Guest post + #Giveaway with Sandra Jones {FIVE GOLDEN RINGS: A CHRISTMAS COLLECTION}

Please welcome author Sandra Jones to Novel Reflections. Sandra is here to talk about her story, HER CHRISTMAS KNIGHT, part of the FIVE GOLDEN RINGS: A CHRISTMAS COLLECTION anthology. Sandra is also gifting a digital copy of this upcoming release!

When Bad Advice Happens to Good People

The plot of HER CHRISTMAS KNIGHT, my story in FIVE GOLDEN RINGS: A CHRISTMAS COLLECTION, is similar to Persuasion, one of my favorite novels by Jane Austen, in which a young woman loses the man she loves after taking the bad advice of a friend.

When I was a teenager in school, I had a good friend who was older and more outgoing than me. I was shy and introverted, while she was attention seeking and outrageous. The boys LOVED her…well, mostly the wrong boys, but I didn’t see that at the time. I basked in her popularity and dated her cast-offs. She gave really awful advice about guys, and foolishly, I followed it. Eventually I realized I made better decisions without her, though we’ve remained friends over the years.

In my story, the heroine, Lady Nia de Brionne, is a wise, prudent woman with an older, promiscuous sister, Serena, who once erroneously convinced her that the only way to win her love’s heart was to make him jealous. If only she’d listened to Sir Caerwyn’s words back then, she would’ve saved them both years of heartbreak.

Here’s an excerpt:

Blossom petals fell from the trees like a gentle shower of tiny angels, dusting the grassy bed beneath Nia. Her gray eyes danced as she watched the orchard’s show above her, laughing as if she’d been tickled. Stretching out beside her, Caerwyn found the notion of tickling his darling girl more than he could resist. While she was distracted by the petals, he reached across her stomach and gave her ribs a fast stroke.

“Ack!” She jerked like a fish. “Stop!” Her cheeks dimpled with her grin, and she tweaked his chin with her index finger.

“You don’t like it?” He swept his hand along her side, making her writhe in a breathless tide of giggles.

“Serena says I shouldn’t laugh too much. She says you’ll not like me anymore if I do.”

He groaned. “Nay. You pay your sister too much heed. Nothing she says is ever sound, Nia.”

Despite his warnings, Nia followed her sister’s scheme to win her beloved’s devotion. Instead of his love, however, she caused them both misunderstanding and loneliness, with Caerwyn leaving for the Crusades soon after. The hero returns at Christmastide years later—stronger, wiser, and more wary of conniving females. Nia has to prove her worth in every way if she wants to make him hers again.

I hope you enjoy reading Nia and Caerwyn’s Christmas story of enduring love and chivalry, as well as the rest of the wonderful stories in the collection. I love hearing from my readers. Visit me at my website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest.

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