Trans-Pecos Series: Book 1
Publication Date: March 13, 2024
Maeve Jackson is starting over after a broken engagement—and mustering out of the Army. No job and no prospects, she spins out on black ice and totals her car.
When struggling vintner Luke Kaylor stops to help, they discover they’re distantly related. On a shoestring budget to convert his vineyard into a winery, he makes her a deal: prune grapevines in exchange for room and board.
But forgotten diaries and a haunted cabin kickstart a five-generational mystery with ancestors that have bones to pick. As carnal urges propel them into each other’s arms, they wonder: Is their attraction physical…or metaphysical?
A car accident serves as a catalyst for two strangers to meet at the right place and the right time, only to discover they are distantly related (but not by blood).
Author Karen Hulene Bartell delivers a combination of contemporary and historical characters in Kissing Kin. Maeve Jackson’s plans didn’t include a handsome complication in the form of Luke Kaylor, but she can’t deny the attraction.
As they read old family journals, the past comes alive, creating parallels between timelines, people, and places. A family mourning cameo seems to be the catalyst for strange events, including Maeve’s dreams.
The integration of genealogical research adds an interesting component to the story as Maeve and Luke discover hidden documents, including a warranty deed, at the vineyard.
Kissing Kin explores a series of events that brings two people together, completing the circle that had been broken in the past.
Author of the Trans-Pecos and Sacred Emblem series, Karen is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life, who writes multicultural, offbeat love stories. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved often, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Texas Piney Woods with her husband Peter and her “mews”—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.
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Thank you for reviewing today.
Thank you, Amy Wilson, for your lovely review of KISSING KIN!
Thank you again, Amy Wilson, for hosting me AND your lovely review of KISSING KIN!