Could U Have Survived Arranged Marriages?

For those of you who have children or have close-knit relationships with children, how many of those kiddos don't like to read? As most of you know, I have four of my own kids--two have no issues reading, but would rather do something else, one who had difficultly learning to read, while my youngest is a reading marathon kid. LUV!!! 

Point: my 3rd, our fifteen-year-old daughter, is one of the two who read well but would rather spend her time texting or watching a movie. However, she recently confided in me that she's found a genre of young adult lit she truly enjoys. And guess what??? It's romance with a splash of English society. WOOT! Thus, it feels like I've been waiting forever for Crystal's book to release in paperback. (Said daughter won't read on a Kindle. She wants to feel the paper in her hand. lol) 

In the English society of 1768 where women are bred to marry, unattractive Alexia, just sixteen, believes she will end up alone. But on the county doorstep of a neighbor’s estate, she meets a man straight out of her nightmares, one whose blue eyes threaten to consume her whole world—especially when she discovers him standing over her murdered host in the middle of the night.

Her nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with her beloved and risk becoming one of the Soulless.

BUY IT HERE
And as a thank you to all of you, Crystal's publisher is offering a $2.00 coupon until February 14^th at this Book LINK, using this COUPON CODE: LQJM3F84.

Crystal has asked each of her participants to answer this question: If you lived in a society where arranged marriages were a la mode, whom would you beg your parents to set you up with? Why? 

This has taken a ton of thought. I am a romance sap, so said suitor needs to be passionate. I also don't mind a bit of eye candy. Can you really blame a girl? 

I've never been big on celebrities and their too-fast, too-many-public-issues world. They're just too real for me. That leaves me with all the fictional gentlemen, dudes, studmuffins, and geekers I've fawned over throughout the years. In the end, as much as I enjoy that eye candy, I am the girl who values loyalty, trust, honesty, and integrity above all else. In my book, there is no one fictional male character who holds these to a greater degree than Mr. Darcy of Pride & Prejudice. 

He was absolutely my first love. ❤

Check out who others chose as their arranged spouse throughout the rest of the hop below!

1.	Le&ndra Wallace	2.	Crystal Collier
3.	Robyn Campbell	4.	PK HREZO
5.	Kimberly Afe	6.	Dawn Brazil
7.	Madeline Jane	8.	Christine Rains
9.	Meradeth Houston	10.	Tammy Theriault
11.	Brinda Berry Blogs	12.	J.L. Campbell
13.	Heather Musk - Reading, Writing and Everything in between	14.	Elizabeth Seckman
15.	Rachel Schieffelbein	16.	Libby Heily
17.	Donna Hole	18.	Kyra Lennon
19.	Janie Junebug's Literary Lover	20.	Ashley Nixon
21.	Jamie Ayres	22.	Title by Jaq
23.	SA Larsen - ME!!!!	24.	Heather M. Gardner
25.	suzannes-tribe	26.	Ellie Garratt
27.	C. M. Keller	28.	Bish Denham
29.	E.J. Wesley	30.	Michael @ In Time ...
31.	Catherine Stine's Idea City	32.	Nana Prah
33.	Eva Lefoy	34.	Trisha @ WORD STUFF
35.	Writer's Block	36.	Stephen Tremp
37.	erica and christy	38.	Mary-andering Among the Pages
39.	C.M. Brown	40.	Madeline Mora-Summonte
41.	Jay Noel - Writer on Fire	42.	Chrys Fey
43.	Kittie Howard	44.	Swagger Writers
45.	Tyrean's Writing Spot

And while you're at it, enter to win one of these great prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AND, of course, share with me who you'd ask to be set up with!

The Importance of Gratitude For A Writer

I found this video the other day, and thought of all my writer friends out there - those I converse with daily, those on occasion, and those I've yet to meet. If there is one element of the writing life that unites us it's the sense of unease about a project, the publishing market, and our careers as storytellers. Even the most successful of authors have these moments of self-doubt and blurred reason.

Listen to this video. It's short. I've decided to listen to it once every day for the next month and see how I feel at the end. Feel free to join me and we can release our observations together during my It's All About Gratitude Blog Hop. I haven't hosted a blog hop in a long time, so I thought this might be fun as well as helpful to us and other writers. Sharing our writerly wisdom is always a good thing, which I'm thinking will lead us to more happiness and gratitude. And isn't that the point?

 

The hop will run from March 3 - 5. Post any of those three days - using this badge and linking back to this list - and tell us about what you learned about yourself over the course of the month. Did it help you? How do you plan on implementing your findings? Just signup with Mr. Linky below. Of course, spreading the word would be greatly appreciated! 
How happy do you feel on a daily basis? How often do you consciously think about it?