Written in the Stars by Sherril Bodine & Patricia Rosemoor (Review Stop & Spotlight) #Giveaway

Title:               Written in the Stars

Authors:          Patricia Rosemoor and Sherrill Bodine

Genre:             Romantic Suspense

Release Date:  August 2013

Imprint:        Ignite

Will history repeat itself? Or will magic travel through time to chase another couple bound by love? 

“A passionate tale of destiny, danger and dark magic---and a love so powerful that it conquers time.” Mary Jo Putney, New York Times Bestselling Author 

A bit about Written in the Stars:

'A love so deep that it can last through centuries?

In 1601, Lady Elizabeth York's star-shaped birthmark proclaims her a child of magic. When she arrives at Dunham Castle to marry Carlyle, heir to the Duke of Lennox, she finds enchantment in the eyes and touch of Will Grey, the Duke's bastard son. Bewitched by Elizabeth, Will defies all for their love, and his jilted half-brother places a curse on them both.

Searching for a treasure ship sunk long ago, present-day marine archeologist Cordelia Ward is pursued romantically by both salvager Innis Foley and treasure hunter Morgan Murphy. She is haunted by a murderous nightmare where one man is the killer and the other the victim.  But which man is her enemy--which one her soul mate? Can a journal that belonged to her ancestress, Lady Elizabeth York show her the answers...in time to save her true love?

Chased by evil, two women discover their own magic to fight a villain's curse on the Posey rings that draw them to the men they are destined to love.

My thoughts:

I truly love stories with two different story lines that work together. Not many people like the whole idea of jumping to the present to the past. However, when done in a way that makes the reader enjoy it, now that's a talent. Now Sherrill Bodine and Patricia Rosemoor bring us such a story in Written in the Stars. 

As I read the story, I love how the authors start off in the present day and take us back in time by a journal. So, we see the story of Lady Elizabeth York and Will Grey's love play out and how quickly it had to come to an end. However, it wasn't really the end. I love how in the journal talked about watching the play work itself out. I guess the lives of Lady Elizabeth York, Will Grey, and Carlyle have played out a couple of times before they have reached the present day. I think they probably could have made this into an epic story. Yet, I'm glad they decided to focus on 1601 and present day story.

With the present day story, I was a little worry with Cordelia Ward picking the wrong man, because she was present with two guys who want her. Innis Foley who has wanted Cordelia since she was 16, but unforeseen had to let her go, but it would seem luck was on his side. Yet, when Morgan Murphy steps into the light, Innis starts to get worry about losing Cordelia to him. Innis will do anything to secure Cordelia as his own. So, start to see the parallels between 1601 and the present day. Seriously, I worry that history wouldn't right the wrong from the past. I should know better, after all it is a romance.

Seriously, a captivating story about the obstacles of true love. So, if are looking for something different in the ways of writing styles, you might want to give Written in the Stars a try.

Copy provided by the publisher

Rating:


About the authors:


Patricia Rosemoor :

With 90 novels and more than seven million books in print, Patricia Rosemoor is fascinated with "dangerous love" – combining romance with danger. She has written various forms of romantic and paranormal romantic thrillers, even romantic horror, bringing a different mix of thrills and chills to her stories.
Patricia has won a Golden Heart from Romance Writers of America and two Reviewers Choice and two Career Achievement Awards from RT BOOKreviews, and in her other life, she teaches Popular Fiction and Suspense-Thriller Writing, credit courses at Columbia College Chicago. Three of her Columbia grad students and two students from other venues are now published in novel-length fiction.
SKIN is her first original indie thriller. With 53 Harlequin Intrigues since 1985, she is now writing romantic suspense for Entangled Publishing.

Connect with Patricia:                    

website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads

Sherrill Bodine:

I’m sure growing up in my grandmother’s house, taking care of my developmentally disabled mother, forged who I am, but I don’t believe any one thing defines me. My philosophy of life is that we are all in this together—and we need to embrace one another with as much grace, humor and compassion as we can muster. I see life as big, bigger, biggest, and I want to take everyone along with me on the journey. I not only attend black-tie affairs and work on charity board projects, but I am also just as likely to be taking a grandchild to lunch and a movie. I’m happily married to John, with whom I eloped when I was an 18-year-old freshman in college. It was quite the scandal. We have four beautiful children and 11 grandchildren.

I won my first writing award in the seventh grade in a statewide essay contest about a television broadcast of Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. Instead of Silver Skates, they sent real skates, which I enjoyed immensely. I’m only sorry I don’t still have them so they could hang in my office.

While moving 22 times across the country and rearing our children, I sold stories to Fate Magazine, Home Life Magazine and True Confessions. In 1988, I sold my first novel and a week later received a two-book contract from Fawcett. Sixteen novels later, I’ve seen The Other Amanda win the Wisconsin Romance Writers of America Write Touch Readers’ Award and Talk of the Town chosen by Cosmopolitan magazine as its “Red Hot Read” for February 2009.

Connect with Sherill:

website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads

Excepts of from the story:

Excerpt (Bodine Historical):

There was little Will had not seen in court, the battlefield, or the bedroom, yet watching Elizabeth walk to the warm, spring-fed pool at the edge of the woods behind his grandfather’s cottage filled him with wonder.

            He slipped his arm around her waist and her head rested on his shoulder. Freed of her ribbons, her ebony hair blown by the evening winds flowed across his throat and chest, filling the air he breathed with the scent of lavender.

            At the far side of the pool they came to the limestone rim, festooned with vines and heavy purple blossoms.

            Laughing, she slipped off her kid boots, slowly uncoiled her celestial girdle and placed it carefully on the ground. Wearing only her loose gown with hanging sleeves, she walked into the shallows.

            Turning back to him, her thick, wavy hair cascading over her breasts, her huge eyes lit by the setting sun, she beckoned to him.

            “Come, Will. Join me in paradise.”

            Leaving most of his clothes in a pile next to hers, Will waded toward her. He felt the warm spring water rush over his feet and calves.

            To him, Elizabeth was a creature of magic, of desire, of love he would follow through eternity.

Excerpt (Rosemoor Contemporary):

He leaned into her so close his breath laved her face. “How about I make you an honest offer—a partnership.”

            She stuck her right hand against his chest and backed off. “I don’t think so. You and I have very different goals.”

            “I thought we both wanted to find the motherlode of The Celestine.”

            “I’m a marine archeologist and—”

            He captured her hand before she could remove it. “And I’m a pirate?”

            “I didn’t say that, but you are looking for treasure, while I am looking for artifacts.”

            “Not that I see the difference, but how about I offer you this.” From his pocket, he pulled a diamond-studded gold chain from which hung a crescent moon set with sapphires.

            Cordelia’s eyes widened.

            “Exactly.” He took her right hand from where he’d trapped it and placed the artifact in her palm.

            The touch of metal and jewels to her ring electrified Cordelia. Startled, she gasped at the power but wrapped her fingers around the jeweled moon so she wouldn’t drop it. Her heart beating too fast, she took a closer look and recognized its age. This was no modern copy of something old.

            Fearing he’d found this on his earlier dive, would somehow beat her to the motherlode, she panicked. “All right, partners, then, but we need to work out details—"

            Before she could finish, he curled his fingers over her hand with the crescent and kissed her.         

            Her wrist burned.

            Her ring tightened.

            Her head went light.

            The chain trapped between their hands connected them like a live wire, kept them from pulling apart. The current spread to every pore of her body, to her head, to her toes, to her feminine center.

            She had never felt so alive, so sure of herself.

            Until the kiss ended.

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