Maid to Match -- And so is the Giveaway!

UPDATE Tuesday, 6/29 at 10:30 pm Tilden hasn't responded to my email, so I've had to pick a new winner:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
16
Timestamp: 2010-06-30 03:23:16 UTC
Congrats to karenk. Email me your address within 72 hours and the book will be on its way to you.

UPDATE Saturday 6/26 9:00 am WINNER!

Yesterday evening was a bit crazy and this completely slipped my mind.

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
7
Timestamp: 2010-06-26 13:52:27 UTC
Congrats to tilden talks! Email me your address within 72 hours, Tilden, and the book will be on its way to you!

Thanks to all of you for entering, and be sure to check out my Super Sweet Summer Giveaway where there will be 10 winners - and each winner chooses the book!

* * * * *

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Maid to Match Bethany House (June 1, 2010)
by
Deeanne Gist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

After a short career in elementary education, Deeanne Gist retired to raise her four children. Over the course of the next fifteen years, she ran a home accessory and antique business, became a member of the press, wrote freelance journalism for national publications such as People, Parents, Parenting, Family Fun, Houston Chronicle and Orlando Sentinel, and acted as CFO for her husband’s small engineering firm--all from the comforts of home.

Squeezed betwixt-and-between all this, she read romance novels by the truckload and even wrote a couple of her own. While those unpublished manuscripts rested on the shelf, she founded a publishing corporation for the purpose of developing, producing and marketing products that would reinforce family values, teach children responsibility and provide character building activities.

After a few short months of running her publishing company, Gist quickly discovered being a "corporate executive" was not where her gifts and talents lie. In answer to Gist’s fervent prayers, God sent a mainstream publisher to her door who licensed her parenting I Did It!® product line and committed to publish the next generation of her system, thus freeing Gist to return to her writing.

Eight months later, she sold A Bride Most Begrudging to Bethany House Publishers. Since that debut, her very original, very fun romances have rocketed up the bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere. Add to this two consecutive Christy Awards, two RITA nominations, rave reviews, and a growing loyal fan base, and you’ve got one recipe for success.

Her 2010 books, Beguiled and Maid To Match are now available for order.

Gist lives in Texas with her husband of twenty-seven years and their two border collies. They have four grown children. Visit her website to find out the most up-to-the-minute news about Dee.



ABOUT THE BOOK

Falling in love could cost her everything.

From the day she arrived at the Biltmore, Tillie Reese is dazzled, by the riches of the Vanderbilts and by Mack Danvers, a mountain man turned footman. When Tillie is enlisted to help tame Mack's rugged behavior by tutoring him in proper servant etiquette, the resulting sparks threaten Tillie's efforts to be chosen as Edith Vanderbilt's lady's maid, After all, the one rule of the house is no romance below stairs.

But the stakes rise even higher when Mack and Tillie become entangles in a cover-up at the town orphanage. They could both lose their jobs, their aspirations...their hearts.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Maid to Match, go HERE.



Join this SPECIAL GETAWAY (Click on the Button):

MY THOUGHTS:
Deanne Gist is a fabulous author and she has succeeded once more in writing a novel that I just love. The plight of Tillie and Mack was so touching. Tillie has been trained by her mother for one purpose: becoming a lady's maid. When Tillie is one of two Biltmore servants to be considered by Edith Vanderbilt to serve as her lady's maid, Tillie is determined that nothing will deter her from her goal, even knowing that it will result in her being a lifelong spinster. Mack, on the other hand, despises the wealth of society's upper crust and sees his service at the Vanderbilt only as a means to an end: making enough money to rescue his younger siblings from the orphanages and families they were sent to upon their parents' death. Their conflicting goals are just one of the reasons for the sparks that fly between Tillie and Mack in this charming story. Having just visited the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, North Carolina last summer with my family, I truly felt as if I were actually there and could picture most of the rooms mentioned in the book. What fun it would be to go back to the Biltmore with Deeanne this fall and take a walk through history! (Of course, I would take a bit of technology and blog about it!) (What a picture that would make - a laptop with a bustled skirt!) If you missed my interview with Deeanne in February, you can read it here. One of her books which we discussed, A Bride in the Bargain has been nominated for a Christy Award. The Christy Awards will be presented this Saturday evening (6/26), and I'll have the results right here!

Be sure to visit her blog. She has a fun video clip about the layers and layers of undergarments that ladies wore underneath those long gowns back in the day! No wonder they all needed a lady's maid to help them dress!



GIVEAWAY!!
I have an additional copy of Maid to Match to give to one of you. Just leave a comment on this post by this Friday, June 25, at 6:00 pm and I will randomly select a winner. US Residents only please, and you must include an email address if you don't have a blog.