Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Seafarer's Bride by Laura Strickland



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions to celebrate today's release of THE SEAFARER'S BRIDE by Laura Strickland! Enter to win an ebook of the first book in the Viking Brides series The Berserker's Bride. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A year ago, Magnus Tolljursson helped repel a treacherous attack from his father’s enemies, and discovered he carries the berserker’s seed of madness. Now he must sail to the settlement from whence those attackers came, and fulfill a promise to a friend. He doesn’t know what he’ll find in Husavik and never suspects he may lose his heart.

In her father’s absence, Embra Fritisson has been engaged in a desperate battle to keep leadership of the settlement. When Magnus arrives saying her father is dead, she fears her unstable family will splinter into factions and destroy one another. She must retain control, but how can she hope to keep her head while falling in love with the enemy?

Read an Excerpt

Now her gaze met that of her servant, Kennach. A slave captured in Erin long ago, Kennach had been with her most her life. No longer a young man, she acknowledged he was still important to her. She’d had a succession of nurses when young, but Modir invariably ordered them off in one of her rages.

Kennach, being in essence a furnishing, could not be ordered off. He’d become the one consistency in Embra’s life.

She looked him in the eye and gestured to the mirror. “I was just girding myself for battle.” She never used the mirror out of vanity. Though she’d been told all her life she was beautiful, the compliment meant nothing. Modir was beautiful—the most beautiful woman in Husavik, it was said. Only look what that beauty had done for her.

Nei, Embra used the mirror in order to make certain she looked formidable, nothing more.

“Which of them is it this time?”

Kennach grimaced. A man of ordinary height and girth, he had what Embra considered a typically Gaelic face, with a broad forehead and wide-set eyes. Those eyes had been her touchstones so many times—when she wept, when she felt loneliness, or despair. But when had his hair gone from brown to gray? Ach, how much time had passed.

“Your sisters, mistress.”

Ach, Freya, not that. Embra possessed a brood of brothers and sisters. One thing her parents had done well, was breed. Gunnar, now missing, was the oldest and named after his grandfather, the former jarl. Another son, Runi, had inherited a measure of Modi’s madness and become a reclusive schemer. Embra had been born next, the eldest of the girls, followed by two more boys and three more girls. All, miraculously, had survived and would yet, if they did not kill each other over the succession.

“I have three sisters. Which of them?”

“Mistress Vanja and Mistress Dagmar. There has been spitting and name-calling. Slaps and clawing. When it became violent, I came for you.”

Embra abandoned the mirror. Her chamber was very small, but it was her own. She had traded space for privacy, but that failed to protect her when things like this occurred. And lately, they seemed to happen more and more often.

Who had named her peacemaker?

About the Author:
Multi award-winning author Laura Strickland delights in time traveling to the past and searching out settings for her books, be they Historical Romance, Steampunk or something in between. Her first Scottish Historical hero, Devil Black, battled his way onto the publishing scene in 2013, and the author never looked back. Nor has she tapped the limits of her imagination. Venturing beyond Historical and Contemporary Romance, she created a new world with her ground-breaking Buffalo Steampunk Adventure series set in her native city, in Western New York. Married and the parent of one grown daughter, Laura has also been privileged to mother a number of very special rescue dogs, the latest being a little boy called Tinker, and is intensely interested in animal welfare. Her love of dogs, and her lifelong interest in Celtic history, magic and music, are all reflected in her writing. Laura's mantra is Lore, Legend, Love, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Author Web site: http://www.laurastricklandbooks.com
Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000002632317
Author Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Strickland/e/B001KHSACW/r
Author Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/760146.Laura_Strickland
Author Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LauraSt05038951
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurastricklandauthor/
Author Book Bub page: https://www.bookbub.com/search/authors?search=Laura%20Strickland

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Seafarers-Bride-Viking-Brides-Book-ebook/dp/B0BNZFLGGT/ref=sr_1_5

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