It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: As Silent as the Night

As Silent as the Night

Happy Sunday! Welcome back to our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 again this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads!

Christmas is only 28 days away, according to Google, but of course it’s never too early for Christmas stories, and ’tis the season when I really start craving them (even more than I do the rest of the year lol), so now is the perfect time to jump right into these posts!

Continuing through just after Christmas, I’m going to spotlight several Christmasy releases from 2022. Most days will have more than one post, just FYI. So… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and start your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

AS SILENT AS THE NIGHT by Danielle Grandinetti
SERIES: Strike to the Heart #1.5
GENRE: Inspirational Historical Romantic Suspense
PUBLISHER: Hearth Spot Press
RELEASE DATE: September 13, 2022
PAGES: 154

He can procure anything, except his heart’s deepest wish. She might hold the key, if she’s not discovered first.

Chicago, 1933―Lucia Critelli will do anything for her ailing grandfather, including stand in a breadline to have enough food to make him a St. Nicholas Day meal. When she catches the eye of a goon who threatens her grandfather, she discovers the end of Prohibition doesn’t mean the end of the mafia’s criminal activity.

Retired Marine Scout Giosue “Gio” Vella can find anything, especially if it helps a fellow Italian immigrant, so he has no doubt he can locate his neighbor’s granddaughter, who has gone missing from a local church. Keeping her safe is another matter. Especially when he chooses to hide out with his Marine buddy in Eagle, Wisconsin, the site of a barely-held truce among striking dairy farmers.

Will Christmas bring the miracle they all need or will Gio discover there are some things even he can’t find, particularly when he stumbles upon the most elusive gift of all: love.

As Silent as the Night is the third book and Christmas conclusion to the Strike to the Heart series, preceded by To Stand in the Breach and A Strike to the Heart.

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Another two blocks and he parked along the curb. He hurried up to the Critelli home, a second story apartment, his heart pounding in time with his steps and with his fist as he knocked at the door.

“Gio!” The older man welcomed him. Silver hair curled around his ears, a cardigan hung unbuttoned from his shoulders, a grin showed his delight, though it faded as he glanced over Gio’s shoulder. “Dov’è la mia Lucia?” Where is my Lucia? A dagger wouldn’t hurt as much, Gio was sure.

“Ugo, we must hurry. Lucia is in trouble,” he replied in rapid Italian. “I’ll find her, but first I need you safe. She needs you safe.”

The man nodded, fear darkening his eyes.

Gio gathered up necessary items, putting them in the bag Lucia had taken to the church in an attempt to disguise the fact he planned to keep Ugo at his family’s house overnight. Gio or one of his brothers could sneak back into the apartment for more supplies, if necessary, but Gio honestly hoped he’d have Lucia back before nightfall.

Shouldering the bag, Gio locked up and helped the older man into his truck. Ugo hadn’t asked for details, and Gio filled him in as much as he thought wise—too much information could be deadly when dealing with people like Ettore—but Ugo needed to know the level of danger to both himself and Lucia.

“You will bring my Lucia home?” Ugo rested a leathery hand on Gio’s arm. “I cannot lose her.”

Gio parked in front of his own family’s home, a one-story frame house. The weathered boards contained two bedrooms and three generations, plus whatever guests joined them. Gio turned to the older man. “I promise, I won’t rest until I have the answers we need.”

Ugo shook his head. “That is no promise, young man.”

“I can’t promise positive outcomes, Ugo. You know that.”

“But you care for her. Do not deny it. I see it in your eyes.”

Gio pressed his thumb and forefinger into his sockets, as if he could gouge out the evidence. “I know you want us together, Ugo, but I can’t marry her. I’m not the right man for Lucia. She needs someone who hasn’t seen or done all the things I have. She is light and I am … not.”

Ugo patted Gio’s cheek as if Gio was but a youth. “Do not discredit yourself, young man. She needs a man like you.”

Gio let the words go. Ugo had been saying them for years. Sure, Gio had a different respect for Ugo than for the other matchmaking mammas and nonnas. Ugo had a different motive. Gio knew that, yet … Ugo couldn’t possibly understand how bad of a choice Gio was for Lucia. So Gio did nothing.

However, the protectiveness he felt for Lucia and the respect he had for Ugo also meant he had more motivation to find Lucia than any of the other young women he’d been asked to find over the years. Because if he was denying Ugo’s happily ever after to save Lucia from himself, there was no way he’d let someone like Emberto Ettore extinguish Lucia’s light and destroy her grandfather in the process.

Danielle Grandinetti, As Silent as the Night
© 2022, Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Danielle Grandinetti is offering a print copy of As Silent as the Night to one of my readers! (US only. Void 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 makes you want to read As Silent as the Night by Danielle Grandinetti?