* Book Tour/Excerpt/Giveaway * HOME FOR CHRISTMAS by Catherine Lanigan

On Tour with Prism Book Tours

 

Home for Christmas
(Shores of Indian Lake #12)
By Catherine Lanigan
Contemporary Romance
Paperback & ebook, 384 Pages
November 1st 2019 by Harlequin Heartwarming

Can a magical Christmas under glass…

…bring them back together for good?

Widowed dad Adam Masterson still doesn’t understand why Joy Boston left Indian Lake and broke his heart all those years ago. Now she’s returned to sell her grandfather’s beloved poinsettia greenhouse—and Joy and Adam’s connection is as strong as ever. But Joy has a life in New York. And Adam has only until Christmas to convince Joy that she belongs in Indian Lake—with him.

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Excerpt

Joy shoved the phone in her purse and saw the Uber driver at the bottom of the escalator, holding a sign with her name on it.

She walked up to him. “Hi! I’m Joy Boston.”

The middle-aged man nodded. “I’m Roy. Happy to see you. I’ll take your bags for you. Do you have more luggage to claim?”

“No, this is it. I won’t be staying long.”

“Oh, that’s a pity,” Roy said, as he politely ushered her toward the outer door.

“Why’s that?”

“Indian Lake is so lovely at the holidays. So many decorations and activities. The Christmas Concert. The symphony. The children’s Christmas pageant. The caroling parties. The Candlelight Tour…”

They walked outside to the cold. “They still have all that?”

“Of course. I take my grandson to the Christmas parade every year, and then we mail his letter to Santa at the Elf Mail Station.” They walked to Roy’s black SUV, and he put her bags in the back as she got in the back seat.

As much as Joy had struggled to make a new life for herself in New York, with new friends and new holiday traditions, the old days and the old ways of celebrating flooded her.

Just thinking about Indian Lake released anger she hadn’t felt in years. Anger toward the townspeople for their apathy—laziness that directly caused her parents’ car accident. She hadn’t been able to forgive them then or now. The pain of her long-ago scars resonated in her. She would go to town, do her duty, find a buyer for the greenhouse and leave as quickly as possible.

She forced her mind to redirect to happier times.

She remembered her mother and father working alongside her, tending the poinsettias. The week before Thanksgiving, enormous delivery trucks would roll into the parking lot and they’d unload red, pink and white beauties. Just thinking about those gorgeous tropical flowers caused Joy to wish for faraway adventures, sandy beaches and palm trees, places she’d planned to explore with…

“Adam.”

She sat up straight.

Adam hadn’t crossed her mind once since she’d got the news of her grandfather’s death. But there he was. She remembered his wide shoulders, his thick raven hair and how he’d forget to cut it, so it would hang down, nearly covering half his face as he worked furiously on yet another machine that never reached “functionality.”

She’d known Adam was smart and was convinced he hadn’t yet found his groove. She’d urged him on, believing his genius would pay off one day. The time when he’d lost the state science fair championship, he’d been despondent and distant, but Joy had kissed away his tears and forced him to envision a golden future filled with success. He said he believed her.

They’d had a romantic senior year together, stealing kisses in the greenhouses. Learning how to cross-pollinate and hybridize poinsettias from her grandfather. Going to summer concerts in the park and dancing at the beach under the stars—with Adam humming a song to her. He’d given her a gold promise ring and told her he wished he was rich enough for a diamond. At the time, she hadn’t cared.

I loved him.

Those days with Adam had been the most romantic of her life. Idyllic days—until her parents died.

She looked out the window at the nude maple trees along the interstate. The ground was barren of flowers; the grass was frozen. The sky was the same depressing slate-gray, promising snow flurries or rain.

She felt gray inside without her grandfather, just as she had after her parents’ deaths. Grief’s fingerprint was a deep one. She wondered if she’d ever feel sunny again.

She looked down at her gloved hands and remembered a winter day once when she’d forgotten her gloves and Adam had walked her to the greenhouses after school. He’d taken both her hands in his, rubbed them until they were pink and warm again, and then he’d given her his too-big gloves to wear. He’d pulled her close as the wind whipped around them.

“I’ll always keep you warm,” he’d said.

“Ditto,” she’d replied.

“In fact, I’d like to be the one who discovers cheap energy to keep all the world warm. No one should go cold,” he’d said.

“That’s what you want to do? Save the world from freezing?”

“It’s a tall order, but it’s what I want to do,” he’d said and kissed the end of her very cold nose.

“Now, that was very warming,” Joy had replied.

 

Other Books in the Series

 

About the Author

Catherine Lanigan is the international bestselling and award-winning author of over forty-five published titles in both fiction and non-fiction, including the novelizations of Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile. Ms. Lanigan’s novels have been translated into over twenty-four languages. Lanigan was tasked by the NotMYkid foundation to pen a collection of compelling and informative true stories of teen addicts. Ms. Lanigan’s SHORES OF INDIAN LAKE series for HARLEQUIN HEARTWARMING includes LOVE SHADOWS, HEART’S DESIRE , A FINE YEAR FOR LOVE, KATIA’S PROMISE, FEAR OF FALLING, SOPHIE’S PATH, PROTECTING THE SINGLE MOM, FAMILY OF HIS OWN, HIS BABY DILEMMA, RESCUED BY THE FIREFIGHTER and HERS TO PROTECT (2019).

Ms. Lanigan is a frequent speaker at literary functions and book conventions as well as inspiring audiences with her real stories of angelic intervention from her Angel Tales series of books. She is an outspoken advocate for domestic violence and abuse and was honored by The National Domestic Violence Hotline in Washington, D.C. She has been a guest on numerous radio programs including “Coast to Coast” and on television interview and talk show programs as well as blogs, podcasts and online radio interview programs. She writes a monthly blog for Heartwarmingauthors.blogspot.com.

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Tour Schedule

 

Tour Giveaway

– One winner will receive a $100 Amazon eGift Card (open internationally)
– Two winners will each receive a signed copy of Home for Christmas with a bookmark (US only)
– Ends November 27, 2019

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