to out down by entrees. I enjoyed fantasizing about the Red velvet cake, pecan pie, and pound cake the characters enjoyed. And then there was the pie! Grape pie from one of my very favorite Southern delights–muscadines. Through Huguley’s description, I could smell, feel, and taste the food. My mouth watered on nearly every page as I thought about the sweet tea. I even had a few glasses while I read.

I loved the heroine, Althea Dailey. She was uptight and feisty and often right. In contrast, our hero, Jack Darwent was easy going, self-assured, and usually right. Huguley delivered tension, humor, witty banter, more sexual tension than I expected from Hallmark and a range of other emotions as Althea was forced to look at herself, her feelings about the past, and the choices she’d made. The third party in this romance was Althea’s grandmother. Her sass and sage advice were a blessing to my soul.

It was a delicious read.

Review of Island Queen

Island Queen by Vanessa Riley released this week. I channeled my #InnerDorothy on Pub Day, and it was fun.

About the Book

Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom—and that of her sister and her mother—from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent.

Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.

From the bustling port cities of the West Indies to the forbidding drawing rooms of London’s elite, Island Queen is a sweeping epic of an adventurer and a survivor who answered to no one but herself as she rose to power and autonomy against all odds, defying rigid eighteenth-century morality and the oppression of women as well as people of color. It is an unforgettable portrait of a true larger-than-life woman who made her mark on history.

Today I’m sharing my review:

Vanessa Riley has grown a following of faithful readers by introducing us to the overlooked presence of free Black people from all over the diaspora who lived in the regency era. It is much appreciated. As a lover of regency, I have devoured every one of her books. With this story, we meet a real person in historical figure Dorothy Kirwan Thomas. Her achievements and courage are remarkable and arguably unique, not because she as fierce and strong, because many of our people, enslaved or free, fit that description, it was the wealth building that set Dorothy Kirwan Thomas apart. Kirwan, a free woman of color, rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies, yet she has been relegated to a paragraph in “some” history books. In the books, I grew up with, she had no place, not even behind a comma. This was a story that needed to be told.

Using expertly peppered, but clearly detailed research, Riley delivers an engaging and cleverly devised fictionalized account of Ms. Thomas’ life from childhood through the later years of her life. We meet Doll (Dorothy) as an enslaved child who eventually bought her freedom and that of sister and mother. She suffered many harsh realities and experienced a great deal of pain as she struggled with the politics and power struggles in a male dominated society.

Island Queen took me on a literary journey through beautifully executed, often heart thumping prose that I will not soon forget. I enjoyed the romance, the surprising twist and turns and victorious ending that was Doll’s.

Rest in heaven, fair Island Queen. We know who you are now. We see your power and we thank you for fighting for all the little black girls you cared for. They could have been my ancestors.

Visit Vanessa’s website for more detail, events, and tour information. https://vanessariley.com/

All The Cowboy Wants – Book 4 in the Bennett series

He has something she needs.
She has something he wants.
Neither expected the complication called love.


Journalist Addison Ingram has yearned for more serious bylines and being assigned to interview Stone Bennett of the upcoming Bachelors of Atlanta series isn’t a part of her plan. She loathes rich, entitled men like Stone but interviewing him is a means to even meatier stories. However, Stone is not the man she thought he was and that discovery could lead to more than she bargained for.

Stone Bennett wrangles horses and women but he never gets attached. No woman has held his attention for more than a night and he doesn’t expect things to be any different with Addison Ingram. Then he hires her as a ghostwriter for his passion project and the chemistry between them makes him yearn for more than a business relationship. Stone thought he didn’t need love, but will he discover Addison’s heart is what he wants? 

Purchase links: Amazon and Other eBook Retailers

Bridgerton Fans Should Be Ready For Island Queen this summer.

ISLAND QUEEN has already been named one of the most anticipated publications of 2021 by Essence Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Parade Magazine and Oprah Daily.

Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Monserrat, Doll bought her freedom—and that of her sister and her mother—from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent.

Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.

From the bustling port cities of the West Indies to the forbidding drawing rooms of London’s elite, ISLAND QUEEN is a sweeping epic of an adventurer and a survivor who answered to no one but herself as she rose to power and autonomy against all odds, defying rigid eighteenth-century morality and the oppression of women as well as people of color. It is an unforgettable portrait of a true larger-than-life woman who made her mark on history.

Riley holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and a master’s in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. She also earned BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University. Riley lives in Atlanta.

Vanessa Riley writes Historical Fiction and Historical Romance (Georgian, Regency, & Victorian) featuring hidden histories, dazzling multi-culture communities, and strong sisterhoods. She promises to pull heart strings, offer a few laughs, and share tidbits of tantalizing history. www.VanessaRiley.com

Visit the author’s website for retails locations. Pre-order on Amazon at this link. Click.