To Heal a Heart (The Masonville Series) by Jana Richards ➱ Book Tour with Giveaway

To Heal a Heart

The Masonville Series Book 2

by Jana Richards

Genre: Contemporary Western Romance

Two souls in pain, two hearts in need of rescue.

Garrett Saunders' world changed two years ago on a road in Afghanistan. Back home, he feels like a stranger. As he struggles to find his place in the world, he meets a horse destined for the slaughterhouse and a woman bent on rescuing the strays of the world, including him.

Blair Greyson moves to Masonville to look after her ailing grandfather and give her rescue horses a home. Right away she butts heads with a surly former Marine. Despite a rocky start, they come to an agreement: Blair will board Garrett's rescue horse and he'll help with repairs around her farm.

Garrett finds purpose working with Blair—and falls in love with her. But she's hiding a secret. Can she forgive herself and accept Garrett's love, or will she let guilt and regret continue to rule her life?

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Child of Mine

The Masonville Series Book 1

by Jana Richards

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Is Lauren’s love for Cole stronger than her fear of scandal in her hometown?

Lauren didn't intend to sleep with her brother-in-law Cole on the day of her husband's funeral. But now that she is pregnant, she's not sorry. Cole's given her a baby, a long-wished-for miracle. He's been her friend forever, though she never told him or anyone else how unhappy her marriage to his cheating brother was. And she's afraid to tell the small town that considered her husband a hero that the baby isn't his.

Cole's been in love with Lauren since he was sixteen. It kills him that everyone believes the baby is his dead brother's. All he wants is to claim the baby, and Lauren, as his own. Though she marries him, will Lauren's heart ever be his?

Lauren must tell the truth or risk losing Cole. Is her newly-discovered love for him greater than her fear of scandal in her hometown?

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Excerpts from To Heal a Heart :

Excerpt #1 - 243 words:
He pushed himself to his feet, disconcerted by his unsteadiness. He made a few halting steps toward the gate as Blair ran into the yard.
“I forgot my sweater,” she said, grabbing the garment from the back of a chair and slipping it on. “It’s cooler than I thought. Are you sure you don’t want to watch the fireworks with us?”
“No, I—”
His words were cut off by a loud explosion, and his only thought was that he had to protect Blair. He grabbed her and threw her to the ground, covering her body with his. He was under attack. Why was Blair in Afghanistan? How could he keep her safe?
Through the chaos and noise he heard her muffled voice beneath him. “Garrett, you’re crushing me.”
He shifted his weight slightly. “Shh. I’m sorry. You have to stay down and quiet. I can’t let them hurt you.”
She stopped struggling. “Who’s going to hurt me?”
“Can’t you hear the mortar fire? I have to protect you.”
Her hand rubbed his back in gentle circles. “It’s all right, Garrett. It’s only fireworks. It can’t hurt us. We’re safe here.”
He lifted his head and looked around. He was in Cole and Lauren’s back yard in Masonville. There were no bombs, no shelling, no Taliban. He looked down into Blair’s face, into the pity in her eyes. He rolled off her, disgusted with himself.
Disgusted and scared. He was losing his mind.

Excerpt #2 – 272 words
“Do you remember the last summer I saw you, just before I joined the Marines? Your brothers were both working for the summer, so you came out to your grandparents’ farm on your own.”
Blair’s face grew hot at the memory. She pulled his shirt from his jeans and laid her palm against the warm, hard muscles of his abdomen. “You mean the summer I threw myself at you and you totally rejected me? No, I barely remember that at all.”
He chuckled as he pushed her shirt off her shoulders. “I was sorely tempted that summer. There you were, prancing around in your short shorts and bikini top, working in your grandmother’s garden while I mowed the lawns. You must have known you were driving me crazy.”
Actually, she hadn’t known. He’d done a great job of ignoring her and making her believe she was nothing but a nuisance. She looked up at him, tilting her head to one side. “If you were so tempted, why did you tell me to take a hike when I tried to seduce you?”
“You were fifteen, Blair. Three years younger than me and just a kid. If you’d known what I wanted to do with you…” His unfinished sentence shimmered between them.
He was such an honorable man. He hadn’t wanted to take advantage of a young girl with a case of raging hormones and too little sense. A girl who believed her only worth was in what her body could give to a boy.
“Perhaps you can show me now.” Blair slowly lowered the zipper of his pants. “I’m not a kid anymore.”

Excerpt #3 - 380 words
“Okay, what would you like to do? In your heart of hearts, what would you really like to do with your life?”
He was slow in responding. For a long time, he pushed gravel around with his rake, until Blair thought he wasn’t going to answer her question. With a sigh, she started working again, almost missing his soft-spoken words.
“I always thought after my military career was over, I’d come back to civilian life and begin a career in policing or firefighting.”
“Those both sound like good options. So why haven’t you applied to some police forces or fire departments?”
The anger in his eyes took her breath away. “Are you deliberately trying to be cruel?”
Blair stepped back, shocked by his words. “No, of course not! What are you talking about?”
“I’m not exactly a prime candidate for either the police force or the fire department.”
“Why would you say that?” Was he worried about his drinking as well? Did he think he’d be unable to handle the rigors of policing or firefighting because of it?
He tilted his head. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
He bent at the waist and rolled up his right pant leg till it was above his knee, revealing a device made of metal and plastic where flesh and bone should have been. He rose to his full height and looked her straight in the eye, as if daring her to pity him.
“As you can see, I’d have a tough time acing the physical.”
Blair wanted to cry. She wanted to run into Garrett’s arms and hold him forever, to make all the hurt go away. She wanted to scream and yell and rail against war and all the stupidity and intolerance in the world.
But Garrett wouldn’t appreciate her tears, and crying wouldn’t solve anything.
So, she sucked them back and raised her gaze to his, willing her chin not to tremble.
“I hope you’re not going to use your leg, or lack thereof, as an excuse to get out of work. There’s still plenty to be done here.”
He rolled his pant leg over his prosthesis once more, straightened and grinned at her.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Somehow Blair managed to smile back at him. “Good answer.”

Excerpt #4 - 593 words:
She pulled into the Saunders’ farmyard and parked near the house. After killing the engine, she hopped out of the driver’s side door and hurried to help Garrett get out of her truck. He leaned on her as they walked to the house, and she staggered a little under his weight.
“Home to mommy and daddy. Pretty pathetic, isn’t it? A grown man living with his parents.”
She could practically taste his frustration. “I guess we’re two of a kind. I’m a grown woman living with my grandfather. Does that make me pathetic, too?”
She helped him up the front steps to the porch, and they stood in front of the door. She kept a steadying hand on his arm, worried he’d lose his balance.
“Hardly. You’re looking after him. I only cause my parents worry. “
Once more she saw the bleakness in his eyes, and she desperately wanted to ask him what had happened at Lauren’s house. But that wasn’t what he needed. She put a light tone in her voice.
“I don’t know about that. Granddad worries about me, too. Mostly he worries that I’m more interested in horses than in men.”
“Do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Like horses better than men?”
“Yeah, sometimes I do.”
Garrett let out an unexpected bark of laughter. “I like you Blair Greyson, even if you did steal Everett’s farm out from under me.”
“I did not steal—”
His mouth descended on hers, and for the second time that evening, he stole her breath away.
She had so not expected this, was totally unprepared for the way her body heated at his touch. His tongue swept into her mouth, stroking her tongue over and over until her knees turned to water and she had to grip his biceps to stay upright. He tasted hot, and a little desperate. Desperate for her. Her body arched toward him as he ran his hands over her buttocks, and up her sides, his thumbs grazing her breasts and leaving a trail of fire in their wake.
He stopped kissing her and she wanted to whimper in protest, to beg him not to stop. He leaned his forehead against hers, breathing heavily as his hands gripped her hips.
“Don’t go.” His voice was a rough whisper. “Stay with me tonight.”
She was far more tempted than she should have been. He’d had way too much to drink tonight, maybe even had a problem with alcohol. She hadn’t been tempted like this in a very long time. Though she recognized all the dangers, to her shame her biggest fear was that in the morning he’d regret sleeping with her.
She shook her head. What was she thinking? A short time ago she’d been afraid he was going to rape her. Where was her sense of self-preservation?
“I think your mother might be shocked to find me at her breakfast table in the morning.”
He pulled her closer, letting her feel how much he wanted her. “Then let’s go to your place.”
Blair trembled in his arms. She had a bad habit of taking in strays with lots of problems and Garrett Saunders was her biggest find yet. She instinctively understood he had the power to crush her.
“I think my grandfather might be as surprised as your mother.” She lightly kissed his cheek. “Besides, I’m not that kind of girl.”
“Too bad.”
“Sleep well, Garrett.”
She pulled away and he dropped his hands. Blair hurried down the steps and ran to her truck before she could change her mind.

Five Things to Know about the Masonville series
1. Masonville is a small (fictional) town of about 5,000 people in North Dakota, not far from Bismarck. It’s large enough to contain plenty of businesses and services like a veterinary clinic and a law office, but small enough to be a hotbed of gossip. Masonville is the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows your business.

2. Despite that, good things happen in small towns. They are tight-knit communities that stick together, especially in times of trouble.

3. There will eventually be four books in the series.
Book one: Child of Mine – Lauren and Cole’s story.
Book Two: To Heal a Heart – Blair and Garrett’s story. Garrett and Lauren are brother and sister.
Book Three: Unexpected (working title) – I’m currently working on Ben and Jamie’s story. Ben is Blair’s brother, and Jamie is a veterinarian who works with Cole and Lauren at the vet clinic.
Book Four: Currently unnamed – I know this is going to be Damon and Charlotte’s story. Damon is a brother to Ben and Blair, while Charlotte is Lauren and Garrett’s sister. See how I did that?

4. Small town romance is all about falling in love with your community, while at the same time falling in love with someone special.

5. The characters in the Masonville series must overcome the hurts and traumas of the past to find a better future. Love helps them find the way.

When Jana Richards read her first romance novel, she immediately knew two things: she had to commit the stories running through her head to paper, and they had to end with a happily ever after. She also knew she’d found what she was meant to do. Since then she’s never met a romance genre she didn’t like. She writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and historical romance set in World War Two, in lengths ranging from short story to full length novel. Just for fun, she throws in generous helpings of humor, and the occasional dash of the paranormal. Her paranormal romantic suspense “Seeing Things” was a 2008 EPPIE finalist.

In her life away from writing, Jana is an accountant/admin assistant, a mother to two grown daughters, and a wife to her husband Warren. She enjoys golf, yoga, movies, concerts, travel and reading, not necessarily in that order. She and her husband live in Winnipeg, Canada. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website at www.janarichards.com

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