Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Dakota Wedding by Lisa Mondello Excert & Interview


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?

Available at   Amazon  BN    iTunes    

Google Play    Kobo    ARe    Smashwords


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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