To Heal A Heart by Jana Richards

Jun 16th To Heal A Heart by Jana Richards

Give a warm welcome Jana Richards, author of To Heal A Heart part of the Masonville Small Town Series. Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Jana and her inspiration for To Heal A Heart.

Like all the books in the Masonville Small Town series, the inspiration for TO HEAL A HEART is to show the triumph of love over adversity. It’s about overcoming obstacles and traumas of the past, and finding the courage to reveal secrets so they no longer have the power to cause pain. Love gives each of my characters the strength to find happiness.

Whether they understand it or not, the things the characters have been through have left them stuck, unable to move forward. For instance, in TO HEAL A HEART, Garrett Saunders has been in limbo for nearly two years, ever since he lost part of his leg in Afghanistan. He’s back home now, living with his parents in North Dakota, but he feels like an alien in his hometown – he doesn’t think he belongs there. He doesn’t know what to do with the rest of his life either. He always believed that after his military career was over he’d go into policing or fire fighting, but those options are no longer open to him. He desperately wants his own place, but his plans to buy land have twice fallen through. And even if he did buy a farm, he’s not sure what he’d do with it. He’d never wanted the life of a farmer.

Garrett always believed that someday he’d get married and have a family. But since he lost his leg, he’s not sure why a woman would want him. To dull the pain, he self-medicates with alcohol. The more he drinks, the more hopeless he feels. Garrett is essentially stuck on that dusty road in Afghanistan.

Blair Greyson is stuck, too. After a traumatic event in her teens, she’s worked hard to forge a career as a veterinary technician and to make a life for herself. She’s volunteered with horse rescue organizations and has rescued a couple of horses herself. She’d be the first person to tell you that her work has given her life meaning. In her work, Blair is competent and confident. But in so many ways, Blair is still the frightened, grieving seventeen-year-old she’d been back then.

My inspiration for this story is to show these two damaged people that no matter what’s happened to them, no matter what they’ve done, or think they’ve done, they deserve to love and to be loved. In fact, it’s only through love that they can find healing and happiness. And I hope readers of TO HEAL A HEART will get the same message.

How about telling a little about To Heal A Heart?

Two souls in pain, two hearts in need of rescue.

Garrett Saunders’ world changed two years ago on a road in Afghanistan. Back home, he feels like a stranger. As he struggles to find his place in the world, he meets a horse destined for the slaughterhouse and a woman bent on rescuing the strays of the world, including him.

Blair Greyson moves to Masonville to look after her ailing grandfather and give her rescue horses a home. Right away she butts heads with a surly former Marine. Despite a rocky start, they come to an agreement: Blair will board Garrett’s rescue horse and he’ll help with repairs around her farm.

Garrett finds purpose working with Blair—and falls in love with her. But she’s hiding a secret. Can she forgive herself and accept Garrett’s love, or will she let guilt and regret continue to rule her life?

A sneak peek between the pages of To Heal A Heart.

She pulled into the Saunders’ farmyard and parked near the house. After killing the engine, she hopped out of the driver’s side door and hurried to help Garrett get out of her truck. He leaned on her as they walked to the house, and she staggered a little under his weight.

“Home to mommy and daddy. Pretty pathetic, isn’t it? A grown man living with his parents.”

She could practically taste his frustration. “I guess we’re two of a kind. I’m a grown woman living with my grandfather. Does that make me pathetic, too?”

She helped him up the front steps to the porch, and they stood in front of the door. She kept a steadying hand on his arm, worried he’d lose his balance.

“Hardly. You’re looking after him. I only cause my parents worry. “

Once more she saw the bleakness in his eyes, and she desperately wanted to ask him what had happened at Lauren’s house. But that wasn’t what he needed. She put a light tone in her voice.

“I don’t know about that. Granddad worries about me, too. Mostly he worries that I’m more interested in horses than in men.”

“Do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Like horses better than men?”

“Yeah, sometimes I do.”

Garrett let out an unexpected bark of laughter. “I like you Blair Greyson, even if you did steal Everett’s farm out from under me.”

“I did not steal—”

His mouth descended on hers, and for the second time that evening, he stole her breath away.

She had so not expected this, was totally unprepared for the way her body heated at his touch. His tongue swept into her mouth, stroking her tongue over and over until her knees turned to water and she had to grip his biceps to stay upright. He tasted hot, and a little desperate. Desperate for her. Her body arched toward him as he ran his hands over her buttocks, and up her sides, his thumbs grazing her breasts and leaving a trail of fire in their wake.

He stopped kissing her and she wanted to whimper in protest, to beg him not to stop. He leaned his forehead against hers, breathing heavily as his hands gripped her hips.

“Don’t go.” His voice was a rough whisper. “Stay with me tonight.”

She was far more tempted than she should have been. He’d had way too much to drink tonight, maybe even had a problem with alcohol. Though she recognized all the dangers, to her shame her biggest fear was that in the morning he’d regret sleeping with her.

She shook her head. What was she thinking? A short time ago she’d been afraid he was going to rape her. Where was her sense of self-preservation?

“I think your mother might be shocked to find me at her breakfast table in the morning.”

He pulled her closer, letting her feel how much he wanted her. “Then let’s go to your place.”

Blair trembled in his arms. She had a bad habit of taking in strays with lots of problems and Garrett Saunders was her biggest find yet. She instinctively understood he had the power to crush her.

“I think my grandfather might be as surprised as your mother.” She lightly kissed his cheek. “Besides, I’m not that kind of girl.”

“Too bad.”

“Sleep well, Garrett.”

She pulled away and he dropped his hands. Blair hurried down the steps and ran to her truck before she could change her mind.

Buy links for To Heal A Heart.

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Heal-Heart-Masonville-Book-ebook/dp/B0875SLGK6

Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Heal-Heart-Masonville-Book-ebook/dp/B0875SLGK6

Amazon.UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heal-Heart-Masonville-Book-ebook/dp/B0875SLGK6

Amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Heal-Heart-Masonville-Book-ebook/dp/B0875SLGK6

Amazon.fr: https://www.amazon.fr/Heal-Heart-Masonville-Book-ebook/dp/B0875SLGK6

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/to-heal-a-heart-jana-richards/1136868654?ean=2940162717966

iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/to-heal-a-heart/id1508639914

About the Author:

When Jana Richards read her first romance novel, she immediately knew two things: she had to commit the stories running through her head to paper, and they had to end with a happily ever after. She also knew she’d found what she was meant to do. Since then she’s never met a romance genre she didn’t like. She writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and historical romance set in World War Two, in lengths ranging from short story to full length novel. Just for fun, she throws in generous helpings of humor, and the occasional dash of the paranormal. Her paranormal romantic suspense “Seeing Things” was a 2008 EPPIE finalist.

In her life away from writing, Jana is an accountant/admin assistant, a mother to two grown daughters, and a wife to her husband Warren. She enjoys golf, yoga, movies, concerts, travel and reading, not necessarily in that order. She and her husband live in Winnipeg, Canada. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website at www.janarichards.com

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