Look what our authors published in December!

Our authors have been busy writing and publishing books this past month. Here is what we published in December:

December Releases:

Holiday Heart: Sweet Historical Holiday Romance (Holiday Express Book 2)

By Shanna Hatfield

Hearts and humor collide in this sweet holiday romance

Zach Coleman spent his childhood dreaming about trains, and now he’s one of the repairmen at the Holiday engine house who keeps them chugging down the tracks. Life couldn’t get any sweeter, or so he convinces himself, until he’s on his way home from work and saves a woman from getting hit by a wagon. How was he to know that one, brief encounter would upend his world?

Lorna Lennox grew up with the best of everything in life. Her father, a railroad tycoon, has made sure of it. Now that he’s moved her into a new house in a remote Oregon location, Lorna wonders if she’ll fit into the small community. She’s barely arrived in the town of Holiday when an adventure leaves her at the mercy of a handsome stranger. One she finds impossible to forget.

Will the holidays present a chance for hearts to entwine? Find out in this sweet holiday romance rich with history, humor, and the joys of Christmas.

Released December 7, 2021

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L7GWBY8

 

Mail Order Lucy: An Impostor for Christmas Book 8

By Marisa Masterson

Disgraced and sent east to live with an old-maid aunt, Lucinda jumps at the chance to take Maggie's place. She'll marry a wealthy rancher, a dream come true.
A farmer and not a rich rancher waits for her. Grant Reynolds expects more than a hot-house flower. He made sure his bride is a farm girl who can do chores and cook.

Which one in this marriage will bend his or her expectations? Does a match built on a lie have any chance of succeeding?

Note--While this is a standalone sweet romance, the heroine was introduced in Lemon Pie by Lucinda. Reading that book first may increase your enjoyment of this story. 

Released December 7, 2021

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09GBQH7GV

 

Mail Order Letitia: An Impostor for Christmas Book 9

By Zina Abbott

When forced to live with her late mother’s much younger sister, Aunt Matilda, she and Uncle Clarence made it clear, if Letitia wishes to eat, she will participate in the family business ― swindling people. Matilda’s latest scheme is writing to well-to-do men seeking wives through correspondence, with Letitia doing the writing. Collecting spending money and tickets to be cashed in is bad enough. The last straw for Letitia comes when Matilda decides to travel to marry a rancher she learns is well-off. She is already married to Clarence ― isn’t she? Then there is the manner in which Clarence puts his arm around Letitia’s shoulder and assures her he will take real good care of her until Matilda returns.

Samuel Grayson has spent a decade building up a successful ranch near Laramie, Wyoming. He now wishes to marry. After writing three letters to Matilda in Baltimore, he decides she is the one for him. He wants her in his home as his wife by Christmas.

Until the letter with tickets and money from Samuel Grayson arrives, Letitia had never, of her own free will, stolen anything. However, she sees this as an opportunity to save this unsuspecting rancher from Matilda and herself from Clarence. She only hopes, if Matilda’s groom ever finds out the truth, he will see it the same way.

Released December 14, 2021

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09H6TWMT6

 

A Christmas Dream for Destiny: Mail-Order Brides' First Christmas Book 16

by Annee Jones

1890. Destiny Price works in the sewing room of the Cleveland orphanage where she lives but longs for a better life. Even though she knows she’ll never be able to bear children and has never celebrated a real Christmas of her own, she is plagued by a recurring dream of sitting in a rocking chair next to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, singing an infant to sleep. Desperate to escape her dreary and monotonous life, Destiny answers an ad for a mail-order bride out west. But when she meets Stuart “Stormy” Holling, a former miner turned woodworker with a peg leg, is she prepared to handle the passionate temper that earned him his nickname?

Released December 16

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098HGYN66

 

Sadie: Romancing the Weavers, Book 17

By Kit Morgan

Two handsome neighbors ... Two beautiful pranksters ... And two sets of nervous parents.

Sadie and Lucy Weaver were the Weaver farm's worst pranksters. It was their reputation, one that needed to be upheld. But when Sadie realizes that the only way to catch Taylor Wyndham's eye is by acting like a lady at the annual Chirstmas dance, she's torn between her reputation and getting the man she wants. And that's not all. Taylor doesn't seem interested no matter what she does. Thank Heaven his brother Brandon offers to help, and the two concoct a brilliant plan to help them win the hearts of each other's siblings! But the best plans often go arwy and Sadie realizes the greatest joke of all might be on her. 

Enjoy this sweet, clean holiday romance as only Kit Morgan can deliver!

Released December 22, 2021

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09P3K7CKV

 

AM I WEARING A BLOUSE? by Marisa Masterson

 Shirt waist or blouse? When did women stop wearing shirt waists? After all, that is a term I use in many of my historical romances. Should I be calling the shirts actually blouses?

It's a hard question, As I started my research, I came to quickly see that the terms are interchangeable. Until the 1920s, stores advertised most every shirt or blouse as a shirt waist or simply a "waist".  

Notice the single word "waist" to
describe these shirts and blouses.

By taking a close look at the clothing, I can see that none of these have buttons running down the front. That seems to be key to the difference. The soft look for a woman who wants something feminine to wear outside of work was popularized by the Gibson Girl. She not only wore the puffy updo but also sported at lovely blouse.

In the progessive era that was the 1920s, women's fashions changed. Stores began to advertise both shirts and blouses for ladies. The term "waist" was still used, sometimes interchageably for both shirts and blouses. This seems, though, to be the birth of our modern term "blouse". We have the softer look of blouses that hung untucked down a woman's body to soften her curves. Remember, during the Roaring Twenties, it was all about the straight look.

Notice her shirt waist.

But what about the shirt waist? Buttoned up the front and looking like a man's shirt, it became a symbol at the beginning of the twentieth century for the freedom of women. It was especially associated with women in the workforce. Because women were ideally suited (it was believed) to operated typewriters, the way was opened for many young ladies to move to cities and find jobs somewhere other than merely a garment factory. 

"The typewriter is especially adapted to feminine fingers. They seem to be made for typewriting. The typewriting involves no hard labour and no more skill than playing the piano," wrote John Harrison, in his 1888 Manual of the Typewriter. (https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23432653)

So, I look at what I am wearing. My blouse has buttons down the front. No, I can be sure I am not wearing a blouse.

Enjoy the flavor of 1900 in my turn of the century Christmas story Mail Order Lucy.

    Disgraced and sent east to live with an old-maid aunt, Lucinda jumps at the chance to take Maggie's place. She'll marry a wealthy rancher, a dream come true.
    A farmer and not a rich rancher waits for her. Anders Andersson expects a Swedish mail-order bride. Immediately, he senses that the beautiful woman who doesn't speak a word of Swedish hides more than one secret. No matter, he's anxious to marry her and desperately needs her help on the farm.
    Isolated, will Lucinda discover who she really is as she pretends to be Maggie? What will happen when the real Maggie suddenly arrives at the farm?