Book Blitz of The Mistress of Bannister by Stacy-Deanne Venus Ray (#Contests- Win A Copy of the Book)

The Mistress of Bannister
Stacy-Deanne & Venus Ray
(The Mistresses of Rose Lake)
Publication date: October 5th 2024
Genres: Adult, Historical Romance

The wealthy and powerful Edward Bannister III becomes obsessed with Gini, a stunning maid from Nigeria who rescues him from drowning. Gini too becomes captivated by the intoxicating businessman and spends days and nights praying she’ll see him again. But Gini is under the control of Brenden Marx, a cruel industrialist who brought her to America as his mistress so there is no way she could be with another man.

Despite this, Edward and Gini embark on a secret affair, unable to resist their intense love for each other. But when Marx discovers their relationship, he declares war on them both, promising to do whatever he can to keep them apart.

Tropes: interracial, age-gap, billionaire, triangle, small town, 19th Century, western

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

Gini watched from her window as Mr. Marx’s carriage pulled off the following afternoon. She hurried and got dressed, stole a horse from the stables, and rode out to Edward’s estate.

Larger and even more refined than Mr. Marx’s place, Edward’s estate was a sprawling property with well-manicured gardens, towering oak trees, and a grand entrance gate with golden bars.

Before Gini got off her horse, a middle-aged white woman with her high-collar dress tight around her pudgy body, popped out of the house and inquired about Gini’s identity.

The woman, Ms. Day, was polite on the surface, but she had that look in her eyes white people gave Negroes when they were pretending to be polite.

She had Gini wait out on the stoop until she got Edward’s approval to invite her in, and then came back a moment later with a timid smile.

“Come in, Miss Gini. Mr. Bannister is in the parlor doing his morning reading. But please, wipe your feet on the rug first.”

Wearing her blue bonnet with the mass of flowers on it, Gini titled her head forward in respect, wiped her feet on the outside rug and followed Ms. Day inside.

Gini’s eyes widened at the luxury before her.

Compared to Edward’s estate, Marx lived in squalor.

The carpet were so soft beneath her boots, it felt like walking on clouds.

Family portraits, landscape paintings and mirrors with gilded frames covered every inch of the elegant walls like a museum.

Edward sat in the parlor on a sofa embroidered in maroon velvet which matched the sweeping drapes and the deep brown of the walnut wood. “Gini.” Edward dropped his book and rushed to her, his embroidered blue vest snug on his muscular torso.

Gini rubbed his vest. “You match my dress.”

“That will be all, Ms. Day.”

The woman gave a curt nod and made her way out of the room, closing the double doors behind her.

“I apologize for stopping by unannounced, Edward, but I had to see you.”

He kissed Gini’s forehead. “Never apologize for seeing me. How did you get away from Marx?”

“He went to town to see his lawyer.” She swatted a gnat away. “To draw up the papers for your business deal.”

The weight of all the despair and hopelessness that Gini had been holding back since the previous night crashed down on her, and she sobbed.

“Good Lord, Gini, what on earth—” Edward pulled her into the safety of his arms. “Why are you crying, sweetheart?” He walked her over to the couch and sat beside her. “Did Marx do something? Tell me what’s wrong.”

Gini told him about Marx’s tirade from the night before but left out that he’d slapped her.

“I don’t understand. How did he know we’d been together?”

“Not to be obscene, sir, but he smelled you on me.”

Edward sighed, dropping his head. “Did he hurt you?”

She looked away, dabbing her eyes. “He said a lot of awful things. Things about you.”

“What things?’

“He said you were using me.” She sniffled, caressing her handkerchief. “That I was just a new toy and you’ll tire of me and throw me away. Oh, Edward, I don’t wanna believe that, but I need to hear it’s not true. God.” She closed her eyes, squeezing the handkerchief. “Is it true, Edward? Am I just something to play with until a rich, proper white lady you like comes along?”

“He told you I didn’t care about you? Look at me.” He turned her head toward him. “Gini, people don’t do things they don’t have to if they don’t care.”

She sniffed. “What?”

“Yesterday, I rode you all around Rose Lake because you said you wanted nothing more than to get out of that prison you’ve been living in.” He clasped his hands. “Now tell me, if I didn’t care about you… why would I do that? Why would I care about anything you wanted to do?”

Gini looked at the floor, feeling guilty for doubting him.

“I took you out yesterday to make you happy, but it was also for me.” He tapped his foot. “I did it, because nothing makes me happier than putting a smile on your face.”

A gentle tingling sensation spread through her body.

“I loved seeing how your face lit up when I showed you the church and the square. Even how excited you were at that damn saloon.” He chuckled. “Seeing you happy about things I take for granted it made me appreciate the little things in life. Gini, I didn’t know the meaning of life until I met you.”

“Oh, Edward.” She kissed his cheek. “I feel the same. Yesterday was the happiest day of my life and I didn’t want it to end.”

Author Bio:

USA TODAY FEATURED AUTHOR

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Stacy-Deanne (Dee-Anne) is an award-winning author of romantic suspense, romantic thrillers, contemporary romance, historical romance, and erotica books featuring BWWM pairings. Her books have been bestsellers in stores worldwide including Amazon, Apple, and Barnes and Noble. Her work has been praised and reviewed in USA Today numerously. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree and is a 2011 and 2012 African-American Literary Award Nominee. She also is a winner of the Swirl Award (an award dedicated to authors of multicultural/interracial works).

Stacy is known for bringing versatile stories to her readers. With her, you never know what you're gonna get, which separates Stacy's work from the pack.

Stacy's books are full of passion, thrills, intriguing characters and so much emotion you can't get enough! If you want something different and unpredictable then definitely check out her work.

With Stacy every book is an adventure.

Stacy is a proud member of ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors.

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Venus Ray is a sweet, laid back black chick from the South. I have a great sense of humor and a lot of fantasies! I love writing quirky and entertaining stories focusing on black women and white men. As a black woman who loves white men and is a cheerleader of the BWWM lifestyle, it's a pleasure to share my stories with others who feel the same.

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Guest Post and Spotlight of Sunny Gale: A Novel by Jamie Lisa Forbes (#iReadBookTours)

 

 

 

I want. to Welcome Jamie Lisa Forbes to Books R Us. Jamie is the author of Sunny Gale: A Novel. She is touring the Blogosphere with I Read Book Tours. The author has provided a guest post for my readers. Let me tell you about the Novel and the author. Thanks for stopping by

 

SUNNY GALE: A NOVEL by Jamie Lisa Forbes

Category:  Adult Fiction 18+, 268 pages

 

 Book Description:

It's 1895 and fourteen year old Hannah Brandt is struggling with the hard life on a new Nebraska homestead. When her imagination is captured by a wild filly she becomes obsessed with horses, which opens the door to her destiny. Just four years later she enters the first Cheyenne Frontier Day rodeo where she wins the relay race and her fate is sealed. She gives herself a new name, Sunny Gale, and pursues a rodeo career, much to the disgust of her young husband and her very proper mother. Sunny defies convention with every move as the drive to compete takes over her life, leaving everything else behind, including husbands and children. It is a rough life she has chosen, but she craves the glory of the spotlight and refuses to bow to the expectations for a woman in her time.

​Award winning author Jamie Lisa Forbes has once again brought us complex characters in a story based on real women and the early days when rodeo was wide open for them to become stars. It is a story of the social mores of the times and of a woman determined to defy them no matter how high the personal cost or where that choice might take her.

 

Content Rating: PG-13 +M: There is no profane language. There are some sexual scenes, non explicit,  There is one instance of sexual abuse that is more recollected than described and there are two scenes where animals hare harmed intentionally.

 

GUEST POST:

 

THE SWEDE CABIN

The road that wound out of our Little Laramie River Valley was called “The Swede Cabin.” For years during my childhood, I thought the adults were saying “Sweet Cabin” and I wondered, looking over the prairie, where the sweets were.

“Swede, Jamie,” my father said. “Not sweet.”

“There’s no Swedes here, either. And where’s the cabin?”

“There used to be a Swedish guy here. He’s gone and so is the cabin.”

No, there was no trace of a cabin there. The land swept up and away to the top of a bluff and on trips to Laramie, I used to glance back for a last glimpse at the valley and the Snowy Range beyond. “The Swede Cabin” meant the last stop between the valley and the rest of the world.

In September 1973, I was waiting out the fall days at the ranch before I was due to begin at the University of Denver. One morning, my parents asked me to take my brother to school. He was starting high school in Laramie.

There had been heavy rain the night before which explained why I wasn’t back in the hayfields that morning. Coming down over the bluff on my return trip, I hit the mud too fast and slid off the road. I turned off the car and there was silence.

There were no cell phones in those days, no way to contact anyone. But I wasn’t anxious. I knew that my father would come looking for me. In whatever spot I had gotten myself into, I always knew Dad would be along. There might be less than positive consequences when he arrived, but at the heart of the matter, it always was reassuring to he was on his way.

While I waited and the engine ticked off, the clouds began to break. Sun streaked the green meadows and prairie below. The haystacks were piled high with the summer’s hay. The mountaintops appeared with the season’s first dusting of snow. The cattle would trail down the mountains soon. The aspen would turn. Time never stopped here. Halted, however inadvertently, I now had the luxury of lingering over this view. “This is not goodbye. My absence will be just a pause, an interruption. All of this will still be here when I come back.”

And there sure enough five miles away, I saw our green ranch truck traveling south on Forbes Lane, swinging east on McGill Lane, crossing the cattle guard and starting up the Swede Cabin.

 

Meet the Author:

Jamie Lisa Forbes was raised on a ranch in the Little Laramie Valley near Laramie, Wyoming. She attended the University of Colorado where she obtained degrees in English and philosophy. After fourteen months living in Israel, she returned to her family’s ranch where she lived for another fifteen years.

In 1994, she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. In 2001, she graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law and began her North Carolina law practice.

Forbes’ first novel, Unbroken, won the WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction in 2011. Her collection of short stories, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories, won the High Plains Book Awards for a short story collection in 2015.

Forbes’ novel of rural North Carolina in the segregation era, entitled Eden, was published in 2020. Her historical novel about women bronc riders in the early days of rodeo, entitled Sunny Gale, was published in May 2024 by Pronghorn Press.

Ms. Forbes continues to live—and write—in North Carolina.

Connect with the author: 

 

  website  ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ X ~  goodreads 

 

BUY THE BOOK:
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Bookshop.org ~Indigo
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