Today's Sponsor: LISTEN TO YOUR HEART by Margaret Lake

Book Blurb:

World War I - Lena Manning is barely 20 years old and already a war widow with a baby on the way. Her church takes care of her, gives her employment and wraps her in its secure world. When the bishop appoints a new pastor, a young, handsome widower, she is forced to seek other employment to avoid any hint of scandal. 

Her new job as social secretary to the wife of a wealthy New York banker thrusts her into a seductive world of money and privilege. When the son of the house pursues her, he awakens feelings she thought long dead. 

Can she survive his secrets or will fear send her running back to the security of her church and the pastor who waits for her there?

Buy Links:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Listen-To-Your-Heart-ebook/dp/B004GKMYK4/

Smashwords:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/35023

Reviews:

Jeffry Hepple:  In post World-War-I New Jersey, a young widow struggles to provide the best life for her infant daughter while being courted by a small town minister and a rich New York socialite.  I was privileged to be a beta reader of this novel and consider it Margaret Lake's best work. 

Author bio:

Website: www.jobreepublishing.com

I was born on the Jersey Shore and lived there until my teens when my family moved to Florida. I raised two children in The Sunshine State, and they have, in turn, given me two beautiful grandchildren.

The urge to write was a vague itch for a long time. Unlike a lot of authors, I didn't start scribbling stories about bunny rabbits in my early years. It was more of an “I read so much I don't know why I can't write” kind of thing.

Then my son-in-law bought me a new computer on which I spent many happy hours playing golf. One day, he said if he'd known I was just going to use it to play games, he'd have bought me an Atari. Kind of embarrassing, really.

I went to sleep that night with his words ringing in my ears. They rang so loudly, they woke me up at 3:00 am with the idea for a novel fully formed in my head. I fired up the computer, started writing, and Ariana's Pride was born … or at least conceived.

Four months of intense writing day and night, when I wasn't at the day job, and the first draft was finished. Two months later, the second draft was finished and I sent it out for proofing. Then came the rounds of rejections followed by the decision to be content with the fact that I'd done it. I'd written a novel that I was proud of.

Ariana sat on a floppy disk for a long time until I discovered the Kindle. Then the idea came to publish it myself. With the help of Jeff Hepple of Elisco Publishing, my dream became a reality. Within the first month of publication, Ariana's Pride rose as high as #444 in the Kindle Store.

From Ariana's Pride came Catherine and the Captain. Then I thought I would take a break from medieval England and try my hand at shorter stories with a lot of emotional depth. The results are Of Love and War and Only In My Dreams.

I haven't abandoned historical fiction/romance. I'm currently writing the third in the medieval series as well as a novel set just after WW I.  My love of historical fiction/romance began with the Angelique series by Sergeanne Golon. Then I read Catherine by Anya Seton and I was hooked on the Lancasters.

My favorite author is Susan Howatch, both her historical fiction and series on the Church of England. My favorite series is Harry Potter and my favorite book is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART excerpt:

Chapter One

April, 1918

They hadn't known she was pregnant when Jack was sent with the AEF to fight in France. She had stood on the docks in New York with hundreds of other wives, mothers and girlfriends, all of them waving madly, never dreaming he wouldn't return to her. Not coming back to her was a nightmare; not a dream.

It must have happened that last night they were together when they turned to each other over and over, clinging desperately until the last minute. At least Lena had clung. In her heart, she knew as the dawn approached, that he was already far away from her, thinking about France and the coming fight.

He was always a scrapper, her Jack. He figured that once the American's got into the war, the Huns would turn tail and run. He only hoped he would get a chance to fight before it was all over.

The few letters she received were hastily written in pencil on torn scraps of paper. He talked about training and then trenches and rain and mud and the constant bombardment by the Germans. He was anxious to get into the fight, but that hadn't happened. The English and the French had lost many thousands of troops and were no longer willing to risk a frontal attack.

Now that the Americans were there, things were different. When the order came to go over the top, Jack had scrambled up the ladder and gone no more than a few yards when a German shell took away his chance for glory.

Lena had never told Jack he was going to be a father. She was afraid the news would distract him when he needed to focus on staying alive. Now all she could do was wonder if knowing about the baby would have made him more determined to come home; less willing to take chances. It was an agonizing thought that haunted her at night in her lonely bed.

Lena had been an active member of her church and when her parents died in an influenza epidemic, she had turned to her church for comfort. When the news came that Jack was gone, she went to the pastor and he prayed with her. More importantly, he went with her back to the house she had shared with her mother-in-law since Jack's departure. They broke the news to Ruth Manning together and when the poor woman fell to the floor in a faint, he was there to help her.

Pastor Gilman sent Lena to find the smelling salts, but when they couldn't revive Ruth, he phoned for the doctor himself. Dr. Warren arrived within minutes and gave them the bad news. Ruth had had a massive stroke and if she was to survive, she would need careful nursing.

Private duty nurses were out of the question as was a lengthy hospital stay. There was no choice but for Lena to care for her. Pastor Gilman assured her that the ladies of the Church would help, and indeed, they brought food and sat with her for all the months that Ruth lay helpless in her bed.

Pastor Gilman was her rock and her mainstay, never missing a day, always there with a smile or a joke or practical advice and help. It was he who arranged for the sale of Ruth's jewelry so Lena could pay the rent, and when that ran out, he arranged for her to receive money from the parish poor fund.

The end came when Lena was eight months pregnant and was sure she just could not get through another day. As well-intentioned as the other ladies had been, they had their own families to care for. While there was always someone to come in to relieve her for a few hours each day, the majority of Ruth's care fell to her.

As Ruth slipped away, only Lena and Pastor Gilman were there to hold her hand and speed her to heaven with loving prayers.

Lena held up through the throngs of people that gathered in the house to mourn Ruth's passing. Losing Ruth meant losing her closest tie to Jack. Losing Ruth meant that all the grief she had had no time to feel was about to drag her into a black pit. She thought she would never survive.

They were in the cemetery and the coffin had been lowered. It was up to Lena to throw the first handful of dirt on top of the plain pine box. As she approached the open grave, Lena could see that black pit yawning at her feet and threw herself to her knees before the dark could drag her down.

Pastor Gilman and his wife, Alice, were there instantly to help her, but she couldn't rise from the ground. Wave after wave of pain knifed through her belly and she was sure the pain was going to rip her apart.

Alice knew immediately what had happened. She had seven of her own, and if she wasn't mistaken, this babe was coming and coming fast. She turned to signal Dr. Warren, but he was already there, lifting Lena into his arms as if she weighed no more than a child.

Despite his urging that Lena eat more and rest more, she had actually lost weight during this pregnancy. Now the babe was coming early and he prayed that if he couldn't save the child, he could at least save the mother. She was no more than a baby herself, barely twenty years old.

He placed Lena carefully into the back seat of his motorcar where Mrs. Warren could hold the girl steady. There was a lying-in hospital nearby and he needed to get Lena there fast.

Lena clung to Mrs. Warren with all her meager strength, fighting back the rising tide of panic. She took comfort from Mrs. Warren's practical reassurance and bit-by-bit, determination to save Jack's child grew within her.