Yes, the book is so very good, but can I point out that the Author has a screw as earring, and I absolutely love her for it?

The Calm I Seek by Christina Lourens will release on the 26 in the Inspirational fiction genre.

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.

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

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

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

Someone clinked their fork against their wine glass, and it took me a few moments to realize this was done to draw our attention. A short inspection around the table showed us the culprit: Michael. We all groaned. Now was not the time to regale us with speeches.

He stood. “I’m sorry to break into your daydreams, but I wanted to say a few words.”

Hannah smiled as her cheeks reddened. What did she have to blush about?

“As you all know, I dearly love your sister Hannah. We’ve been together for two years now, and we feel as if we’re made for each other.”

What was this? A public declaration of love? I could really do without that after stuffing myself full of turkey.

“Since we’ve been together for that long, we thought we’d make it official this year. If you permit us, that is.” He bowed slightly at Laura, who looked as confused as the rest of us. When he beamed at her, she realized a reply was expected.

“Sure,” she mumbled, although I doubted she knew what she was assenting to.

“Wonderful. Then it’s decided.” Michael now beamed at Hannah. Too much beaming going on for my liking. Hannah stood up as well, and he put his arm around her. “The wedding will probably be over the summer, although we haven’t set a definite date yet.”

Wait, wedding? 

“You’re getting married?” Emily hadn’t eaten that much and was clearly more with it than the rest of us.

Michael’s smile faded slightly. “Yes, that’s what I was telling you.”

“Well, congratulations.” She moved around to Hannah and hugged her.

I was still trying to get my turkey-fogged brain to accept the new reality.

“A wedding? Well, that’ll be something to look forward to.” Laura’s smile seemed a bit strained, but that could have been indigestion. She also got up and hugged Hannah. I got to my feet too, and since Michael was closest to me, I hugged him instead. Robert followed with manly shoulder claps and vigorous handshaking.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

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.

About the Hero

by Christina Lourens

Gabriel Rodriguez, the man who Rebecca falls in love with in The Calm I Seek, did not spring fully formed into my mind. None of my characters ever do, but Gabriel was more elusive than any of my other characters. I must say that I often have difficulty with heroes in my books. I don’t know what it is. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself to create believable heroes who are easy to fall in love with, but who are flawed as well.

Perfect men are boring. Perfect characters are boring. It’s the flaws that make characters interesting, so I needed to find flaws for Gabriel as well. It took me quite a few tries—and quite a few drafts—to get Gabriel right. He went from not flawed enough to too flawed (one of my beta readers asked, “How on earth would anyone fall in love with him?”). In the end, he’s a wonderful, realistic man and yes, I fell in love with him myself—a little bit.

The inspiration for Gabriel originally came from the show Mozart in the Jungle, where Gael Garcia Bernal plays the conductor Rodrigo De Souza. Gael Garcia Bernal isn’t a sexy man, but there was a certain quality about the character he played that really appealed to me, which I tried to capture in Gabriel. Over the four years it took me to edit and perfect The Calm I Seek, Gabriel changed quite a bit and in the end, his character doesn’t resemble Rodrigo De Souza in the least, which was fine. I like how Gabriel is his own person now.

One thing I wanted to make sure was that Gabriel wasn’t a typical alpha male. In the story it would have been really easy for him to swoop in and fix all Rebecca’s problems, but he allows her the time to breathe and make her own decisions. He doesn’t press for answers when he wants to know more about Rebecca’s past, putting her feelings ahead of his curiosity. And he isn’t jealous. He respects her, and I think we need to see more of that in heroes.

Links:

Website: https://christinawritesromance.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@CK_Romance

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