Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl Blog Tour & Excerpt

Welcome to my Stop on the Blog Tour for Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl!  You'll find an excerpt below.

Title: Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl

Author: Hettie Bell

Imprint: Carina Press (Carina Adores)

Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult

Romantic Leads: Female/Female

On-Sale: March 30, 2021

Format: Trade Paperback

Price: $14.99 US

ISBN: 9781335688002

Book Description: Some people can’t wait to have babies. They’re ready for it—with their perfect lives and their pregnancy glow…

Poppy Adams doesn’t have a perfect life, and she wasn’t ready for the positive test. An unexpected baby—Poppy’s unexpected baby—won’t exactly have her family doing cartwheels. But she’s making the right choice.

Right?

Poppy’s totally got this. She just needs a little encouragement, and a knitting group is the perfect place to start. Baby blankets, booties, tiny little hats—small steps toward her new life. But she feels like she’s already dropped a stitch when she discovers the knitting group is led by the charismatic Rhiannon.

 It’s not exactly a great time to meet the woman who might just be the love of her life. While the group easily shuffles around to make room for Poppy, it’s not so easy fitting her life and Rhiannon’s together. With the weeks counting down until her baby arrives, Poppy’s going to have to decide for herself what truly makes a family.

Read on for an excerpt from Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl.

It doesn’t take long for everybody in the group to set aside their own projects to focus on me and mine.

Grace has my ball of yarn in her hands, twisting the strand between her fingers critically. “If you’re knitting for a baby, you should really consider a nice bamboo…”

Louise is scrutinizing my choice of project. “You know, I started with dishcloths, then graduated to scarves. It’s not as glamorous, but it does let you get the fundamentals down.”

“Oh, my, no.” Mary flips the free pattern card I picked up in the craft store and scans the back with critical eyes. “You don’t want to do this, this is for a completely differ­ent weight of yarn than what you’ve got here. Where did you pick this up? They should be putting these patterns next to the suggested yarn. This one calls for fingering. What

you need to do is get an account on Ravelry and find a pattern that’s been user-rated so you know it’s accurate and suitable for your skill level, and do that. You can search by yarn weight on there, too. This yarn is a DK…” She pulls out her phone, trailing off as she opens her web browser.

Damian, who has been sitting silently so far, takes this chance to finally speak up. “Do you have needles?” he asks plainly, no judgment in his tone. Nobody else has bothered with that crucial detail to this point.

Now those, at least, I do have. I reach into my purse and pull out the needles I scavenged from my last failed scarf project. I hold them up for the group’s inspection proudly.

“Poppy, no!” they say in unison, and even Damian joins in their exclamation of dismay. “These will never work!”

My shoulders slump. “What? Why?”

Louise clucks at me. “Much too big! Too long for a tiny baby pattern and too thick for this yarn. You’re going to end up with stretched out knitting full of gaps and holes.”

The familiar urge to just give up and quit hits me hard and fast, like a gut punch. I gust out a breath, slumping in my seat.

A hand closes around my shoulder. Rhiannon. “Hey, don’t feel bad. First time I tried to knit, I got my needles secondhand from the thrift store and accidentally bought two different sizes.” She laughs and shakes her head. “Here. If you don’t mind that they’re not high-tech Addi Turbos, you can borrow some needles from me.”

“She needs a pattern first,” Mary puts in. “And personally I think she should start by knitting mittens before she graduates to booties.”

“I guess that sounds all right.” I know they’re just trying to help, but I feel overwhelmed and outnumbered. But what would the alternative be? For them to sit there focused on their own projects, socializing with each other and ignoring me as I struggle?

It’s Rhiannon, once again, who calms the chaos, both the stuff going on around us and the stuff in my head. “Okay, okay, give the girl some space, now. Mary, can you search Ravelry for a pattern for a set of mittens and booties? And Grace and Louise, can you wind Poppy’s skein real quick so she doesn’t get stuck untangling yarn barf on her very first project?” My fellow stitch n’ bitch members nod, im­mediately turning to their tasks. She turns to me. “I left my straight needles with the rest of my stuff back at my place. It’s just a short walk from here. You wanna come and keep me company?”

“You’ll need a size five needle by the looks,” Mary calls, eyes glued to her phone.

Rhiannon looks at me expectantly, awaiting my answer. I get the sense that if I said no to her invitation, she’d be totally cool about it. But I don’t want to say no.

“Sure, yeah. Can I leave my stuff here?”

“We’re not leaving any time soon,” Damian flaps a hand. “Go, go. Sooner you go the sooner you get back, sooner you get back the sooner you can get started, and the sooner you get started the more time you have knitting with peo­ple who can pick up your dropped stitches.”

“Gotcha.” I nod. “Thanks.”

“Ready?” Rhiannon asks. She grabs a cookie for the road, stuffing it halfway into her mouth and holding it there comically.

I fight down the sudden image of myself biting that half a cookie right out from under her nose.

Wow, do I need some air. And some semblance of hor­monal balance.

Instead, I’m getting alone time with Rhiannon.

Crash and burn time, here I come.

Add Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl by Hettie Bell to Goodreads now!

Buy Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl by Hettie Bell

Harlequin.com: https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9781335688002_knit-purl-a-baby-and-a-girl.html

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781335688002

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Knit-Purl-Baby-Carina-Adores/dp/1335688005

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/knit-purl-a-baby-and-a-girl-hettie-bell/1138272514

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/knit-purl-a-baby-and-a-girl/id1530373719

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Hettie_Bell_Knit_Purl_a_Baby_and_a_Girl?id=jv76DwAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/knit-purl-a-baby-and-a-girl

About Hettie Bell

Hettie Bell grew up in small towns in New Brunswick and British Columbia, and now lives outside Edmonton Alberta with her family. She first fell for Highland historicals as a preteen, and that love deepened as the romance genre grew more diverse and queer. A proud bisexual woman, she’s honored to write all the happy endings she never thought she’d get to read. When she’s not writing, she's knitting one of the at least three projects she has on her needles at any given time.

Connect with Hettie Bell

Website: https://www.hettiebell.com/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HettieBelleau

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5365291.Heidi_Belleau

Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories featuring beloved romance tropes, where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.

A new Carina Adores title is available each month in trade paperback, ebook and audiobook formats.

·         The Hideaway Inn by Philip William Stover (available now!)

·         The Girl Next Door by Chelsea M. Cameron (available now!)

·         Just Like That by Cole McCade (available now!)

·         Hairpin Curves by Elia Winters (available now!)

·         The Love Study by Kris Ripper (available now!)

·         The Secret Ingredient by KD Fisher (available now!)

·         Just Like This by Cole McCade (available now!)

·         Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love by Kim Fielding (available now!)

·         Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish (available now!)

·         The Hate Project by Kris Ripper (coming April 27)

·         Hard Sell by Hudson Lin (coming May 25)

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines Review

Author: Pamela Terry

Genre: Mystery/Women's Fiction

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Release Date: April 20, 2021

Order Link: Amazon

My Rating: 4 Southern Bless Your Hearts

A special thank you to Ballantine Books for an arc of this book.

In this intimate debut novel, a woman returns to her small Southern hometown in the wake of her mother's sudden death--only to find the past upended by stunning family secrets.

Review:

When Abigail Bruce finds her elderly mother Geneva Bruce lying on the ground partially beneath the Bruce family's old muscadine arbor, one thing is crystal clear.  This time, she's really dead.  It's time for Abigail to call siblings Lila Breedlove and Henry Bruce back to their ancestral home in Wesleyan, Ga. - the home the two fled upon graduation from high school in an effort to escape the high expectations and limitations of life in a small, judgmental southern town while seeking their own place in the world.  When the three reunite, it is obvious Abigail’s losing it and on a suicide mission in regards to her reputation and community standing as a proper southern lady.   As strange revelations surface, Lila and Henry begin digging into the mystery surrounding their mother's death.  Why would the devoutly devoted, bible-carrying southern matriarch leave her home in the wee morning hours, wearing nothing but her nightgown to traipse to the far edge of the property and dig under a muscadine arbor . . . with an old spoon that was stored in the gardening shed?  What Lila and Henry discover leads them to Scotland seeking answers to newly unearthed, long ago buried family secrets that threaten to destroy their family history and life as they know it.

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines flows easily from a humorous spoof on southern culture in the first half to an emotionally charged exploration into the depth and consequences of Southern family traditions and expectations in the second half - speaking gracefully of the ramifications of unresolved childhood issues, of growing up with impossible expectations, of denying one's true self.  Terry flawlessly weaves plot, setting and characters into a mysterious yet beautifully rich story with all the distinctive southern flavors of hot apple pie, muscadine wine and sweet iced tea, rendering a sensual exploration of the south during the time period of the Vietnam War - highlighting the overwhelming sense of place felt by southerners - of binding ties and roots buried deep in southern soil.  

In a distinctly southern voice, Terry's lyrical prose carries hints of honeysuckle on a warm breeze and Sunday morning sermons heard through open doors and windows at the local Baptist Church.  Having lived my entire life in the South, I can say it stirred some childhood memories within me as I found the exaggerations on the Southern culture quite entertaining.  The Sweet Taste of Muscadines delves beneath the surface humor to reveal an emotionally evocative story that resonates with unresolved childhood memories, societal judgement, and lost dreams.  The author's rendering of this story is rich in poignant quotes, but this one stuck with me "So much hurt in the world, and for so many years.  All over who people love".

Many will call The Sweet Taste of Muscadines "women's fiction", but this profound story's also a fascinating mystery - a story of secrets kept buried until death by a proud southern woman - and the compelling journey of her children as they seek answers that will lead them out of the darkness into the light.  A story of the many ties and complexities of home and family.  Ultimately, a warm story of forgiveness and acceptance.  I highly recommend it to fans of mystery, family drama, and yes, women's fiction.

Synopsis:

Lila Bruce Breedlove never quite felt at home in Wesleyan, Georgia, especially after her father's untimely death when she was a child. Both she and her brother, Henry, fled north after high school, establishing fulfilling lives and relationships of their own, steeped in art and culture. In contrast, their younger sister, Abigail, opted to remain in Georgia to dote on their domineering, larger-than-life mother, Geneva. Yet, despite their years-long independence, Lila and Henry both know they've never quite reckoned with their upbringing.

Now, when their elderly mother dies suddenly and strangely, found among the dense vines of the muscadine arbor behind the family estate, they must travel back to the town that raised them. But as Lila and Henry uncover more about Geneva's death, shocking truths are revealed that upend the Bruces' history as they know it, sending the pair on an extraordinary journey to chase a truth that will dramatically alter the course of their lives.

With deep compassion and sharp wit, Pamela Terry brings to life the culture and expectations of a small Southern town that values appearance over authenticity--and where the struggle to live honestly can lead to devastating consequences.

When These Mountains Burn Review

Author: David Joy

Genre: Southern Noir

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Release Date: Aug. 18, 2020

Purchase Links: Amazon

My Rating: 4 Burning Hearts

Acclaimed author and "remarkably gifted storyteller" (The Charlotte Observer) David Joy returns with a fierce and tender tale of a father, an addict, a lawman, and the explosive events that come to unite them.

Review:

Poverty, despair and illegal drugs flow freely through the Appalachia Mountains of Western North Carolina.  People are losing their livelihood, families and lives.  Neither the poor nor wealthy are immune to the devastation and havoc as loved ones succumb to the alluring high of their addictions.  Retired Fire Forester Raymond Mathis knows first-hand how destructive the drugs can be as he's all but given up on saving his son Ricky from the disastrous effects.  And yet, when a drug dealer calls Ray threatening Ricky's life for payment of a debt, Ray finds himself answering his son’s plea for help one more time.  He gathers the last of his meager savings and pays the drug dealer off - even knowing he can't save Ricky from himself.  But this time, a flame is ignited inside Ray.  He's known enough grief and pain to last a lifetime.  The police are spinning their wheels - even after Ray informed them the illegal drugs were being routed through the sovereign nation of Cherokee.  Pushed to the brink, Ray goes rogue seeking vengeance for himself, his son and all the families whose lives have been destroyed by ruthless drug runners.  Ray believes for every action, there's a consequence, and he won't stop until vengeance is his . . . even if he has to burn the mountain down.

Police corruption, dysfunctional families and drug empires seize the day in When These Mountains Burn.  Utilizing multiple points of view, the author renders his story via Ray who’s fighting to save his addicted son Rick, a local addict called Denny who depends on petty theft to feed his habit and a dog-tired DEA agent who's deep undercover without a lifeline. Through alternating chapters, readers get inside each character’s head experiencing the anguish driving each one while learning just how low they'll go to feed their need . . . be it drugs, alcohol, redemption, forgiveness or vengeance.  The sense of despair and desperation portrayed is overwhelming and heartbreaking as they each fight to survive the only way they know how.  Author David Joy brilliantly draws readers in to fight alongside these characters as they claw their way through dark tunnels, blind alleys and forest fires.  The setting is authentic and highly atmospheric, lending a malicious undertone that resonates throughout - driving the pace at suicide speed like a car with no brakes barreling down a dark, twisted mountain road at night.  As a reader, all I could do was hold on and burn though the pages until reaching the end where Joy expertly brings them all together in one explosive scene that will leave you reeling.  One thing's crystal clear - a day of reckoning is coming to the mountains . . . who will be left standing?  

 

Raw, gritty, and emotionally charged, When These Mountains Burn is high action suspense at its best - guaranteed to entertain and thrill fans of Noir, Suspense and Thrillers.  Readers Beware: Joy’s writing is highly addictive!  I’m hopelessly hooked and looking forward to reading more of his work.

Synopsis:

When his addict son gets in deep with his dealer, it takes everything Raymond Mathis has to bail him out of trouble one last time. Frustrated by the slow pace and limitations of the law, Raymond decides to take matters into his own hands.

After a workplace accident left him out of a job and in pain, Denny Rattler has spent years chasing his next high. He supports his habit through careful theft, following strict rules that keep him under the radar and out of jail. But when faced with opportunities too easy to resist, Denny makes two choices that change everything.

For months, the DEA has been chasing the drug supply in the mountains to no avail, when a lead--just one word--sets one agent on a path to crack the case wide open . . . but he'll need help from the most unexpected quarter.

As chance brings together these men from different sides of a relentless epidemic, each may come to find that his opportunity for redemption lies with the others. 

David Joy is the author of the Edgar nominated novel Where All Light Tends to Go (Putnam, 2015), as well as the novels The Weight Of This World (Putnam, 2017), The Line That Held Us (Putnam, 2018), and When These Mountains Burn (Putnam, 2020). His memoir, Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman's Journey (Bright Mountain Books, 2011), was a finalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the Ragan Old North State Award for Creative Nonfiction. His latest stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Garden & Gun, and The Bitter Southerner. He is the recipient of an artist fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council. His work is represented by Julia Kenny of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency. He lives in Jackson County, North Carolina.

Website

http://www.david-joy.com/

Twitter

DavidJoy_Author

Genre

Fiction, Memoir

Influences

Larry Brown, Daniel Woodrell, William Gay, Ron Rash, Jim Harrison

The Devil In Her Bed Review

Author: Kerrigan Byrne

Series: Devil You Know #3

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: St. Martins Paperbacks

Release Date: March 9, 2021

Order Link: Amazon

My Rating: 4 Sizzling Hearts

A special thank you to the publisher for an arc of this book.

He lives in secret service to the Crown—a man of duty, deception, and an undeniable attraction to a woman who threatens to tear his whole world apart.

Review:

Francesca Cavendish, Countess of Monte Claire, is on a secret mission to infiltrate the organization responsible for the massacre of her family years ago.  As the sole survivor, she bides her time while plotting revenge and masquerading as a rich, carefree, often promiscuous countess.  But appearances can be deceiving.  Only the other Red Rogues, her two best friends since childhood and their spouses, know her darkest secret.  In short, Francesca is a powerful, justice-wielding warrior - one who is in dismay at having drawn the attention of the man called the Devil of Dorset.  Unbeknownst to Francesca, the "Devil" is harboring secrets of his own.  One of the Crown's secret weapons, he too is on a mission to expose and bring down the evil Crimson Council.  Powerful, protective, gruff, he's a man just as horrified as the Countess at the intense physical attraction sizzling between them.  Both loners, neither has the time nor inclination for romance and thus they snarl and snap at each other, denying their attraction and true identities for as long as they can.  When secrets escape, chaos ensues and everything comes crashing down.  What will happen when their past catches up to them?  Who will survive?

The Devil In Her Bed is a dark historical romance overflowing with a wide range of emotion.  I love a dark damaged hero and readers certainly get one in the Devil of Dorset whose true identity is in question.  They also get a damaged yet strong, determined heroine in Countess Francesca.  I enjoyed the tenacity and determination of both characters as they battled wits.  Deceit, secrets, danger, passion all combine to drive this suspenseful story at a frantic pace to several revelations that will rock each character's world and surprise some readers.  Byrne's brilliant rendering of this powerful story kept me turning pages even after some secrets are revealed - some I guessed, some I didn't.  All in all, I found this to be the perfect ending to a fantastic series. The Devil In Her Bed is the third and final book in the Devil You Know trilogy featuring three friends and their search for truth, love and happiness.  Since these stories really build upon each other, I highly advise starting with book one and working your way through to this one.  Highly recommended to fans of suspense and historical romance.  

Synopsis:

They call him the Devil of Dorset. He stands alone, a man of undeniable power. Moving in and out of shadows, back alleys and ballrooms, he is unstoppable and one of the Crown’s most dangerous weapons. However, when he sets his sights on the undeniably beautiful Countess of Mont Claire, Francesca Cavendish, he doesn’t realize that he has met a match like no other.

TRUE LOVE WEARS NO DISGUISE

Francesca is a countess by day and stalks her prey—those responsible for the death of her family—by night. What she does not expect is to be thrown into the path of the devil himself, the Earl of Devlin. She has secrets of her own and he seems determined to lay them bare. Can her heart survive finding the love of her life and losing him when all is revealed?

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If you're anything like me, the best night is one spent with a brawny highlander, a mysterious werewolf, a conflicted vampire, or a hot-headed Irishman. My stories span the spectrum of romantic fiction from historical, to paranormal, to romantic suspense. But I can always promise my readers one thing: memorable and sexy Celtic heroes who are guaranteed to heat your blood before they steal your heart. Lose yourself in the enchanted Celtic Isles, you never know who, or what, will find you...

Website

http://www.kerriganbyrne.com

Twitter

Kerrigan_Byrne

Genre

Romance, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

Every Last Fear Review

Author: Alex Finlay

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Debut Novel

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Release Date: March 2, 2021

Preorder Link: Amazon

My Rating: 5 Fearful Hearts

A special thank you to Minotaur Books for an arc of this book. #minotaurinfluencers #readinginsidersclub

In one of the year’s most anticipated debut psychological thrillers, a family made infamous by a true crime documentary is found dead, leaving their surviving son to uncover the truth about their final days.

Review:

A debut novel?  Are you kidding me?  I devoured Every Last Fear from cover to cover in one sitting.  There is no stopping once you read the first line: "They found the bodies on a Tuesday."  From that point on, I burned through pages seeking answers and the truth - just like film student Matt Pines after learning his vacationing family has been found dead in their motel room in Mexico.  Matt's last words with his father were spoken in anger and now he and his incarcerated brother Danny are the lone survivors of a family made famous via a true crime documentary that questions Danny's guilt in the murder of his girlfriend.  Now Matt must visit his estranged brother in prison to deliver the news of their parents and siblings deaths and make a trip to Mexico to sign papers to have the bodies released and flown home for burial.  What happened to the Pine family?  Was it an accidental death from a gas leak as Mexican authorities state . . . or is something more sinister happening?

The story that ensues is smart, twisted and highly compelling.  Through multiple points of view and past/present chapters, Finlay delivers an edge-of-your-seat thriller that captures your attention and holds it throughout.  Every character is well-fleshed out and necessary to the brilliant rendering of this story.  There are no wasted words or passages - just a highly entertaining thriller with hidden clues that kept me questioning who and what to believe until the final shocking reveal.  The family aspects of this story play out through past chapters delivered through the voices of the dead family members as they unknowingly live out their last hours.  It adds an element of sympathy, anguish and intrigue to Every Last Fear - revealing a family both held together and torn apart by tragedy and fate.  Beyond that, this is a story of a family fighting for a loved one - fighting to prove what they believe to be a truth . . . and doing it in the lime-life of unwanted fame.  A killer pace carries readers through all the twists and turns to deliver an ending many won't see coming.  I highly recommend Every Last Fear to fans of intelligent, highly addictive suspense thrillers.

Synopsis:

“They found the bodies on a Tuesday.” So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears.

After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family—his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister—have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain—and they won’t tell Matt why.

The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny—currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte—was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime.

When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison—putting his own life in peril—and forcing him to confront his every last fear.

Told through multiple points-of-view and alternating between past and present, Every Last Fear is not only a page-turning thriller, it’s also a poignant story about a family managing heartbreak and tragedy, and living through a fame they never wanted.

Meet the Author:

Alex Finlay is the pseudonym of an author who lives in Washington, D.C. Born in the American South, Alex spent years traversing the globe, from a tropical island in the Pacific to a small village in the UK to a remote region in the Far East. But it was on a trip to Tulum, Mexico that Alex was inspired to write Every Last Fear.

https://alexfinlaybooks.com/