His Blushing Bride - More Marietta!

Are you as in love with Marietta as I am? We, the authors, are seeing a lot of comments like this on Netgalley, Goodreads and Amazon:

"I've genuinely loved the Marietta Mini series from Tule publishing..."

And we look, yes, we do! We want readers to be as excited to visit this wonderful town and all our characters as we are to write their individual stories.

Which is why I'm so pleased to be part of the latest "Married in Marietta" Bride series. Have you seen the covers?

Very pretty, right? I happen to have bookmarks that look like this. If you would like me to mail you one, contact me through my website (http://danicollins.com/contact/) or message me through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DaniCollinsAuthor) with your postal address. I'll pop one in the mail to you.

Now, I'll be honest. One of the reasons I love visiting Marietta is to visit my own characters. While I do my best to pick up other authors' characters for a line or two, I feel most comfortable bringing my own back onstage. In His Blushing Bride, you'll see all the characters from my previous three Montana Born novellas.

Bastian (Sebastian) is actually the brother of Liz from Blame The Mistletoe so I thought it would be fun to include a bit of their interaction for you here:

Excerpt from His Blushing Bride:
(note: I cleaned up the language in this posting. The book uses real swears.)

Bastian ran out to the ranch first thing, gave Blake a hand for an hour, then drove his sister into Bozeman where she shopped for maternity wear and stock for the spa. He bought a new laptop, tablet, and phone along with a few more shirts and shorts, a decent suit for the wedding, some sunglasses and—

“What are those for?” Liz asked in a tone so accusatory, the entire drugstore stopped to glance their way.

“I begin to see how you wound up pregnant,” Bastian said dryly. “Did I make a big deal about you buying a breast pump?”

She gave him the tight-lipped, displeased older-sister look, but stowed whatever she wanted to say until they were in the car.

He threw the bag with the box of condoms at her feet. No way was he going to apologize for being a healthy, responsible adult.

“I guess my real question is, who are those for?” she said, delicately shifting her feet away from the bag.

“Seriously?” She wasn’t teasing. This was a real question, and he couldn’t believe it was coming out of her mouth, directed at him and not her teenaged daughter. “It’s none of your business, Liz.” He shouldn’t have to point that out.

“This isn’t California, you know. Word gets around. Just tell me it’s not Petra’s teacher,” she said shortly.

“It’s not Pet’s teacher,” he lied.

“Liar,” she blasted, bracing an elbow on the door and covering her eyes. “Seriously, Bastian. Do you have to sleep with every single female that crosses your path? There’s a word for it, you know. Man-whore.”

“I think you’re a whore if you take money for it. When you do it just ’cause you like it, you’re a slut.”

“I see. This is how we’re playing? Nearly a doctor and you still haven’t grown up?”

“Stick with, ‘Quit screwing anything that moves.’ The ‘Get a real job’ speech is Dad’s.”

“I just don’t know why you can’t commit to one woman, settle down, and—”

“Yell at my kids?” he cut in sharply. “Make my wife cry? Be so unbearable to be around that my son tells me to get lost and my daughters get married out of high school? How did that work out for you, by the way?”

She kept her face to the window, not answering.

He swore under his breath. “Did I make you cry? Now I feel like a jerk.”

“You are a jerk.” She sounded cross, not hurt. When she looked at him, her face was worried. “Is that really it, Bastian? You don’t think you’d make a good husband? Because I think you’d be a great dad.”

He sighed, annoyed. Frustrated. And kind of relieved she’d say that. There were times when he envied his sisters. Their kids were great and their middle sister’s marriage was actually pretty good.

But marriage and family life had always struck him as suffocating. A trap. Their father sure hadn’t been happy. Men weren’t the only ones to feel that way, either. The women, the sheer multitude of unhappy wives who’d hit on him because they couldn’t stand their husbands… Why set himself up for infidelity and a messy divorce when he could skip getting married altogether?

Which wasn’t something he needed to say to his pregnant, engaged sister. She was upset enough. She knotted her hands over the bump in her lap. “Dad had PTSD. I wish our childhood had been different too, but there’s nothing we can do but accept it.”

Yeah, their old man had been the gift of misery that kept on giving while they were growing up. In some ways, he still was. He set very high standards, especially for his son, and wasn’t very forgiving of deviation. But Liz was right. They couldn’t go back in time and change anything. Bastian had fully accepted that. But…

“Listen. It looks like you’re getting it right this time. Blake seems great. I had to wonder about your decision to marry and have a kid and move to off-the-map Montana, but I respect your choice, Liz. And I’m making a different choice,” he summed up firmly. It was something their father had never made peace with.

Liz was slightly more progressive. She sighed out a long, suffering, “Fine. Live your life the way you want. But—not with Pet’s teacher.”

He wasn’t going to plead his case. He simply would live his life however he saw fit and Piper had the same option.

~ * ~

I'll be at the Romantic Times Convention in Dallas when this posts and, as I write this, His Blushing Bride is only available for pre-order so I only have the quick links below, but it is releasing on all digital platforms:

Amazon: US | Cdn | UK | iBooks

Have you been spending time in Marietta? Who are some of your favourite characters? Remember to email me with your postal address if you'd like a bookmark!