A Thread of Truth (Cobbled Court Quilt #2) - #TeaserTuesday, First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros

A quilting friend recently gave me all seven books in Marie Bostwick's Cobbled Court Quilt Series. I finished Book #1 and today I'm featuring excerpts from Book #2, which I've barely started. So far, I'm enjoying the intertwined stories of the women of small-town New Bern, Connecticut, all of them connected by the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop. This story deals with domestic violence. Thanks for the books, Nan!

Genre: Women's Fiction
Book Length: 335 Pages
Amazon Link: A Thread of Truth
Author Website: Marie Bostwick

First Paragraph (from the Prologue):
     The counselor is young, blond, and pretty, and obviously nervous. She glances at her reflection in the wall mirror when she enters the waiting room, adjusts her collar, and clears her throat before extending her hand toward me with a wide, rehearsed smile and a request for me to follow her back to her office.

Teaser #1 (from Pages 15-16 in my trade paperback):
She wouldn't listen to any of my excuses about passing on the quilt class, just knocked them all down in that way she has, huffing and puffing out words like "Nonsense!" and "Rubbish!" like the big, bad wolf on a mission, not stopping until your little house of sticks is lying in a heap and there you stand with nothing left to hide behind. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in a room with six other students, listening to Evelyn Dixon explain the techniques for constructing our first project, a log cabin quilt.

Teaser #2 (from Page 90): 
There never was a moment when I could relax and be myself because I was always aware that he could walk through that door at any moment and if he didn't like what he saw, there would be consequences. Inevitable, unpredictable, irrational consequences. 

Synopsis:
At twenty-seven, having fled an abusive marriage with little more than her kids and the clothes on her back, Ivy Peterman figures she has nowhere to go but up. Quaint, historic New Bern, Connecticut, seems as good a place as any to start fresh. With a part-time job at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop and budding friendships, Ivy feels hopeful for the first time in ages.

But when a popular quilting TV show is taped at the quilt shop, Ivy's unwitting appearance in an on-air promo alerts her ex-husband to her whereabouts. Suddenly, Ivy is facing the fight of her life--one that forces her to face her deepest fears as a woman and a mother. This time, however, she's got a sisterhood behind her: companions as complex, strong, and lasting as the quilts they stitch. . .

Just for fun, here's a photo of a log cabin quilt I made several years ago. I arranged the blocks in a diamond pattern, and it's one of my favorite creations.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.

Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

The Hurricane Sisters - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

Dorothea Benton Frank has become one of my favorite authors. Like other books of hers that I've read, The Hurricane Sisters takes place in the Low Country of South Carolina. This story focuses not only on the relationship between three generations of women but also on abuse of women and date rape. 
The author portrays the older characters as vibrant individuals with full and interesting lives, which I always appreciate. The Hurricane Sisters is a worthwhile read and an entertaining story.
FYI: The story is told in alternating points of view in first person.

OOOPS! I just realized that I messed up and posted my Tuesday post on Friday! Oh, well. Hope you enjoy it anyhow.

First Chapter / First Paragraph:
(Prologue)
     My husband, Clayton, and I were at the police station getting my mother, Maisie, out of jail for brushing up against the wrong side of the law. Her actual charges were still unclear. She claims it is not against any law in the state of South Carolina to take a llama for a walk on the open road. He was, after all, on a leash. The local police beg to differ, saying this is a case of animal cruelty, endangerment, and reckless behavior. Legal or not, it wasn't normal. I was glad they brought her in to the police station until I could get there because her behavior surely demonstrates a lack of sound judgment. Or not. Maisie was crazy like a fox and we all knew it. So I sat and waited while Clayton made things right between the Town of Mount Pleasant and Maisie by writing a check.

Teaser (from Page 223 in my trade paperback edition):
Martha Lou's was one of those places you'd only know about if you were from Charleston or if a local took you there. The location was in, how do we say this diplomatically, a reemerging neighborhood, the building was as pink as a bottle of Pepto-Bismol featuring a sort of fabulous fish mural on the exterior wall, and the interior decor was a little to the left of chic.

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Length of Book: 393 Pages (trade paperback)
Amazon Link: The Hurricane Sisters
Author Website: Dorothea Benton Frank

Synopsis:
(Partial blurb from Goodreads)
     Once again Dorothea Benton Frank takes us deep into the heart of her magical South Carolina Lowcountry on a tumultuous journey filled with longings, disappointments, and, finally, a road toward happiness that is hard earned. There we meet three generations of women buried in secrets. The determined matriarch, Maisie Pringle, at eighty, is a force to be reckoned with because she will have the final word on everything, especially when she's dead wrong. Her daughter, Liz, is caught up in the classic maelstrom of being middle-age and in an emotionally demanding career that will eventually open all their eyes to a terrible truth. And Liz's beautiful twenty-something daughter, Ashley, whose dreamy ambitions of her unlikely future keeps them all at odds.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at ADailyRhythm.com

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

What I Remember Most - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     I've read a lot of good books lately, but few of them have touched me like What I Remember Most. Cathy Lamb does such a good job of "building" her characters! I felt as if I knew her main character inside and out. So everything that touched her, touched me too.
     I'll definitely be reading more books by this author.

Beginning
I hear his voice, then hers. I can't find them in the darkness. I can't see them through the trees. I don't understand what's going on, but their horror, their panic, reaches me, throttles me.
They scream the same thing.
Run, Grenadine, run!
It's them.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
My own office! I would paint the walls a creamy light blue and fill it with color and pretty, and it would be organized so I could feel safe and years away from what I didn't want to think about.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Psychological Suspense
Length: 497 Pages (published August, 2014)
Amazon Link: What I Remember Most
Author Website: Cathy Lamb

Synopsis:
      In a new novel rich in grace, warmth, and courage, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb tells of one woman's journey of reinvention in the wake of deep betrayal.
      Grenadine Scotch Wild has only vague memories of the parents she last saw when she was six years old. But she's never forgotten their final, panicked words to her, urging Grenadine to run. The mystery of their disappearance is just one more frayed strand in a life that has lately begun to unravel completely. One year into her rocky marriage to Covey, a well known investor, he's arrested for fraud and embezzlement. And Grenadine, now a successful collage artist and painter, is facing jail time despite her innocence. 
      With Covey refusing to exonerate her unless she comes back to him, Grenadine once again takes the advice given to her so long ago: she runs. Hiding out in a mountain town in central Oregon until the trial, she finds work as a bartender and as assistant to a furniture-maker who is busy rebuilding his own life. But even far from everything she knew, Grenadine is granted a rare chance, as potentially liberating as it is terrifying--to face down her past, her fears, and live a life as beautiful and colorful as one of her paintings. . .
                 

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
Click HERE to join other Friday 56 bloggers (sponsored by Freda's Voice)

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

The Friendship Star Quilt - Teaser Tuesday

I enjoy quilting and I love to read contemporary romance, so I knew THE FRIENDSHIP STAR QUILT would be the perfect book for me - especially since I'd already read and enjoyed the first book in The Stitching Post Romances series. Co-authors Patricia Kiyono and Stephanie Michels blend their voices seamlessly in this story of an abused woman trying to start a new life. 

Teaser from 4% on my Kindle:
She never shared much about herself, but she enjoyed hearing their news. On nights like this, it was easy to pretend these were her friends, and that her life was filled with as much love as theirs were.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Sweet Contemporary Romance
Length: 304 Pages
Amazon Link: The Friendship Star Quilt
Here's the link to my February post about Book #1: THE CALICO HEART.

Synopsis from Amazon:
      Anne Brown loves her job at The Stitching Post Quilt Shop in Grandville, Michigan, but she keeps a suitcase packed so she can leave at a moment's notice. Living under the radar, she longs for a normal life, but settles for listening to family stories told by the friendly ladies of the quilting club who meet at the shop on Tuesday evenings. When she meets Brad, the handsome band director of an area high school and his adorable daughter, Anne begins to hope for a happily ever after of her own. But someone has far different plans. 
      Brad Carmichael is juggling the demands of his job as band director at Rivertown High School with trying to be a better father to his daughter. When Brad is late picking Jennie up from a birthday party, the pretty young clerk from the local quilt shop comes to his rescue. Kind-hearted and talented, Anne becomes a vital part of his and Jennie’s lives. Until her past threatens to destroy their relationship. 

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 and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers
• Leave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.

Twitter: @sandynachlinger