Hi lovelies! It
gives me great pleasure today to host Josanna Thompson and her new book, “A
Maiden’s Honor”! For other stops on her
Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of
the images in
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to
win a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Josanna
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous
giveaway!
A Maiden's Honor
by Josanna Thompson
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GENRE: Historical Fiction / Romance
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BLURB:
Sarah
Campbell is a rarity among women in her time. Raised by her Scottish father and
the natives of a remote island in the South Pacific, Sarah and her father
embark on a perilous journey to Scotland. Their crew betrays them and murders
her father for the purpose of selling Sarah into slavery. She is rescued by an
unlikely hero, Hassan Aziz, the most feared pirate on the Barbary Coast. She
quickly discovers that she is unprepared for the complex world that is suddenly
thrust upon her. Sarah must find a way to survive in a world that intrigues and
terrifies her.
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EXCERPT TWO:
Sarah
picked up the first picture in the stack and handed it to Hassan. “My friend,
Temoe. She … beautiful, aye?”
Hassan
frowned as he studied her drawing. If he had to guess, her friend looked as if
she were Sarah’s age, perhaps a little older. She wore her hair cut to her
shoulders with flowers tucked behind her ears, just as Sarah described, but she
was not the Aphrodite goddess from his fantasies. Her flat nose and angular jaw
gave her a slightly masculine quality. Dressed only in a cloth tied around her
waist, her full breasts provided the only proof that she was a woman.
“She
beautiful, aye?”
“Well,
um.” Hassan didn’t know how to answer her. “Do all the women on your island
look like this?”
“Aye.
You not like?”
“I
am certain that your friend is lovely. Honestly, it's hard to ascertain her
beauty from this portrait.”
”Temoe
have … um … many sweetheart.”
“I
see.” Hassan grinned as he studied the expression on her face. “I imagine you
had many sweethearts of your own.”
Sarah
looked down at her lap as her trembling hand fidgeted with a lock of her hair.
“No. I not beautiful.”
Hassan
lifted his brow. “You must be joking.”
Sarah
pointed to her friend’s nose. “Beautiful women have nose like Temoe.”
“Do
you mean that men esteem women who have flat noses?”
“What
esteem?”
“Um.”
Hassan thought for a moment. “In other words, your people consider flat noses
as a sign of beauty.”
“Aye.”
Hassan
wished he had a mirror to show Sarah just how exquisite she truly was. Then
again, he wondered if it would make a difference considering that she measured
beauty by the Polynesians’ standards. In this part of the world, Sarah would be
regarded as the rarest of all beauties, for he had never seen her equal. Hassan
caressed her cheek with the back of his finger and said, “I cannot speak for
your countrymen, but I can speak for mine. They will esteem you as a lovely
young woman.”
“Aye?”
She looked at Hassan as if this was the first time someone had told her that
she was beautiful.
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EXTRAS:
Your Questions for the Characters from A Maiden’s Honor
That’s
right! The author allows readers to
submit questions and actually has her characters answer them! I don’t know about you, but there have been many
books I’ve read and wished I could have asked the character what they were
thinking when they did such and such? Or
what happened to them after blank? So, I
think this is such a cool idea of Josanna’s! Don't you?
Visit
http://www.josannathompson.com/your-questions-for-the-characters to submit your
question and check out what other reader’s have submitted and the character’s
responses.
**Please beware of spoilers on the above webpage**
Read Chapter One for FREE!!
That’s
right! The author allows her fans the opportunity
to read the entire first character free of charge! You
can read chapter one at: http://www.josannathompson.com/chapter-1-from-a-maiden-s-honor. Also, chapter one is available for download
at the same above link as well.
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GUEST POST:
Five Reasons You Should Read A Maiden’s Honor
The
gracious host at Fabulous and Brunette emailed me a list of blog topics and
asked me to choose one. They were interesting topics too. I decided to be
shameless and talk about A Maiden’s Honor, specifically why people should
choose to read this book over the hundreds of thousands of other selections out
there. Writing A Maiden’s Honor was like giving birth to a child after being
pregnant with it for years, and I do mean years. I’m one proud mama. Here’s why.
I can
be honest and admit that A Maiden’s Honor isn’t for everyone. I’ve always been
drawn to meaty tales with complex storylines. I love to read them, and those
are the kinds of stories that I strive to write. A Maiden’s Honor is as complex
as you can get. There are two central stories that run parallel to each other
until they converge in the middle. There are also several other subplots woven
into the story. If you like to sink your teeth into a complex story, A Maiden’s
Honor is the book for you.
A
Maiden’s Honor is not your average romance, although there are love stories in
both story lines. There is so much more
to A Maiden’s Honor than your typical plot: girl meets boy; boy and girl gets
together; they break up; something terrible happens; they get back together
again and live happily ever after. Ok, that happens in this story too, but
there is so much more. One of the primary storylines centers on the villain,
Naa’il Dhar, and his journey to redemption after he falls in love with an
American captive. Circumstances force him to take a hard look at slavery and
all that he holds dear. Those closest to him notice the changes in Naa’il, and
it scares them. There is much more to this story, but I’ll let you discover
them for yourself.
A
number of readers have contacted me after finishing A Maiden’s Honor. The one
comment they all make is how real my characters are to them. I worked very hard
to make my characters human. They each have light and dark within them. That’s
doubly true of Naa’il Dhar. I’ve never liked a bad-to-the-bone villain, and
that's why I strove to make Naa’il human. He’s ruthless when he needs to be,
yet tender at other times. Many readers have told me that they end up caring
for Naa’il.
A
Maiden’s Honor is timely, in that it’s multi-cultural. Characters from seven
different countries converge into this one story. There are also Christians and
Muslims. I portrayed the characters accurately for this time period, yet I did
so without passing judgement on any group. There are noble and ignoble
characters from both religions. Yet each one challenges the others to accept
and respect them for who they are.
A
Maiden’s Honor is filled with lots of logical plot twists and turns that will
keep you guessing throughout the book, and you won’t see the ending coming.
Those
are just a few of the reasons why I love A Maiden’s Honor. Thanks for bearing
with me to the end. I hope you enjoyed my insights. More importantly, I hope I
was successful in persuading you to read this unique story.
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AUTHOR BIO:
Josanna Thompson is
the author of A Maiden's Honor and The Woman from Eden series. She has lived in
many different places in the United States, including the Southeast, the
Midwest, California, and the Northeast. When she is not writing; she enjoys
traveling, exploring, and scuba diving.
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CONNECT WITH JOSANNA:
Website:
Blog:
Email & Newsletter:
Facebook:
Twitter:
Pinterest:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
All Author Page:
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AMAZON BOOK BUY LINK:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Josanna will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC
to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Josanna ~ It is so great to have you here! Congrats on your new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteGood morning Ally. Thanks so much for hosting and for the great post. I especially appreciate your plug for my idea about asking my characters questions.
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone. Happy Monday to you. Hope you had a fabulous weekend. I'll be checking in throughout the day, so please ask a question or say hi. I would love to hear from you!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteHi Rita,
DeleteThanks so much for stopping by and leaving a kind comment.
Great post - I enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDeleteHi Victoria. So glad that you enjoyed my post. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
DeleteThese tours are great so thank you for all the hard work you all put into bringing them to us. We have picked up some terrific books thanks to all of you bloggers and the authors as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks James, I appreciate your kind words.
DeleteHi Ally! Thanks so much for hosting this blog stop. You're a wonderful host, and I had a great time.
ReplyDeleteWhat book would you like to see a movie made of? Thanks for hosting the giveaway. I hope your book is a success. Bernie Wallace BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteHmm, that's a good question. I'm going to be unabashedly bold and say mine. I would also to see the Bronze bow made into a movie. It's one of my all-time favorite children's book.
DeleteI love to read. Sounds like a great story
ReplyDeleteHi Patty. I hope my post will inspire you to read it. If I may, I encourage you to download the preview on Kindle. It's free and it will give you a good idea of what A Maiden's Honor is about. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
DeleteI really enjoyed reading the guest post, thank you!
ReplyDelete