Christmas Calling - Teaser Tuesday

With Christmas only a few weeks away, it seems like the right time to feature CHRISTMAS CALLING on Teaser Tuesday. Two novellas make up this charming book. Colleen Reece's story (Christmas Challenge) is set in Montana during the 1880s. Birdie Etchison's (Christmas Snow) is contemporary and takes place in the Spokane, Washington, area. Both are Christian romances.  

My Teaser is from Christmas Challenge.

TEASER:
Forty-five minutes later Valerie stared into the steely gray eyes of the man who held her future in his ink-stained hands. She swallowed the flutter in her throat and gave him back glance for glance. Danny O'Shea's daughter bowed to no man.
(I stretched the Teaser to three sentences this time. It's from 5% on my Kindle)

Genre: Christian Romance / Fiction
Number of Pages: 156
Amazon Link: Christmas Calling
More books by Colleen L. Reece: Colleen's Books

Amazon Synopsis:
      After the death of her guardian, Valerie Shannon O’Shea feels as adrift as a boat torn free of its moorings on Lake Michigan. She prays about her future and finds a challenge in the newspaper. IS THE PIONEER SPIRIT STILL ALIVE AND WELL? A skeptical financier doubts women in the late 1880s can live the hard life of their ancestors. He is offering train fare to Montana and a substantial cash prize to a young woman courageous enough to live in an abandoned one-room schoolhouse for a full year without help from anyone. 
      The schoolhouse is near Whitewind, where Valerie and her father lived ten years earlier. Danny O’Shea was then convicted of a crime he swore he did not commit. There is little to connect Valerie Shannon, as she signs her paintings, with the gawky fourteen-year-old known as Shannon O’Shea. What if she can meet the newspaper challenge, paint the Montana landscape, and carry out her long held vow to clear her father’s name? 
      The long train trip across country brings back bittersweet memories. Many are of eighteen-year-old Locke Stuart, son of the judge who sent Valerie’s father to prison. Locke had stolen Valerie’s heart but never answered her letters. She wonders if he ever thinks of the girl he fiercely championed in spite of his father’s opposition.    
      Valerie and Locke must ride tangled trails and learn to heed the everlasting whisper, Trust Me, before they can find happiness. 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here's the link to join in: Teaser Tuesday