Tuesday, January 9, 2024

RETURN TO LERICI by Rachel Dacus ~ Blurb Blitz & Giveaway

Return to Lerici (The Invisibles, #2)
by: Rachel Dacus
Series: The Invisibles
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Release Date: January 4, 2024
Publisher: Time Fold Books

A suspenseful, uplifting story of second chances, family bonds, and redemption.

Sisters Elinor and Saffron rarely see eye-to-eye, but they agree that an unknown half-brother appearing in their lives can only spell trouble. The Greene sisters want to support their ailing mother, Betsy, as they gather in their cottage in Lerici, Italy. But they don’t want Betsy to keep searching for Baby Boy, the only name they have on faded adoption papers.

While the Greenes debate, Baby Boy finds them. A rough childhood has led Daniel to a life as a thief. When he learns of his connection to the wealthy Greenes, he decides to scam them. He goes to Italy and using a fake identity observes them at close range. Watching these people makes him ache for what he never had—a loving family.

Betsy is touched by the young man’s story and guesses their hidden connection. Discovering his true identity, she asks the family to help him. But Daniel’s shady past is catching up and putting the Greenes at risk. Should they bring their lost lamb into the fold—and can he claim his heritage if it endangers his family?

Elinor picked up the letter from the stack of today’s mail on the dining table. The return address was casella postale, a postal box with a number and no name. A clumsy advertisement? The lack of information made her curious enough to open it, though she knew it was going to be junk mail.

Dear Ms. Greene,
I know you have a lost relative, a half-brother your family abandoned. If you do not wish to have this dirty secret publicly revealed, you may send five hundred sixty-two euros by return mail, and nothing will ever be published. No scandal will ever happen if you pay me right now.
Yours sincerely,
A Well Wisher

Dread prickled through her scalp and dripped to her shoulders. She hunched them to shake it off. How wrong she’d been. This was no junk mail, it was aimed at her personally. There was a return address and a demand for money. A scam—but how would anyone know about Baby Boy? That was private, that was even sealed in a closed adoption. Betsy couldn’t find him with all her amateur sleuthing around.

Another chill ripped through her. This person must have hired a detective, but if so, why ask for so little? And why assume the family considered it a dark enough secret to pay to keep it concealed? Plenty of people had unplanned pregnancies that became children given up for adoption. Back in the days when Nathan was a professor at UC Berkeley, it wasn’t enough to pay to conceal, and certainly not an odd sum like this person was demanding.

Something smelled fishy. A “well wisher”? Seriously? And the phrase “by return mail” struck her as American. Yet the return address PO box was in Rome. It seemed more likely that a blackmail attempt would come from an American who had somehow discovered the existence of Baby Boy. Could it be from someone who had adopted the child and now wanted some sort of reimbursement? But the amount was ridiculously small. Blackmailers didn’t take the risk for so little. She knew that much from her addiction to crime dramas and mysteries.

This was one lame blackmailer, or … could it be from Baby Boy himself? Had he somehow found them?

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Rachel Dacus is the author of six novels, four time travel books in the Timegathering Series and two books of women’s fiction. She has also published four poetry collections. Rachel’s work has appeared widely in print and online, in journal that include Boulevard, Gargoyle, and Prairie Schooner. Her poetry is in the anthologies Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Radiant DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Places to find Rachel Dacus:

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34 comments:

  1. Thank you for featuring this book today. It's appreciated!

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  2. This sounds like a good book. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. I really like the cover and the excerpt.

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  4. Thanks for sharing the excerpt. Sounds like an interesting book

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  5. Thanks for the share. This looks like a great read.

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  6. Sounds like a great read. Thank you :)

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  7. This sounds like a great book. I like the cover.

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  8. What a blackmail scam letter! Sounds like a good book.

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  9. I enjoyed reading this well done excerpt!
    Thank you for sharing it.

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  10. What to you, are the most important elements of good writing?

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  11. I enjoyed the excerpt. Thank you for the giveaway!

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  12. This sounds like a great novel. Thanks for hosting this giveaway.

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  13. I think I would have a hard time putting this book down after starting to read it.

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  14. Did you get a lot of encouragement when you decided to become an author?

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  15. Have you ever started a book that you decided not to finish?

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  16. What inspired you to write this book?

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  17. What is your favorite part of this book and why?

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  18. How do you come up with names for the characters?

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  19. What part of the book was the most fun to write?

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  20. I so enjoyed reading the excerpt- well done!

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  21. Do you have a favorite author and/or genre?

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  22. Does writing energize or exhaust you?

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  23. Did you ever write a book that made you cry?

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  24. What advice do you have for writers?

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  25. How many books have you written and which is your favorite?

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  26. How did you decide on the cover for this book?

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  27. What age were you when you first started writing?

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  28. How do you select the names of your characters?

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  29. This sounds like a really great book to read.

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