Forever Faithful Blog Tour! (+$10 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Forever Faithful 

Author: Isabella

Series: Faithful Series #2

Pages: 193

Date Published: February 6, 2015

Publisher: Sapphire Books Publishing

Format: Kindle

Genre: Romance

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours

Synopsis:

Life is what happens when you make other plans, and Nic and Claire have just found out that life and the Marine Corps have other plans for their lives. 

Nic Caldwell has served her country, met the woman of her dreams, and has reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She’s studying at one of the nation’s most prestigious military universities, setting her sights on a research position after graduation. Things couldn’t be better and then it happens; a sudden assignment to Afghanistan derails any thoughts of marriage and wedded bliss. Another combat zone, another tragedy, and Nic suddenly finds herself fighting for her life. 

Claire Monroe loves her new life in Monterey. She’s finally where she wants to be, getting ready to start her master’s program at the local university, watching her daughter, Grace, growing up, and getting ready to marry the love of her life. What could possibly derail a perfect life? The Marine Corps. 

Will Nic survive Afghanistan? Can Claire step up and be the strength in their relationship? Or will this overseas assignment and a catastrophic accident divide their once happy home?

~Junk Food and Lesbian Fiction~

First, let me say that I love writing lesbian fiction, so before you get a posse together and come after me, hear me out. I like to think I write junk food for the soul and I say that with my tongue firmly in my cheek. Well at least that’s the conclusion I’ve come to for now. Why? I’m glad you asked, not that you probably really wanted to know, but I’ll share anyway. This past week, two opportunities presented themselves to me that made me reflect upon my writing and my style. First, let me say that I love to read. If you are what you eat, then surely you are what you read, right? I read junk food. I’m not a chick-lit kinda gal. I don’t read to expand my horizons, or to learn anything. I read to escape. Those types of books are usually what I consider junk food. Quick, through-the-drive-thru, fill-my-head, easy-to-consume, and let me escape whatever ails me at the time. Junk food. On a side note, I read a lot of technical stuff for my job as a computer instructor, so sometimes I don’t want to learn anything more. It’s cluttered enough in my mind as it is.

My first self-reflection came when I read a blog. The blog was artfully crafted. Words weaved together to construct this tapestry—vibrant to the touch, delectable to the eyes, and mind expanding. The prose so skillfully selected, it occasionally made me stop and think, “Dang, I wish I’d said that,” or “Wow, the words just flow.” The narration was so delicate at times I thought I might break the silk thread that kept everything together if I kept reading. It was so well-written that about halfway through I thought, “Shit, get to the point.” Oh wait, that is the point. I write junk food. I finished the blog and realized I’m not that writer. The writer, whose ability to wax poetic when she describes the way fabric drapes across a puckered nipple, its soft layer keeping someone at bay like an skin of armor. Hopefully, I am more the writer who can make women swoon off the page with just a few words. I’m more the pull-down-the-fabric, gently-rake-my-teeth-against-the-tip-and-ravage-it kinda girl.

My second opportunity presented itself when I read what someone wrote about editing. I immediately broke out my editing books. I scoured the pages to make sure I was doing it right. I read through two books, looked at my manuscript and made a few changes. Then I put the books on my nightstand, next to my Thesaurus and my synonym book, just in case I’d need them later.

I chase words around like a dog in heat, trying to make them sit in an order that would make my editor proud. I try to remember my grammar rules. Unfortunately, I’m not that writer either. I write the bones of a story, hoping I can add some substance later. Maybe another meal, a glass of wine, or a fancy desert will beef-up my story. Ultimately, I’m a junk food writer. Do I wish I was a fine-dining kind of girl? Sure, who doesn’t, but for now, I’m just junk food. But before you dis junk food, how many times do you go to the golden arches? Now, how many times do you go to Morton’s? There sure seem to be a lot more golden arches than Morton’s, so maybe junk food is okay for now. 

~Try an Excerpt!~

Claire sat on the bed, cradling her daughter close. What would she do when she was chasing boys for all the wrong reasons? Trying to banish the thought from her mind, she clutched Grace closer, laying her head on her chest. She felt Grace relax against her, the fight gone.

“Mommy?”

“Hmm?”

“Why do I have two mommies and Tim only has one?”

Aw, the looming realization that her parents were different. She knew it was coming, but Claire didn’t expect it quite yet. “Cause you’re lucky.”

God, what a stupid answer, she thought, pulling Grace closer. Gently she laid Grace down on the bed and lay beside her, threading her fingers through sweaty hair, pushing the unruly mess out of Grace’s face.

“Can we find Tim another mom?”

“What?” She had to stop herself from giggling at the notion that Tim needed another mom. What would Tim’s dad say?

“Yeah, he needs another mom, too.”

“It’s not that easy honey.”

“But you have Nic and you love each other, so Tim’s mom needs another mommy to love her, too.”

Oh, the innocence of youth. If life were only that simple.

~Meet Isabella/Christine!~

Christine Svendsen is the founder and chief executive of Sapphire Books Publishing, a leading United States publisher of LGBT books. Christine founded the company in the face of rejection from big-time publishers who either told her that they weren’t looking for books of her type or that they wanted her to rewrite her stories completely. She defied them all by establishing her own publishing company, which now features a long list of award-winning LGBT authors. Today, Christine publishes books through her company and writes under the pen names of Isabella and Jett Abbott.

Christine’s most recently published novel under the name of Isabella is “Forever Faithful,” the sequel to “Always Faithful,” a book based loosely on being a former military officer’s wife and the adventures of living on a military base.

Other novels by Isabella include:
● “Broken Shield,” which covers the topics of spousal abuse and how it can lay hidden in a relationship, even when the person being abused is a cop.
● “American Yakuza” I and II, tracing the adventures of a multicultural character who tackles the male dominated world of the Japanese mafia.
● “Executive Disclosure” and “Surviving Reagan,” a series about Chad Morgan, an executive protection specialist, and Reagan Reynolds, a daughter ready to take the reins of her father’s company until her plans get derailed by her own misguided determination.

Novels by Jett Abbott include two books: ”Scarlet Masquerade” and “Scarlet Assassin.”
Christine is currently working on a new novel called “Time Stamped.”

When she’s not writing, Christine teaches college part time, rides motorcycles, and spends time remodeling her cabin in the Sierra foothills. She lives on the central coast of California with her wife and has three wonderful sons.

Isabella just released her ninth novel, Forever Faithful. The story follows Nic and Claire as they try to make a life together. But as everyone knows, life is what happens when you make other plans. In the story, as Nic and Claire prepare to make a family, they find the Marine Corps have other plans for their lives. Forever Faithful is currently #3 in LGBT drama on Amazon. Click here to read more.

Isabella will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn host.

a Rafflecopter giveaway