Love Stories GIVEAWAY: The Art of Rivers

in this post: The Art of Rivers

Happy February – official (according to me) KissingBooks month! And welcome to another Love Stories giveaway post! This LOVE STORIES giveaway series is thusly named for two reasons – first, because I love stories and second, because I love Love Stories.

Throughout the entire month of February, I’ll be spotlighting swoony Christian fiction & ‘clean read’ romances. Three cheers for KissingBooks!!! So… grab a fan or two, your trusty fainting couch, and maybe a freezer just to be safe and start making your KissingBooks tbr list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

Today’s next book is The Art of Rivers by Janet Ferguson + a swoony ‘first kiss’ excerpt!

THE ART OF RIVERS
SERIES: Coastal Hearts #3
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: Southern Sun Press, LLC
RELEASE DATE: June 30, 2019
PAGES: 249

Rivers Sullivan bears both visible and invisible scars—those on her shoulder from a bullet wound and those on her heart from the loss of her fiancé during the same brutal attack. Not even her background as an art therapist can help her regain her faith in humanity. Still, she scrapes together the courage to travel to St. Simons Island to see the beach cottage and art gallery she’s inherited from her fiancé. When she stumbles upon recovering addicts running her gallery, she’s forced to reckon with her own healing.

After the tragic drowning of his cousin, James Cooper Knight spends his days trying to make up for his past mistakes. He not only dedicates his life to addiction counseling, but guilt drives him to the water, searching for others who’ve been caught unaware of the quickly rising tides of St. Simons. When he rescues a peculiar blond woman and her sketch pad from a sandbar, then delivers this same woman to his deceased grandmother’s properties, he knows things are about to get even more complicated.

Tragic circumstances draw Cooper and Rivers closer, but they fight their growing feelings. Though Cooper’s been sober for years, Rivers can’t imagine trusting her heart to someone in recovery, and he knows a relationship with her will only rip his family further apart. Distrust and guilt are only the first roadblocks they must overcome if they take a chance on love.

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“What happened?” Cooper caught Rivers and rested his hands on her shoulders. He’d started to take off in the Jeep, but something in his spirit whispered for him to come back.

“I can’t…” Her breath came in ragged puffs, and she burrowed her head against his chest. “I couldn’t do it. I fell apart and blew up at them.”

“What happened?”

“I was nervous. The ladies looked bored. Star made some snarky comments. I spouted off something about my mom, her wreck, and Jordan and me…getting shot.”

“It’s okay.” Yearning wrapped his heart, and he slid his arms around her. If only he could heal her wounds. Moonlight fell around them, and the evening sounds of crickets chirping filled the salty air. He lifted her chin. “I’d trade anything to take your pain away.”

She gazed up at him, blue eyes all weepy and beautiful.

Cooper swallowed hard. That gaze stirred longings he’d given up way before he’d gotten sober. Longings for someone to share his heart. Longings to love and be loved.

“You’re always here when I need you.” Her gaze fell to his lips. She couldn’t be thinking of him in the same way he was thinking of her.

Though his pulse pounded, he was afraid to move, barely believing this was real. If she needed to use him as a temporary crutch and then discard him, he was willing. Unless doing so would cause her more pain.

She moved closer, and his mind went absent of all thoughts apart from her lips. Her mouth brushed his, soft and sweet and gentle, then explored with more passion. Though he tried to restrain himself, the call of her touch drew him. He kissed her back, lost in the moment and the emotion. He cupped her face, ran his fingers through her hair, soaking in the taste of her and the scent of lavender.

“What the—” Shane’s voice broke into the moment. “Cooper, you of all people? Taking advantage of Jordan’s fiancée?”

Rivers broke away, touching her fingers to her pink lips. “He didn’t.”

Janet W. Ferguson is a Grace Award winner and a Christy Award finalist. She grew up in Mississippi and received a degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Mississippi. She has served as a children’s minister and a church youth volunteer. An avid reader, she worked as a librarian at a large public high school. She writes humorous inspirational fiction for people with real lives and real problems. Janet and her husband have two grown children, one really smart dog, and a few cats that allow them to share the space.

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Janet Ferguson is offering an ebook copy of The Art of Rivers to one of my readers! (Open internationally except where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What interests you most about The Art of Rivers and/or that swoony excerpt?