Dakota
Wedding
Dakota
Hearts
Book
6
Lisa
Mondello
Genre: Contemporary Western Romance
Date of Publication: November 30,
2014
ISBN: 978-1-940512-07-5
ASIN: B00OC90HNU
Number of pages: 212
Word Count: 74200
Cover Artist: Melyssa Naujoks
Book Description:
From
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Mondello, book 6 of the
popular DAKOTA HEARTS western romance series.
Ian McKinnon was just getting
steady on his feet, looking forward to the opening of the Wounded Veterans
Center and a big McKinnon wedding celebration, when tragedy struck again. The
soldier who'd saved his life while in the military has died. He's charged with
his most important mission: find his friend Carlos's family in Mexico or become
guardian and raise Carlos's children. The only mandatory stipulation of his
friend's will was that Ian live under the same roof with Abby Townsend, a
firefighter from Carlos's firehouse. Abby knew the kids well and she could help
ease them all through the transition of becoming a family. Okay, so Ian may not
be daddy material, but he'd grown up with a whole lot of McKinnons running
around. He could handle the kids just fine. The beautiful Abby Townsend was
another story.
Abby took one look at Ian and
shook her head with utter disbelief. What were her dear friends thinking by
naming a man whose nickname was "The Hazard" as guardian of their
three small children? She only needed to spend one year in Ian's house in South
Dakota. She had to either find Carlos's family, or convince Ian that she was
the better person to raise the children. Abby knows how hard it is to lose
someone you loved. She'll be there to protect the children in any way she can.
But can she protect her heart from falling in love with a man known for taking
too many risks...and risk heartbreak again?
DAKOTA HEARTS Series:
Book
1 - Her Dakota Man
Book
2 - Badland Bride
Book
3 - Dakota Heat
Book
4 - Wild Dakota Heart
Book
5 - His Dakota Bride
Book
6 - Dakota Wedding
Coming
in 2015, check for more Dakota Hearts books.
If
you're a fan of western romance, contemporary romance, stories full of angst
and emotion, and sexy cowboy and military heroes, then you'll enjoy Lisa
Mondello’s Dakota Hearts, Texas Hearts and Fate with a Helping Hand series of
romance novels.
Excerpt:
There was a time
when the prospect of standing on two feet was beyond Ian McKinnon’s
imagination. That had been a darker time in his life. A time he didn’t ever
want to go back to again.
As he made his
way up the driveway leading to the home he’d spent the last year refurbishing,
feeling the early autumn sun on his face, he could finally see light. He felt
at peace.
His cousin’s SUV
sat next to his Jeep in the driveway. As he rounded the corner, he found Hawk
sitting on the porch overlooking the river in the back yard.
Hawk smiled and
stood up when they made eye contact. But the look on Hawk’s face immediately
told Ian he wasn’t here for a social call.
“Can we go
inside and talk?”
Ian sighed and
tried to force a smile. “Something tells me I’m not going to like this
conversation. So if it’s all the same to you why we just have it right here on
the front porch?”
“I was hoping to
spare you.”
Ian laughed
without any humor. “That bad, huh? Just give it to me straight.”
Hawk shook his
head and chuckled low. “You always did things your own way.”
Ian climbed the
few stairs and pivoted so he could sit opposite Hawk on the porch. He braced
himself for whatever news he was about to get.
“You got a call
from Vermont this morning. Your mom took the call. No one has your new number.”
“I didn’t get
the new number until last week. I haven’t had a chance to call Carlos and
Brenda yet. Both of them are excited to come out and see the house and the
Wounded Veterans Center now that it’s nearly complete. But both of them have my
cell phone number. They could have used that.”
He was rambling
and his stomach hurt just looking at Hawk as his cousin struggled with what he
was about to say.
“Carlos and
Brenda’s lawyer only had your parents’ telephone number.”
“Lawyer?”
Hawk nodded,
taking a deep breath. “Carlos and Brenda are dead.”
* * *
Ian couldn’t
breathe. He glanced at his reflection in the bathroom mirror and wiped the cold
moisture from his face with a crisp clean towel he’d just purchased at a fancy
department store in Rapid City last week.
Two years after
a mortar blast in Afghanistan took part of his leg, Ian was not only standing,
he was running. And he was looking forward to life again. Soon the Wounded
Veterans Center he’d worked tirelessly on with his cousin, Ethan, and Hawk’s
girlfriend, Regis, would be open, and they’d be celebrating the McKinnon way
with the wedding of Logan McKinnon and Poppy Ericksen. They all couldn’t wait.
No one more than Ian. The entire McKinnon clan was coming in from all over the
country just for this celebration. Life was finally righting itself.
And now the man
who’d given Ian a second chance at life was gone. Dead at the hands of a drunk
driver on a winding Vermont road. One day he was enjoying life. The next he and
his beloved wife were gone. The only thing left were three children who no
longer had their parents.
The knock on the
door pulled him out of his thoughts.
“Ian, it’s me.
Everything okay in there?” Hawk hadn’t left. Ian knew he wouldn’t. Hawk would
stay all day and all night until he knew Ian was steady on his feet. Like
always. Hawk had a medical clinic in town. The people of Rudolph depended on
him. But they were McKinnons and McKinnons stuck together through everything.
Barring an emergency, Hawk would stay as long as Ian needed him or at least
until one of his brothers or cousins could come and relieve him.
Ian wiped his
face with his towel again, still feeling the jolt of the news. “I’ll be just a
minute.”
Closing his
eyes, he fought the wave of nausea he hadn’t felt in a long time. But the
feeling of loss overwhelmed him. And for the first time in more than a year,
Ian wept.
About
the Author:
New York Times and USA TODAY
Bestselling Author, Lisa Mondello, has held many jobs in her life but being a
published author is the last job she'll ever have. She's not retiring! She
blames the creation of the personal computer for her leap into writing novels.
Otherwise, she'd still be penning stories with paper and pen.
Her popular series includes TEXAS
HEARTS, DAKOTA HEARTS and Fate with a Helping Hand. Writing as LA Mondello, her
romantic suspense, MATERIAL WITNESS, book 1 of her Heroes of Providence
received a starred Kirkus Review and was named one of their Best Books of 2012.
Interview
Where are you from?
I have lived my whole life in Massachusetts. So it seems write that I have a series set in
Massachusetts and that I’m starting another one, a new adult contemporary
series called the Summer House Series set on Nantucket. I’ve lived in Boston and down by Cape Cod and
now live out in the western part of the state.
I love enjoying all 4 seasons here, although this winter was pretty
brutal!!
Tell us your latest news?
Readers have asked for it and I’m delivering! I am adding to the DAKOTA HEARTS series. Dakota Wedding is book 6 and features Ian
McKinnon, the wounded military veteran who inherits orphaned kids from the man who
saved his life. I continue the stories
of the McKinnon clan with His Dakota Heart, which was released 3/31 and is the
story of Ian’s brother Gray and the tragic way he lost love and found it again. Next up is Luke McKinnon’s story in Dakota
Cowboy. Luke is a lawyer and trades in
his suit and tie to come home and work on the family’s oil rig after his father
has a heart attack. There will be two
more McKinnon stories later in the year as well, bringing the total books for
the DAKOTA HEARTS series to 10!
When and why did you begin writing?
I don’t know to both of those questions. I just always had stories in my head and
always wrote as soon as I could put a pencil in my hand and write down on
paper. I think it’s part of my DNA.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I started writing novels the year I was married
after my husband encouraged me to do it. I didn’t really tell anyone about it
for a long time until I sold my first book.
Then everyone was a little shocked.
But even after the sales I didn’t think of myself as a writer. I was a mom and I worked in a school in
special education. It wasn’t until I had
several sales to publishers that it sort of dawned on me that I was a writer.
What inspired you to write your first book?
Desire to write.
Having stories in my head. I
loved to read. Every time I went on
vacation camping I’d toss 4 or 5 books in my duffel bag. My husband would row around the lake in our
raft and I’d have my feet up on the side with my nose in a book. I never have to be motivated to write. The stories just come.
How did you come up with the title?
The story idea for Dakota Wedding was originally
titled The Christmas House because the heroine sees a picture of the heroes
house with lights on it and thinks no one could be unhappy living there. Of course, they come together under sad
circumstances, but in the end they find true love and their happy ending. I didn’t think The Christmas House title fit
the Dakota Hearts series. Since the hero
and heroine from book 1 get married during Dakota Wedding, I went with the
wedding theme and changed the title.
Is there a message in your novel that you want
readers to grasp?
I’ve found over the years that people take away from
a story what they bring to it from their past.
Every lives different lives.
People will write me and say they connected with one person or another
or a particular scene and totally not see the one that touched me the
most. So I don’t have expectations of
what readers will get out of my stories except that I hope they enjoy them and
find them entertaining.
How much of the book is realistic?
Not at all.
These characters are completely fictitious. But I can’t help but inject myself and my
experiences into stories. People tell me
that my stories, although they’re sensual, have a lot of traditional values in
them. I love big families and small
towns because I have a big family and live in a small town. So it’s comfortable for me to write about
it. But the characters and their
situations are fiction.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events
in your own life?
No.
What books have most influenced your life most?
You aren’t really going to ask me that, right? I’ve read way too many great books to list
here.
What are your current projects?
As I mentioned in an earlier question, I have a lot
of McKinnon books to write this year.
But I’m also working on a new adult series that will debut in June
called the Summer House Series. The
series is set on Nantucket and starts with Moment in Time to be released June
26th and then follow up with Moment of Impact, Moment of Truth and
then Moment of Trust. For more
information, visit http://www.summerhouseseries.blogspot.com
and sign up for my newsletter http://eepurl.com/xhxO5.
I give an eReader away each month to a
lucky newsletter subscriber!
You can find more information
about Lisa Mondello at
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