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Sunday, June 18, 2023

My Thoughts- A Not So Peaceful Journey Author: Sandra Merville Hart

 

About the Book

Book: A Not So Peaceful Journey

Author: Sandra Merville Hart

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release date: June 13, 2023

Dreams of adventure send him across the country. She prefers to keep her feet firmly planted in Ohio. 

Rennie Hill has no illusions about the hardships in life, which is why it’s so important her beau, John Welch, keeps his secure job with the newspaper. Though he hopes to write fiction, the unsteady pay would mean an end to their plans, wouldn’t it?

John Welch dreams of adventure worthy of storybooks, like Mark Twain, and when two of his short stories are published, he sees it as a sign of future success. But while he’s dreaming big with his head in the clouds, his girl has her feet firmly planted, and he can’t help wondering if she really believes in him.

When Rennie must escort a little girl to her parents’ home in San Francisco, John is forced to alter his plans to travel across the country with them. But the journey proves far more adventurous than either of them expect.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Sandra Merville Hart, award-winning and Amazon bestselling author of inspirational historical romances, loves to discover little-known yet fascinating facts from American history to include in her stories. Her desire is to transport her readers back in time. She is also a blogger, speaker, and conference teacher. Connect with Sandra on her blog, https://sandramervillehart.wordpress.com/.

 

More from Sandra

It was fun to invite readers on this book’s journey!

 

To those who lived in the 1880s, venturing into this newly-settled and largely-unsettled West had become much safer—though not without danger—with the system of railroads already in place. I enjoyed taking readers to Chicago, Omaha, Oakland, Ogden, and Sacramento, as well as frontier towns along the journey such as Cheyenne.

 

Our heroine is a telegraph operator. She temporarily leaves her job to escort a little girl to her ailing mother in San Francisco.

My research about telegraph jobs taught me quite a bit of terminology.

 

For example, a clatter arises when another operator “calls.” The call begins with something like “B m—X n”, which means the B m is the station receiving the call and X n is the caller.

 

B m must signal a reply that she’s ready to receive the call.

 

The Sounder receives sounds of the alphabet in dots and dashes. Some operators sent messages too rapidly to understand. When this occurs, the receiving operating asks for it again with a Break (she opens her “key” to break the circuit) and interrupts with “Please repeat.”

 

“G.A. the—” means “Go ahead” and “the” was the last word she understood.

 

Operators end every message with his/her own private “call” as well as the office’s call and “O.K.” at the end of each message.

Wired Love, which was written by telegraph operator Ella Cheever Thayer in 1879, provided many insights about the job’s daily tasks.

 

One of them was the lack of privacy on the lines. She can hear the messages sent to other wires but only offices on the same wire. In Wired Love, operators heard messages sent to and from twenty offices.

 

By the way, the public grew so fascinated with the role of women in telegraphy that it became the topic of romance novels and short stories, creating a new genre called “telegraphic romance” in the latter 1800s. That’s a little-known fun fact for you!

 

I enjoyed writing this series. I invite you to read the whole “Second Chances” series beginning with A Not So Convenient Marriage, Book 1, A Not So Persistent Suitor, Book 2, and A Not So Peaceful JourneyBook 3.


My Thoughts 


A Not So Peaceful Journey is the third and final book in the Second Chance Series that is written by Sandra Merville Hart. I’ve enjoyed this series so much and I’m sad to see it end.  This story is set in 1884. The author does a wonderful job capturing the time period. 


Rennie and John have been together for awhile. Rennie wants John to keep his stable job with the newspaper. John has some big hopes and dreams of becoming a writer and publishing stories. Rennie, in my opinion is selfish. She wasn’t considerate of the bigger picture. 


Rennie finds herself getting to escort a young girl back to her parents in California. John goes along for safety concerns. The train ride isn’t a smooth one. There’s bandits and thrives along for the ride. 


The author has done a wonderful job with this second chance story. It’s a brilliant conclusion to the series. Thank You to the author, publisher and Celebrate Lit for allowing me to read a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own. 

Blog Stops

lakesidelivingsite, June 14

Alena Mentink, June 14

Betti Mace, June 15

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, June 16

Texas Book-aholic, June 17

Karen Baney Reviews, June 17

Connie’s History Classroom, June 18

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, June 19

For Him and My Family, June 20

Lily’s Book Reviews, June 20

Locks, Hooks and Books, June 21

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions , June 22

Mary Hake, June 22

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, June 23

Blogging With Carol, June 24

Blossoms and Blessings, June 24

Simple Harvest Reads, June 25 (Guest Review from Donna Cline)

Cover Lover Book Review, June 26

Pause for Tales, June 27

Holly’s Book Corner, June 27

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Sandra is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/2658b/a-not-so-peaceful-journey-celebration-tour-giveaway

8 comments:

  1. Lovely cover, sounds really great!

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  2. Do you have a favorite space to do your writing?

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    Replies
    1. Tracie, I like to close the door to my office, turn on the fan to block exterior noises, and let the story flow. Thanks for asking!

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  3. Second chance romance stories are a favorite of mine, and that train ride is going to be so far from boring.

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    Replies
    1. Roxanne, there's a lot that happens along the journey. I hope you enjoy the story!

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  4. This should be a heartfelt novel.

    ReplyDelete