The Blue Hour by Vicki Righettini - GIVEAWAY!

5 Stars!

ABOUT THE BOOK -

IN THIS EPIC TALE of love, loss, and redemption, the year is 1861, a time when women are expected to be married by a certain age. At 26, spinster Emily Wainwright has no reason to believe her sheltered life will ever change—until the charming Samuel Todd unexpectedly crosses her path. Samuel yearns to homestead and start a family in Oregon, but he first needs to find a wife. Blinded by Samuel’s good looks, and grasping at her final chance to have a husband and children, Emily accepts his marriage proposal. However, Samuel is not the man she thought he was, and her marriage becomes a cold, cruel prison, offering her no solace amidst the hardships of farm life. When Samuel dies and a second chance at love and happiness arrives in the form of farmhand Cole Walker, Emily must overcome her bitter past—or risk losing Cole and the life she has always dreamed of having.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
Vicki Righettini is an award-winning, nationally produced playwright, and her recently-published historical novel, The Blue Hour, was a badge winner and Pitch Perfect Pick at Underground Books. Originally from Los Angeles, Vicki lived in Oregon for over twenty years, where she developed an abiding love of the land and the Oregon way of life. Before turning to full-time writing, she worked for forty years as a singer/actress and performing arts instructor.
Vicki lives in San Diego with her software-developer, Jeopardy!-champion husband, and the world's shyest cat. 

Visit her blog - (http://www.vickirighettini.com).
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2h2UZGy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VRighettini


MY THOUGHTS -
Absolutely Fantastic! This will be one of my favorite "Oregon Trail" books to date (and I have read a LOT).

Ahhhhhh that's how I always feel when I finally return to a historical fiction book, especially one set in the 1800's. It's my "go to" genre, it makes me feel like I'm home. I particularly love reading about the Oregon Trail I have read several books on the subject and enjoy it every time, it never gets old for me. This is definitely one of the best I have read.

Wow, I loved Emily and Samuel. I was totally caught up and lost in their little world.
Or, at least I thought I loved Samuel. Until his true colors started showing through. Oh my gosh what a horrible person he turned out to be! I know I would not have been as strong as Emily was, to endure everything that she went through.

"Emily had to admit the idea was absurd. Walk across the country? Take only what you could fit into a ten by eleven foot wagon, then throw out half of that along the way? Eat nothing but beans and fried dough for six straight months? Vina was right, no same person would do such a thing. Yet she'd done all these things and more."

This story was sad and shocking (graphically at times) but that's what made it feel so real. But... it was more than that. It was about survival, strength, and choosing life! It was about how Emily became her own hero, saving herself - she never gave up even when she desperately wanted to at times.

This was an excellently written, exciting account about one woman's journey across the country and through life to a better place.

 I voluntarily posted this review after receiving a copy of this book from "Virtual Author Book Tours" -  Thank You! 

Buy The Blue Hour by Vicki Righettini

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Read an excerpt:

At last the water boiled merrily on the stove. She measured a heaping spoonful of dried chamomile flowers and another of dried lemon balm into her one remaining china cup, poured boiling water over the herbs, and watched as golden swirls infused the water. Then she covered the cup with a plate and forced herself to wait five full minutes for the tea to steep. She needed it strong. Maybe later she’d take one of her tinctures to help her sleep. It wasn’t that she was afraid. This wouldn’t be her first night sleeping alone in the cabin. But the thought that no one would ever again be coming home to her, not even Samuel, made her feel as desolate as if she were on the moon. If she didn’t sleep, she’d spend the night straining for the sound of absent footsteps, consumed by the crushing reality of her isolation. When her tea was ready, Emily picked up the warm plate with a flour-sack towel and carried it to Samuel’s rocking chair, the most comfortable seat in the cabin, until now forbidden to her. She started to sit but wavered. “This is my chair now,” she said to the empty room, “if there be no objections.” Hearing none, she eased into the chair. Sitting in Samuel’s place seemed wrong, but she forced herself to stay. She raised a mouthful of the long-awaited pie to her lips. The silky richness of pork and winter vegetables burst in her mouth. This must be from Vina Norman, she thought. Bless your soul, dear friend. Emily savored her meal, and took her time over her tea. She could do this. She could eat this meal, drink this tea. She could do this one, small thing. And perhaps if she did enough small things, she’d figure out what to do with the rest of her life. __________ The logs on the fire had collapsed into whispering embers, submerging the room in murky shadows. Hours must have passed while she’d sat in an exhausted trance, gripping the cold cup. But she couldn’t sit here forever. Exhausted as she was, there was still a farm that needed her. Getting up was like pulling herself from quicksand. She was more tired than she’d been at threshing time, when her mind went numb from the unrelenting toil and her body cried out for relief. She hadn’t thought it possible to be more tired than that. She didn’t know if it was grief or regret which weighed so heavily on her, but she now understood that physical exhaustion was nothing compared to weariness of the spirit, which sapped all life, all strength, all hope. She left the dirty dishes on the floor. They would keep until morning. Tomorrow she’d sort out what to do, how to survive. Life in the Powder River Valley was hard enough for two people, but now she was alone, and a woman besides. Perhaps she’d die out here, with no one to care, or mourn, or even notice. But she couldn’t think about that now, because then she’d have to think about how she’d gotten here, how she’d been deceived – how she’d let herself be deceived, as Eve was by Satan’s evil snake – and that was more than she could bear. She stepped out of her dress, once her precious royal blue wedding gown, now her mourning attire, and tossed it carelessly over a chair. Then she unpinned her hair and made a few half-hearted swipes at it with a wooden comb. Finally, as the pale winter sun slipped below the horizon, she climbed up to the loft and collapsed onto the straw ticking. She slept where she fell, without memory or dreams: the sweet, healing sleep that had eluded her every night of her two short, endless years of marriage to Samuel.

 

GIVEAWAY!

I am giving away one copy of The Blue Hour - your choice of  Print or ebook.  

Print is open to Canada & the U.S. only. 

ebook is open world wide.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

Follow Blue Hour by Vicki Righettini Tour

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