Alexandrea Weis
Genre: Contemporary
Romance
Publisher: World Castle
Publishing
Date of Publication:
1/1/13
Book Description:
At thirty, Nora Kehoe is
feeling pressured to settle down. On a blind date, Nora unexpectedly
ends up in the emergency room where she meets Dr. John Blessing. She
hopes the pragmatic Dr. Blessing can make her life complete. Then, a
passionate encounter with a childhood friend changes everything.
The charismatic Jean Marc
Gaspard manages the family business, Gaspard Fisheries. But rumors
abound that Jean Marc is running more than seafood through the waters
around Manchac Louisiana. When a family crisis sends Nora to Manchac,
she is thrown headlong into the dangerous world of smugglers and
swindlers. And as Jean Marc tries to protect Nora from his past, he
realizes he may lose her because of it.
The dark bayou waters run
deep with secrets in Louisiana, and every Cajun knows how to dance
the fine line between the right and wrong side of the law. But for
strangers, learning the steps to staying alive in the swamps can be
tricky. Life, and love, will be dependent on how well one can master
the … Acadian Waltz.
Chapter
1
For
many, the course of an entire lifetime could be summed up in a few
defining moments, but moments do not choose your path. There was
always an indescribable force lurking inside of us that shaped our
destiny. Whether this motivation was the result of fear, longing, or
in my case, guilt, it haunted our being and oversaw our every action.
Like a constant voice inside our heads, this energy gave each of our
lives direction.
My
inner voice was hugely influenced by the city where I was born. Built
at the bend in the Mississippi River and tucked behind protective
levees, New Orleans nurtured a peculiar world infatuated with the
Catholic rituals of sin and penance. Therefore, it should be no
surprise that those of us who endured in this swamp-ridden land below
the level of the sea had mastered the art of sin. In fact, we turned
it into something of a tourist industry. It was the penance part that
many of us had not quite gotten a handle on. But God, in his infinite
wisdom, wanted to make sure that we were always reminded of our heavy
feelings of culpability. That was why he created the greatest
guilt-making machine of them all—the mother.
Mine
was named Claire Mouton Gaspard Kehoe Schuller. My mother’s first
husband, Etienne Gaspard, had been her high school sweetheart.
Etienne was known for running touchdowns, shrimp boats, and little
else. Their marriage ended the day my mother first laid eyes on
Clayton Kehoe at the criminal court house, where she had gone, yet
again, to bail her drunk husband out of jail.
Her
second husband, the late Clayton Kehoe, had been a prominent attorney
in the city of New Orleans. Mother’s current husband was a Jewish
jewelry maker named Lou Schuller. Lou was not as influential as Kehoe
had been, but infinitely more skilled with gold and diamonds, which
invariably pleased my mother to no end. But my mother had always
insisted that it was Clayton Kehoe who had swept her off her feet
from the first moment their eyes met.
“Your
father,” Mother would always say. “Had the sweetest way of
talking, and he always knew how to treat a lady like a queen.”
My
mother was nineteen and my father was thirty-two when they married.
It was a happy marriage, with lots of parties, many friends, and
eventually the arrival of me, Nora Theresa Kehoe. I was named after
my mother’s favorite saint and my father’s favorite movie star.
Marriage
to my father must have agreed with Claire. She enjoyed being the wife
of a well-connected New Orleans attorney, and thrived on the social
circuit of parties and political gatherings. Even after my father
died when I was fourteen, she would still meet with her old friends
from the various political groups around the city, and pound the
pavement for many of my father’s former colleagues who were running
for office. But that all ended when she married Lou Schuller.
At
fifty-five, Lou was dumpy, chubby, bald, and had the personality of a
matzo ball. But Lou had the money to keep Claire in the lifestyle to
which she had made herself accustomed, even after all the insurance
money my father had left ran out. In the beginning of their marriage,
Lou tolerated my mother’s love for the social scene, but he soon
grew tired of the endless cocktail parties and political fundraisers,
and reined in Claire’s activities. Now, after fifteen years of
marriage, middle-aged, and trying to cope with the passage of her
youth, my mother had found a new venture in which to place all of her
efforts; me. Or more to the point, my marriage to some man,
preferably wealthy, in the hopes of attaining the beat all and end
all of middle age—grandchildren.
About
the Author :
Alexandrea Weis is an
advanced practice registered nurse who was born and raised in New
Orleans. Her first novel, To My Senses, introduced readers to the
world of Nicci Beauvoir and garnered numerous awards and rave
reviews. Her popular second Nicci Beauvoir novel, Recovery, won the
Gold Medal for best romantic suspense from The Reader’s Favorite
Book Awards 2011, and was named best Romantic Suspense novel by the
Spring 2011 NABE Pinnacle Book Awards. Her fourth novel, Broken
Wings, won best Contemporary Romance by the NABE Pinnacle Book Awards
in 2012, was a Silver Medal winner in the ForeWord Magazine Book of
the Year Awards for Romance, as well as a finalist in the USA Book
Awards for Romance in 2012, and a finalist in the Reader’s Favorite
Book Awards for Contemporary Romance for 2012. Diary of a One-Night
Stand, was released in August 2012 and was named a Paranormal Romance
Guild’s Best Reviewed of 2012.
Her last novel, Acadian
Waltz was a Readers’ Favorite Book Awards honorable mention winner
for Best Contemporary Romance, and finalist in Best Southern Fiction.
A permitted wildlife rehabber with the Louisiana Wildlife and
Fisheries,
Weis rescues orphaned and
injured wildlife. She lives with her husband and pets in New Orleans.
Author Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Alexandrea-Weis/e/B0028OJO6C/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/alexandreaweis
Schedule Acadian Waltz by Alexandrea Weis
Jan 3 Spotlight
Shooting Stars Reviews
January 6 Spotlight
Andi’s Book Review
January 9 Guest blog
Roxanne’s Realm
January 14 spotlight
Sapphyria's Book Reviews
January 15 Spotlight
Deb Sanders
January 16 Guest blog
The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom
January 20 Guest blog
Mythical Books
Guest Post - Woman at 30 (in life and love)
January 27 Spotlight
3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too! 3partnersinshopping.blogspot.com
January 30 review
IndieWritersReview
January 31 spotlight
Paranormal Romance and Beyond
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