THE PAPER SWAN 

Standalone Adult romance.

They say it takes 21 days to form a habit.
They lie.
For 21 days she held on.
But on Day 22, she would have given anything for the sweet slumber of death. Because on Day 22, she realizes that her only way out means certain death for one of the two men she loves.

A haunting tale of passion, loss, and redemption, The Paper Swan is a darkly intense yet heartwarming love story, textured with grit, intrigue, and suspense. Please note: This is NOT a love triangle.

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Click covers for more info on each book. Click here for my reviews.
They’re interconnected standalones (different couples).
 

In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939 — In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.

With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France–a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

• Buy THE NIGHTINGALE (Kindle)
• Buy THE NIGHTINGALE (Paperback)
• Buy THE NIGHTINGALE (Hardcover)

THE BOOKWORM BOX: GOOD DEEDS. GREAT READS.

HELPING PEOPLE DISCOVER GREAT BOOKS
& GIVING BACK IS WHAT WE DO BEST.

Aestas: Hi, Colleen!! The Bookworm Box is such an amazing project! How did it all get started?

Colleen: I’ve wanted to do something for charity on a larger scale for a long time. I’ve had such a tremendous amount of good luck in the past three and a half years and I’m a big believer in paying it forward. I knew I wanted to do something that would make readers happy and also be able to support charities. I thought about doing a subscription box last year, but never got around to it. Then when I turned in Confess, I had a little time on my hands, so I called up my sister and said, “Let’s do it!”

Aestas: Can you tell us briefly how it all works? And what would be included in a “bookworm box”?

Colleen: I contact authors or publishers and either get donations or, depending on the amount of books I need, purchase the books at cost. The only catch is that the books have to be signed by the author. We then hold a “packing party” where all the books and donated swag are packaged into subscription boxes. Each subscriber gets a box with two signed novels, at least one of them a guaranteed bestseller, and book swag. The boxes ship out monthly and are $39.99, which is a great deal considering the books are signed.

Aestas: How has it been doing?

Colleen: How has it been doing? The first month, we had a cap of about 400 boxes. I thought it would take about a week to sell, but we sold out in four minutes! The same thing happened the following two months, even though we kept doubling the amount of boxes. We now sell 2,000 boxes a month and our subscription list is full, but we have cancellations, so we open up for sales one day each month. That’s 4,000 books I have to coordinate with authors and publishers each month, so even though we could probably open it up to more, we are at our max for our workload. The entire project is ran by volunteers and all profit goes to charity. The first subscription boxes went out in March, and as of July, we’ve donated $120,000 to various charities.

Aestas: It seems to have grown quite quickly! Do you have a main location now?

Colleen: We do! We actually opened a bookstore as an extension of the online store. All the books are donated by the authors and they’re all signed, so it makes it a one-of-a-kind specialty bookstore. It’s at 204 Main St. in Sulphur Springs, Tx. The store is also ran by volunteers. We were one of just a handful of bookstores to host EL James for a signing for her Grey release, so that was our first author signing! We are setting up a schedule to hold more author signings in the future.

Aestas: You’ve had so many awesome authors donate books to this project. Who are some of them? 

Colleen: Oh, goodness. There are way too many to count! We’ve had a tremendous amount of support from the book community. The most surprising thing is when the authors donate books and ask that I not post about it. It’s inspiring to see these people donate without wanting anything in return. (Note: if you go to the main website and scroll down, there is a list of featured authors to check out!)

Aestas: What can people do to help?

Colleen: We are in great need of more books for the bookstore. 95% of our books are New Adult romance, and we would love to branch out and have different genres. We have very few male authors on the shelves, so that’s another area we would like to grow in. If anyone writes books, has signed books or knows an author, please let them know about our project. They can send as few or as many signed books to the bookstore. We’ve recently started having readers collect donated signed books from authors when they’re at signings and that’s been a tremendous help!

Aestas: What’s up next for the The Bookworm Box? 

Colleen: Well, right now we’re just trying to adjust to the rapid growth of everything. We’ve had some kinks with third party shipping and payment processing and now that we’ve got those worked out, we hope we just have a couple of smooth months ahead of us so we can see if we’re capable of growing beyond the 2,000 books each month.

Aestas: Wow!! Thank you so much for chatting with us today! I can’t wait to watch this project keep growing! 

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THE BOOKWORM BOX LINKS

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

To donate books/swag: go here.
To visit their physical store: go here.

If you are a publisher or an author and you want your books to be considered for The Bookworm Box, please email [email protected]

 ARCHER’S VOICE 

Standalone Adult romance.

When Bree Prescott arrives in the sleepy, lakeside town of Pelion, Maine, she hopes against hope that this is the place where she will finally find the peace she so desperately seeks. On her first day there, her life collides with Archer Hale, an isolated man who holds a secret agony of his own. A man no one else sees.

Archer’s Voice is the story of a woman chained to the memory of one horrifying night and the man whose love is the key to her freedom. It is the story of a silent man who lives with an excruciating wound and the woman who helps him find his voice. It is the story of suffering, fate, and the transformative power of love.

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