Book Title: Midas Touch: A Christmas Romance
Author: Alex Hall
Publisher: Madison Place Press
Cover Artist: Rebecca Slather
Release Date: November 9, 2020
Genre: F/F Romance
Themes/Tropes: Christmas, childhood friends to lovers
Length: 75 000 words/ 208 pages
It is a standalone book.
Buy Links – Available on Kindle Unlimited
Blurb
Gwen Cook has returned to Williamsburg, Virginia, after more than a decade away from her family estate. Frankie Porter has spent the last year renovating that same estate, turning the dilapidated Cook mansion into a showpiece. Gwen and Frankie shared a childhood full of hard secrets and ripe with first love. Now adults, their paths cross again and sparks fly.
A HEA with content warnings for PTSD and implied child abuse.
Balancing on the precarious breeze, Frankie Porter lifted her arms and flattened her palms, stretching her fingers until they ached. Her arms were sleek from the humid Virginia air, her muscles buoyant. The wind lifted briefly, warm gusts flattening her hair to her scalp. Above her head and below her feet, leaves rustled. Frankie could smell the perfume of the river and hear the muffled gurgle of the water.
She tensed, straining upward, face lifted to the freedom of the sky. Her shoulders quivered, and her bare toes scraped crumbling mortar, clinging.
“Francis!”
Her lips parted and she tasted the air. Another gust wrapped around her body. She rocked, her heart singing. When she opened her eyes, she would be far above the clouds.
“Frankie Ross! You get down from there!”
Frankie swallowed a sigh. She kept her eyes clamped shut, firmly ignoring the splashing and shouts down below. Something fluttered past her cheek, and she thought she felt tiny wings. A bird, or a butterfly. She smiled.
Another flutter of air and then a sting and a wet slap. Frankie’s eyes flew open. Not a butterfly or a bird—a clod of moss, perfectly aimed. Scowling, she wiped the grit from her cheek.
“Come down, or I’ll throw another!”
Still rubbing her throbbing cheek, Frankie peered between her toes. A good twenty feet below College Creek swirled, green and brown and almost as deep as its mother, the James River. Trees from the opposite bank hung over the rush. Leaves and vines brushed at the water’s surface. The woods surrounding the creek were old and deeply shadowed.
A skiff floated in a small square of sunlight. From high in the air, the little boat looked bright and clean, but Frankie knew better. The paint on the hull was cracked and peeling. A hole in the stern was patched with a bit of scavenged plywood. The skiff might be usable, but it sure wasn’t pretty.
The owner of the little boat stood upright and unsteady between the oars. She looked as though she might tumble into the creek at any moment. Frankie hoped she would.
“Are you coming down?”
Frankie let her arms drop. She settled back onto her heels. A chunk of old brick fell from beneath her feet, tumbled into the water. It broke the current with a splash.
“Go home, Gwen.”
Even from her perch between sky and water, Frankie could see the other girl’s sullen scowl. “No way. Come on down. I’ve brought you a birthday present.”
A birthday present. Today was June 10, and Frankie had finally turned sixteen. Still one year behind Gwen Cook, who thought she knew everything—and maybe she did, but Frankie would never admit it. She preferred cataloging Gwen’s faults, and there were many. For instance, when Gwen wasn’t being brave and funny and quick with words, she was moody, crass, stubborn, and as bossy as a mama hen.
She was also afraid of heights, which meant that Frankie was safe on the edge of the decaying boathouse because Gwen wouldn’t dare climb up and bring her down.
A birthday present. Frankie set her fists on her hips and craned her neck, trying to see what Gwen might have in her boat. She could tell her friend was in a temper. She supposed Gwen’s father was on a bender again, which meant Gwen would spend all afternoon and evening on the creek, hiding.”
“What kind of birthday present?” She hadn’t expected any gifts to mark the day. Her mom had baked a plain poppy-seed cake, when what Frankie had really wanted was the frilly pink buttercream from the local bakery.
“There’s no such thing as a perfect day,” her mom had scolded when Frankie burst into tears over the homemade cake. “Not even on your birthday. So stop your sniffling, and be grateful for what you have.”
Frankie understood now that there had been no money for something as frivolous as pink buttercream and that perfect days were as rare as unicorns.
“Come down and see!”
Excerpt From: Alex Hall. “Midas Touch: A Christmas Romance”.
Sarah Remy/Alex Hall is a nonbinary, animal-loving, proud gamer Geek. Their work can be found in a variety of cool places, including HarperVoyager, EDGE and NineStar Press.
Author Links
Blog/Website | Twitter: @sarahremywrites
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I really like the blurb and the excerpt.
Thanks for the excerpt.
This looks great! Thanks for sharing 🙂