Fabulous and Brunette: The Calm I Seek by Christina Lourens - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway

Hi, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Christina Lourens and her new book, “The Calm I Seek”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

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 Christina and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!

The Calm I Seek

by Christina Lourens

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GENRE: Inspirational Fiction

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BLURB:

With love, betrayal and grief disrupting her perfectly peaceful life, will she fight for the happiness she deserves?

After the violent death of her husband, Rebecca Holmes is content leading a quiet life spending time with her sisters and niece. When her younger sister Hannah asks her to plan her wedding, Rebecca discovers her friends and family all think her life is empty. Determined to prove them wrong, Rebecca takes up salsa lessons where she meets the charismatic salsa teacher, Gabriel Rodriguez.

Falling in love is the last thing Rebecca wanted to do, but she is inexplicably drawn to Gabriel. Opening her heart again is terrifying, especially after what happened with her late husband. With the help of the local vicar, Rebecca starts to believe that maybe she deserves a happy ending after all.

Just when she’s decided to give her heart to Gabriel, a betrayal brings back demons from the past. Heartbroken, Rebecca closes herself off again, but when disaster strikes her family, she is forced to confront her past actions. Can there be redemption for her and can she forgive those who betrayed her?

The Calm I Seek is a heartbreaking novel about forgiveness and redemption.

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EXCERPT ONE:

Being woken up early by strange sounds from the kitchen was not my idea of a good start to Christmas Day. I had expected to sleep late and have a leisurely Christmas breakfast with my younger sister, Hannah, and her boyfriend, who were staying with me, but instead got my older sister banging away in my kitchen when she had a perfectly good kitchen at home—where her husband and children were as well.

“What are you doing here?” I stared bleary-eyed at Laura, who had succeeded in covering every surface of my kitchen counter with stuff.

“Good morning, Rebecca. I thought I’d get a head start on lunch.” Laura washed a large turkey under the tap. “Hand me the chopping board, will you?”

I did as she asked and sat down at the table. Laura placed the turkey on the board.

“But why so early?” I yawned and gazed at the clock. “It’s barely past seven. Lunch isn’t till two. Surely you could get here a bit later?”

Laura rubbed salt and spices on it and pushed a strand of hair out of the way with her wrist. “Just let me do my thing.”

“I could help.” I already knew what the answer would be. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been so careless with my offer. Laura hated for anyone to interfere with her precious preparations.

Instead of replying, she lifted the dead bird off the chopping board and back into the roasting pan.

I averted my eyes. “Seriously though, why are you here so early? And why are you preparing the turkey here? You usually do that at home. Shouldn’t you be there with Robert and the kids?”

“Don’t tell me where I should be. Why don’t you go back to bed?”

“With all the racket you’re making? You woke me up. It’s too late now. I can’t go back to sleep.”

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GUEST POST:

Fierce Female Lead Characters:

I love strong, female lead characters. So often, particularly in romance, the female main character doesn’t have any agency and depends on a man to make her happy or to rescue her from a bad situation. When writing The Calm I Seek, I was very aware of the pitfalls I could fall into when creating my main character, Rebecca, so I tried very hard to make her a strong, independent woman.

Rebecca doesn’t have an easy life. She has made mistakes in the past and she continues to make mistakes throughout the course of the novel. She isn’t looking for love, but when love comes looking for her, she doesn’t shy away from it. Gabriel seems perfect, but he isn’t her saviour. Her problems don’t get fixed just because he shows up in her life. Her development throughout the novel is her own, which makes the happy ending even more satisfying, in my opinion.

The key to creating fierce, female lead characters is making sure your character has a growth arch of their own. Other characters will influence the main character, but in the end, her decisions are hers alone, and she doesn’t need anyone to save her. A fierce female lead character is independent and takes charge of her own destiny.

This doesn’t mean that she can’t fall in love. Or have flaws. Or need other people in her life. A female lead character without flaws and who doesn’t need anyone is quite boring. Without flaws, there’s no growth for the character, which doesn’t make for a good story. Rebecca has plenty of flaws, which she tries to work on during the story. She needs her family by her side, but in the end, it is her decisions which shape the course of her life—and her future.

Fierce female lead characters are so much fun to write. Their fierceness can get them into a lot of trouble too, which always makes for good plot. And readers will enjoy reading about a female character who stands up for herself. If we show readers how amazing fierce, strong, independent women can be, we might encourage more women to be fierce in real life. Win win!

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AUTHOR BIO:

Christina Lourens has always been passionate about writing, but life got in the way of her writing career. She’s never given up and can be found writing in the evenings and on weekends, often accompanied by her pug. When she’s not writing, Christina keeps busy at the day job (until her writing career takes off) or snuggles up on the couch with a book. She loves crocheting, but because of her busy life, crocheting projects tend to take a long time to be finished.

Christina has lived in three countries, but is currently living in the UK with her husband of 20 years, their two children, pug, canary and pheasant.

The Calm I Seek is her first novel.

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CONNECT WITH CHRISTINA:

Website:

https://christinawritesromance.com

Newsletter:

https://christinawritesromance.com/newsletter

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/CK_Romance

BookBub Author Page:

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/christina-lourens

BookBub Book Page:

https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-calm-i-seek-by-christina-lourens

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20618310.Christina_Lourens

Goodreads Book Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55065382-the-calm-i-seek

Amazon Author Page:

https://amzn.to/2IKRENa

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BOOK BUY LINKS:

Amazon US Kindle eBook:

https://amzn.to/32WPVLs

Amazon US Paperback:

https://amzn.to/2UD1LWQ

Amazon UK Kindle eBook:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Calm-Seek-heartbreaking-redemption-forgiveness-ebook/dp/B08BRYPFYH

Amazon UK Paperback:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Calm-Seek-heartbreaking-redemption-forgiveness/dp/1838115803

Amazon CA Paperback:

https://www.amazon.ca/Calm-Seek-heartbreaking-redemption-forgiveness/dp/1838115803

Amazon AU Kindle eBook:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Calm-Seek-heartbreaking-redemption-forgiveness-ebook/dp/B08BRYPFYH

Amazon AU Paperback:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Calm-Seek-heartbreaking-redemption-forgiveness/dp/1838115803

Apple Books eBook:

https://books.apple.com/gb/book/the-calm-i-seek/id1522365717

Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-calm-i-seek-christina-lourens/1137305176

The Book Depository Paperback:

https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Calm-I-Seek-Christina-Lourens/9781838115807

BAM! Books-A-Million Paperback:

https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Calm-Seek/Christina-Lourens/9781838115807

Kobo eBook:

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-calm-i-seek

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Christina will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is 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.