Author Spotlight Featuring Jill Haymaker's A Peakview Christmas

It's a pleasure to once again bring you a Jill Haymaker new release, this time a seasonal novel, A Peakview Christmas.

Hi, L.A., thanks for hosting me again. I love Christmas! The lights, the songs, the decorations, and the idea of it being a special time for love and family. I have to admit that I’m one of those people who will watch all thirty-six new Hallmark Christmas movies in the next couple of months. In A Peakview Christmas, I started out with a woman who’d been abused and beaten down by an alcoholic husband. When she can’t stand the idea of another miserable holiday, she runs away just a few days before Christmas. The outlook for a joyful Christmas is bleak for her and her young daughters until the magic of Peakview, Colorado and the holiday itself provides the backdrop for happily ever after. Join Faith on her journey to find Christmas magic.

 Excerpt:

CHAPTER ONE

 

Her coffee cup rattled on the table as the door slammed against its hinges. Rattled like her nerves. “I want this house clean when I get home,” Lenny yelled as he stormed across the front lawn. Faith Owens listened as the motor to his ancient pickup sputtered and the gears ground. Please start, she whispered quietly. The last thing she wanted was for her husband to return and demand she drive him to work.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the engine catch and saw gravel fly as he peeled away. Laughter bubbled from the bedroom in the back of the small apartment—a sharp contrast from Lenny’s temper tantrum. Her daughters, Hope and Gracie, had just gotten home from the last day of school before Christmas break. “Two weeks of freedom,” they’d announced as they’d run through the door. What she wouldn’t give for even a day of freedom from the nightmare that her life had become.

She stuck her head in her daughters’ bedroom where they sat playing on the hard, worn, linoleum floor.

“Wanna play dolls with us, Mommy?” Gracie smiled, with that smile made even more adorable by the missing tooth right in front.

“Not right now, honey. I have some things to get done. In a little while.” Knowing that they were safe, she walked into her bedroom and frowned at the trail of clothes Lenny’d left on the floor of the cramped room. The room reeked of beer. Judging by the crumpled cans on the dresser, he chugged a couple before heading to his job. How he’d stayed employed this long, she’d never know. Obviously, being a nightshift janitor didn’t require sobriety.

Faith glanced at the clock. It was a little after four in the afternoon. With any luck, Lenny wouldn’t return until the sun was almost up. Oh, his shift ended at 1:00 a.m. but it was Friday. That meant that he’d hit one of the local dive bars with his buddies before heading home to pass out.

She glanced at her arm in the mirror where a yellow and green bruise still remained from where he’d grabbed her last Friday. How had her life gone so wrong? She was born and raised in this small New Mexico town of Scorpion. In the beginning, she’d thought Lenny was her savior. The first year of marriage had been okay, despite his drinking. Once she got pregnant with Hope, the drinking wasn’t so fun anymore. He resented that she no longer wanted to party.

A few months after Hope was born, she was pregnant again with Gracie. That’s when he’d hit her for the first time. She should have left that very day, but when he sobered up, he was very apologetic—promised it would never happen again. But it did. Over and over. She became numb to the pain. Where was she going to go with two young babies and only a high school education? At least they had a roof over their heads.

But as time went on, their relationship deteriorated even more. He barely spoke to her or slept in the same bed unless he was drunk and wanted sex. He repulsed her. That’s when she came up with her plan.

Buy: Amazon

Blurb:

Only five days until Christmas, and FAITH OWENS has had enough. Not willing to spend one more holiday with her abusive, alcoholic husband, she loads her two young daughters, Gracie and Hope, in her car and leaves her life in Scorpion, New Mexico behind.

Newly divorced, ZANE WILDER, faces his first Christmas without his son, Ace. He can’t wait for the holiday to be over. To escape sitting home sulking, he travels from Montana to Colorado to spend the week training his young horse, Storm Cloud.

When their paths collide at Hearts Haven Bed and Breakfast near scenic Peakview, Colorado, they find more than a place to rest. Two lonely, cautious hearts are brought together by the magic of Christmas, with a little help from Violet Crandall or maybe Santa himself. Will their budding romance continue when the holiday ends? Can two broken families find the missing pieces that lead to happiness?

THIS CHRISTMAS, REDISCOVER ROMANCE IN PEAKVIEW, COLORADO 

WHERE EVERYONE HAS THE CHANCE AT LOVE.

Bio:

Jill Haymaker was born and raised in Indiana and Ohio. After high school, and college she moved to Fort Collins, Colorado.  Ms. Haymaker made her home in Fort Collins until her recent move to East Texas. She practiced family law in Fort Collins for the past 20 years. She has three grown children, a son and two daughters.  She also has three granddaughters.

Jill has always had a passion for writing.  Colorado Sunset was her first full-length romance novel in her Peakview, Colorado series. Her latest book, A Peakview Christmas, is the eleventh and final book in the series. If you love small town romance, you will love the characters in this series. She also has had several short stories published by Chicken Soup for the Soul, the most recent in the book the Best Advice I ever heard, which will be released on November 6, 2018.

When not practicing law or writing, Jill enjoys The Colorado mountains, horseback riding, gardening, long walks with her Toy Australian Shepherd, Merlin, and spending time with her children and grandchildren. She enjoys their numerous sporting events. She is also an avid football fan and can be found on autumn weekends cheering on her favorite teams. 

She has a passion for working with high school youth, she serves as a mentor to an at-risk youth, is a youth group leader at her church, coaches a high school mock trial team and is a volunteer at cross country and track meets.

Find Jill:
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