Raine Balkera - Romance Author

(EDIT: an hours-long power outage left this author in a pinch, so #ThursdayThoughts is now a FridayThoughts) Since I plan to be extremely busy this weekend, I thought Today would be as good a day as any to Wrap Up the Week. And, it was a surprisingly eventful one, indeed. First , I'd like to share a few bits of awful news on the personal home front. My daughter witnessed her first deadly car crash the other day, and I am very worried about her frame of mind right now. Ma and I sat down with her last night to let her vent, share her feelings, and ask a lot of questions, which I hope helped her some. I think what made it worse was that when she finally arrived at work, one of her co-workers was weeping on her cell phone, and as it turned out, it had been a family friend who had died in that same crash. Second , a rash of vandalism and theft have occurred in our neighborhood. Several weeks ago, my vehicle and my son's (both parked in the driveway and locked --...

Happy 4th of July, America. This is Actually ME! I'm stunned... truly Independence Day, also referred to as the Fourth of July or July Fourth, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Here in Michigan, it wasn't until very recently that Fireworks were legalized. Now, you'll find massive tents in corner lots like this one Detroit Lakes Online and in a lot of otherwise 'For Lease' spots in a lot of our vacant strip malls, selling all kinds of goodies that leave the ground, make noise, and explode in the air. The good stuff. All my life, it was a snakes & sparklers kind of event that wasn't too exciting unless you got your hands on the really cool stuff. Yeah, the Snaps! Tossing the tiny paper baggies of gun powder on the ground was totally cool, man. Smoke bombs? Forget it... you had to be super-cool to light off those. If you got your han...

It Reeks of Thirst I'm on a one-woman crusade to bring back David, Thomas, Michael, and Rory; Bettina, Louise, Susan, and Mary in Historical Romance novel Character names. As for Contemporary Romance... this is even more of a problem and wouldn't mind seeing a return of the once-popular Jason and Jennifer overload. Because I never liked my own name and didn't have a middle name to fall back on, names have always been something of a rawhide issue with me. I adore some, cringe at others, and today, through social media, names have taken on even more meaning for me. Name memories have a far greater impact on my psyche than I care to admit or even want them to do. I think most of us can agree that when we meet someone (Laura) we can't help but be thrust back in time (Jr High) to that awful bullying period that ruined your Jr High experience AND your self esteem. And, yeah, with time the wounds do heal themselves. One of my favorite movies of all time...

                                                   Pages -  194                                                     Publisher -  Serif Books                                                    Published -  March 29, 2017                                                    Former Title -  Falling For the Prodigal Son                                     ...

Pages -  226  Publisher -  Idunn Court Publishing Published -  September 3, 2015 Sold by -   Amazon Digital Genre -  Teen & YA, Historical  Romance, Victorian Narrative -  3rd P Interchangeable Language -  0/5 Sexual Content -  0/5 When she was a poor country girl in a hand-me-down dress, Rosamund saved the Duke of Swanhaven from the brink of despair…only to fall in love with him. Now a celebrated mannequin for an exclusive London dressmaker, her glamorous life is empty without the man to whom she gave her heart. Can a beastly duke and a beautiful mannequin ever find a fairy-tale ending? I liked it. And, it was a Fairy Tale rewrite! And, it is flawed. Still, I thought the author's style was pleasant, which made for an easy and somewhat enjoyable read and why I gave it a bit higher rating for this review. Hardly anything in the way of GPS issues, although there were two I wi...

(In case you haven't noticed, I spent a few days revamping my Blog. The color scheme never seems quite right to me, and if there is something about the whole thing that sets you off, jars your senses, or makes you want to look away, I'd really like to know!) Hi everyone, and welcome to another installment of the MFRW.org 52-Week Blog Challenge. Week 28 here, and this time we are asked to talk about any Life Lessons in My Novels . Um... This is a bit like asking if I believe violent video games promote violence. Or if I agree that rap music is morally and ethically unstable. That wearing a seat belt is the law for a reason . All of which are valid points to ponder but none of your business and certainly not worth arguing about or berating someone for not agreeing with your opinion on. And, I'm beginning to suspect that whoever came up with these weekly challenges left my personality out of the equation. (sad face) Here is a cool pic I took of a s...