Summer Loving Blog Hop

Being English, I’m used to wildly changing seasons, and mainly I love them all, but a long wet winter has dragged this year and I for one am delighted to greet summer.

Summer to me is about walking through the footpaths that meander through fields of crops, across meadows of wildflowers and alongside trickling streams and gushing rivers. Accompanied by my Dalmatian, Skye and soon I imagine our new puppy Beau, this is where I get my inspiration from. Not the beaches and the bars, but the quiet, solitary walks I take in the Shropshire countryside.

This is the setting for Book 3 in my Atlantic Divide Series, Finding Zoe.

Excerpt

Almost eleven years had passed since he’d been there. Right at this very spot in the heart of Shropshire, England. Eleven years and his heart soared as he stood at the top of Major’s Leap on Wenlock Edge, careful not to get too close to the bluff in case his fear of heights got the better of him. He breathed in the fresh English air, filled his lungs with it.

He gazed over the acres of rich land. He’d forgotten the contrasts of color in the bright English countryside. The lush bottle-green of the trees against the bright emerald and pale jade of the square fields with their acres of crops swaying opulent and thick, contrasted with handkerchiefs of vivid yellow rapeseed fields sitting comfortably next to the mud-brown of the newly plowed areas. Forest-green hedgerows divided the land, populated with poppies splattered randomly over the landscape like droplets of blood.

As the warm English summer wind buffeted him, he closed his eyes and wondered why it had taken him so long to come back.

“Mr. Blunt?”

He knew why.

“Mr. Blunt, sir…are you ready?”

It was because of her.

“Mr. Blunt…”

“Yes. I’m ready.”

Opening his eyes, he sighed. He took a moment longer to scan the landscape, tracking the clear, pale blue sky; he drew his gaze across the horizon. He smiled as he recognized the rise of The Wrekin in the distance and remembered her telling him the tale of some giant dumping a shovel of dirt on the plains of Shropshire, which made the hill.

With a wry smile he turned away, saddened for a moment as he wondered what had become of her. From time to time she still managed to make his heart ache.

He turned away from the view, from the memories, from the dull throb in his chest.

Giveaway

For this Summer Loving Bloghop I’m giving away a copy of Finding Zoe. Leave a comment telling me your favourite summer location and I will give one lucky winner an ecopy.

For more prizes, do this:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have a great hop and bag so more prizes, click here:

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