Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Victoria at Sea, a Paranormal Contemporary Romantic Comedy by M. Kate Quinn (3 August 2016, Soul Mate Publishing, LLC, 162 pages). This is the first book in the Destiny's Detour series.
Don't miss our Guest Post by author M. Kate Quinn where she talks about The Story Behind the Story.PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first four chapters with Amazon Look Inside.
Victoria at Sea is FREE on Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner's Lending Library.
Author M. Kate Quinn will be awarding a $50 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), interviews (ℚ), reviews (✍) and guest blog posts (✉).
Synopsis | Teaser | Author Guest Post | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops
Synopsis
‘Why?’ has no place in what the heart knows for sure.On the eve of their wedding, Victoria Gliden and fiancé, Owen Walker, call it quits. He accuses her of not being able to get over her deadbeat father’s vanishing act when she was a child and she and her cold feet run and don’t look back.
Victoria, an interior designer, has an important meeting on Cancun that could garner her a promotion and the plan had been to incorporate her presentation with the honeymoon cruise that’s journeying to the island. Since she’s sure Owen is on his way to Portland to escape the aftermath of their ruined wedding, Victoria takes the honeymoon cruise anyway. Only Owen has the same idea and they’re stuck with each other for six days, five nights.
When Tony Gliden, Victoria’s father, dies in a freak accident, he is sent back to Earth disguised as a crotchety old man with the mission to convince his daughter to believe in love. So, he, too boards the ship.
At sea, destiny takes a detour when Victoria befriends the quirky old man with kind eyes and together they join forces with a quartet of unabashed women in their fifties who drink pink martinis and flirt with the waitstaff but are wiser than they look. While trying to dodge Owen, Victoria’s new acquaintances help her face old wounds and confront new fears.
By journey’s end, will two broken hearts get their answer?
Teaser: Excerpt
Chapter 2
Victoria Gliden raced across the uneven macadam nearly losing both her shoe and her grip on the suitcase she dragged behind her. She chanted a string of oh-my-gods into the cell phone braced at her ear with no comment coming from her assistant, Jennifer, on the other end.
Docked at the Ft. Lauderdale Marina, the endless ocean liner loomed in the distance. The navy blue First Circle Cruises logo on the side of the vessel confirmed she was at the correct pier. “It’s still here. Oh, thank God. It didn’t leave.”
Take me as far away from here as you can.
“Vic,” her longtime colleague said using her mommy voice, which was ridiculous considering at twenty-six she was a year younger than Victoria. “Slow down. You’re stressing yourself out.”
“Jennifer, I have to get on that ship.”
“I know.” The words rode out on an exasperated breath.
The gangway was still down on the ship named Paradise, the walkway all but mocking her like a long black tongue. There was no one in sight. Certainly passengers were already where they needed to be, happy and excited for their journey, everyone except her. Any minute that gangway would be pulled up, the ship ready to set sail. Victoria ran faster.
A steward appeared at the top of the gangway, a clipboard in his hands. Victoria waved a frantic hand, her cell phone held high like a white flag. She pressed it back to her ear. “Jen, I have to go.”
At last, Victoria trudged up the passageway. She tried to catch her breath, pulling in deep gulps of Port Everglade’s briny air.
“Careful, miss,” the steward called. “Relax; you’ve made it just in time.”
“Thank you,” she called up to him. For what seemed like the millionth time in forty-eight hours a sob caught in her throat. Even if she had screwed up everything else, at least she’d made it to the ship in time.
Take me as far away from here as you can.
The steward, in a crisp white uniform, reviewed Victoria’s paperwork. While she stood beside him, perspiration dripping down her neck, she wondered how he and his starchy, razor-sharp getup appeared immune against the scorching Florida heat. He looked up and smiled. “Welcome aboard the Paradise.”
She let out a long breath and touched the pad of her index finger to the bead of sweat perched at her temple. Florida in June was hot, but she’d expected it. After all, this was a cruise to Mexico. A memory tapped like a woodpecker on the steel door of her mind that apparently she’d forgotten to lock. Snippets teased into her thoughts like a movie preview. She and Owen seated together with a smiley-eyed Triple A agent clicking away on her keyboard as they made their trip plans, their high-energy banter coming at her now like pellets. Should we go for the bridal suite? It’s a ton of money. But, it’s our honeymoon. Look at the size of that balcony. What the hell, let’s do it!
“You’ll need to check your bag straight ahead.” The steward motioned down a corridor. “But first, please stop at the desk for your shipboard ID.”
A photographer appeared out of nowhere and, like in a fog, she allowed him to position her like a mannequin in front of an arrangement of potted palms. While his camera snapped away at her dry-eyed stare she knew the guy was wasting his time. Like I’d ever want a memento of having taken my honeymoon— alone.
Victoria at Sea
Available NOW!
About the Author
Born to a feisty Italian mother and a gentle blue-eyed Irishman, I was given the name “Marykate,” inspired by Maureen O’Hara’s character in the movie, The Quiet Man, an old-time favorite love story that co-starred John Wayne. With a grandmother Catherine and an Aunt Mary the name was an obvious choice.
I've been writing stories all my life. There's an old Macy’s box in my attic filled with my writings from childhood, now smudgy-looking pages produced on my portable Olivetti Underwood typewriter, an eighth-grade gift from my Grandmother Catherine.
I am a recent First Place winner of a short story contest sponsored by Reader’s Digest Magazine and write a column entitled “Boomer Humor” that appears monthly in my neighborhood newspaper.
My husband and I are our own love story. We have a slap-happy middle-aged second marriage with a combined total of six grown children, one delightful granddaughter, another precious little baby on the way and one ridiculously spoiled, amazingly handsome cat named Sammy.
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