Sandra's Book Club: Blog Tour: I HAVE A STORY by Colleen L. Donnelly

I HAVE A STORY

Colleen L Donnelly

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GENRE: Historical Romance

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BLURB:

Jim Turner writes crime but doesn’t live it. He respects his grandfather’s tales of heroes but doesn’t believe them. When his failing grandfather sends him to a remote peninsula to write the end of his own heroic love story, Jim includes a war criminal interview to maintain his edge.

Chastity is an anomaly, a misfit in pre-WWII culture as well as in Jim’s life. Her spritely charm and endearing features turn Jim’s world upside down, especially when she reveals his grandfather’s peninsula as the site of her upcoming wedding.

Do good journalists flee when their interviewee is murdered? Do heroes write fiancés out of another’s story and themselves in? “The End” become the hardest words for Jim to write.

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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

Author's Note: Boy meets Girl. When it’s time to lay his heart on the table.

It was time to speak, say all the right things, and ask the pertinent questions. Her actions and the look on her face told me she felt as strongly about me as I did about her.

“Chastity,” I began. Everything inside me wanted to drop down to one knee for this hallowed moment, but I stayed in my seat. “We have…”

Turbulence returned to her eyes. “Wait. Let me talk first.”

I needed to swallow but couldn’t. The words that expressed my profession of love gummed together like a wad in my throat. I needed to say them. This couldn’t wait…

“You need to hear this. I hope you will understand…” she continued.

“Margie!” A woman’s voice rose from the yard below.

Chastity’s eyes widened.

I straightened in my seat. “Don’t mind whoever that is. Probably some saleswoman for the war effort, searching for one of your neighbors.” I wished whoever it was away from Chastity’s house. The moment I had been waiting for was finally here, and the girl of my dreams seemed uncertain about something.

“Margie,” the woman called again, her voice carrying through the open windows and door.

Chastity’s face paled. “That’s my mom.” She stared wide-eyed at the window.

“Your name is Margie?” I asked in a whisper. This young woman was far more a Chastity than a Margaret.

Chastity stole a peek at the ground below. “My dad is with her.” She gave her billowy shirt and bright shorts a dismayed grimace. “They can’t see me like this. I need to change.”

A male voice—her father’s, apparently—also called for Margie. She disappeared behind one of her fabric walls where a ruckus ensued I could only surmise was the shedding of her current outfit for something even more discreet. Parents or not, I still wished the two visitors away. They couldn’t have chosen a worse time for a visit.

“How about this?” She appeared in front of me, her body completely hidden beneath a length of fabric loosely wound around her, the end draped over a shoulder. Had she torn down one of her material walls?

The panic on her face softened my irritation at her parents’ interruption. “They will never guess you are hiding something,” I assured her, though I knew from writing crime books that too much denial was a sure sign of guilt. “You look lovely.”

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Review: A famous crime fiction writer has one story he had to tell—his grandfather’s. In a strange town, a woman behind him says, “I have a story.” Then somehow this cutthroat writer ended up meeting a beautiful pregnant woman and was coerced into helping her with her wedding, which was something that he knew nothing about.

“Here I was, Jim Turner, renowned author of suspense, plotting greenery suitable for tender nuptials instead of mass murder.”

Can the crime writer write about love?

Since meeting Chastity, Jim has questioned everything.

“What if I had fallen in love? Could that happen in less than a day? Or was I merely intoxicated by her colorful world, her quirky style, her large blue eyes, and cute expressions? Would real love dare to take her away from her fiancé? Or would it spend 3 divine days in her presence and then walk away?”

The journal narration was thoughtful, deep, and lovely. You get swept up by the words quite easily. Jim undoubtedly falls in love with Chastity and was willing to give up everything to be with her or walk away forever to save her. It gets very poetic, often repeating the same notions and emotions over and over. It gets to be quite a long read after a while. We basically have this hardboiled crime writer opening up and showing his beating heart for the first time ever. It was a pretty nice read overall.

Rating: 3 stars

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Colleen L Donnelly put her science education to use for years and then put it behind her to pursue other passions. Her first love is writing and her second is hunting—hunting for that next good story, hunting for relics and antiques, hunting for the next good author to read. An avid believer in work hard/play hard, Colleen splits her time between indoors and out, always busy at something.

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4lq6qGO

Goodreads: bit.ly/4jHc6Lj

BookBub: https://bit.ly/4ivgQls

Social Media Links:

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Website: http://www.colleenldonnelly.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colleen.donnelly.568/

Goodreads: http://www.Goodreads.com/colleenldonnelly

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colleenldonnelly/

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Twitter: https://x.com/ColleenLDonnell/