Inspirational Romantic Suspense Giveaways & Promos

For the first 25 days of June 2022,

I’m celebrating the publication of my 25th novel with freebies, giveaways and special promotions.  

This is day one–time to reintroduce my debut novel–the award-winning, inspirational romantic suspense, Deep Cover, from Love Inspired Suspense, released September 2011.

inspirational romantic suspense by Sandra Orchard

Back Cover Blurb for Deep Cover by Sandra Orchard:

Maintaining his cover cost undercover cop Rick Gray the woman he loved. Sweet Ginny Bryson never really knew Rick–he never gave her the chance. Not then, and not now, when he’s back with a new alias to gather evidence against Ginny’s uncle. The man’s crimes led to Rick’s partner’s death, and Rick wants justice to be served. But his investigation is stirring up trouble, and Ginny is in the middle of it. Someone wants Ginny to pay the price for what her uncle has done. But how can Rick protect her without blowing his cover, jeopardizing his assignment…and risking both their lives?

Special Promotion from Love Inspired Suspense

For two weeks only, my eighth novel, the multi-award-winning, inspirational romantic suspense, Identity Withheld is only $1.99 at Love Inspired’s main retailers and Harlequin.com. There’s never been a more economical time to add it to your E-library! 

Congrats to Lisa J–the recipient of book one of my 25-book giveaway.

We’ll randomly select recipients from newsletter subscribers, Facebook followers, blog visitors and rafflecopter entrants. 

Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway 

Boughs of Folly -a cozy mystery - #1 in Jingle Bells Mysteries
Click the image or link to enter the rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win 1 of 10 copies of my 25th novel, Boughs of Folly. Draw to be held Jun 19

If you haven’t already…

Tell me in the comments which of my novels you’d most like to add to your collection. You can find the complete list here: https://sandraorchard.com/my-books/

Then come back each day through to the 25th for more news. Or subscribe to the blog feed in the side bar. 

Thanks so much for sharing this celebration with me! 

You can also visit me today at Susan Mathis’s blog

 

Cozy Mystery & Romantic Suspense Giveaway – Sandra Orchard

My newest cozy mystery and 25th novel, 

Boughs of Folly, releases June 25th, and 

To celebrate, I’m giving away 25 books! 

Recipients will be randomly selected from newsletter subscribers, Facebook followers, blog visitors and rafflecopter entrants. 

 

Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway 

Boughs of Folly -a cozy mystery - #1 in Jingle Bells Mysteries
Click the image or link to enter the rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win 1 of 10 copies of the cozy mystery, Boughs of Folly, from Annie’s Fiction. Draw to be held Jun 19

Don’t miss the free book offers too:

Beginning June 1st, I’ll highlight one novel each day in the order of publication, and announce various publisher price promotions, including freebies, so you can economically add even more books to your library. If you enjoy, Christian Fiction–romantic suspense from Love Inspired Suspense or mysteries from Revell Publishing, or if you’re looking for a lighter, clean read–cozy mysteries and romantic suspense from Annie’s Fiction, you’ll find them here. 

In the meantime:

Take a moment to tell me in the comments below which of my novels you’d most like to add to your collection. You can find the complete list here: https://sandraorchard.com/my-books/

Then come back each day from June 1st to 25th for more news. Or subscribe to the blog feed in the side bar. 

Thanks so much for sharing this celebration with me! 

You can also visit me today at Fiction Finder, where I have a new author interview posted: https://www.fictionfinder.com/author_interview/read/interview_with_sandra_orchard3

Hidden Threats and a Twelve-Book Giveaway!

Have you checked out Annie’s Sweet Intrigue book club that I introduced with the release of Dangerous at Heart

Well…if you’re not already a subscriber, here’s your chance to win the complete set of twelve books, including my latest contribution, Hidden Threats

Cover for Hidden Threats

This romantic suspense is set on Martha’s Vineyard. I had such fun researching my Serena Jones mystery, Over Maya Dead Body, on the island that I couldn’t resist making a second trip . I have such fond memories of plotting it out–setting by setting–with my resident friend. 

Twelve Book Giveaway of  the Complete Sweet Intrigue Set: 

Image of Sweet Intrigue Set

This picture is courtesy of Virginia Smith, author of three of the books in the multi-author series and the host of the giveaway. 

Please visit her giveaway page here: https://virginiasmith.org/your-chance-to-win-twelve-books/ and follow the instructions for your chance to win all twelve books!  

The winning name will be drawn on Sunday May 15th, 2022.

If you’ve already enjoyed reading the Sweet Intrigue series, you’ll be excited to learn another is in the works! 

More Giveaways to Come

Although I blog infrequently these days, please stay tuned, because at the end of May I’ll be announcing the celebration of the release of my 25th novel. I plan to giveaway 25 books to celebrate!

Oh, and Newsletter subscribers and Facebook Followers will have extra chances to win. Just saying.  😉 

Don’t Miss the Announcements

If you subscribe to my newsletter, be sure to check your junk mail or bulk mail or spam mail or promotions folders for my emails and then add my address to your contacts. I’ve heard from many of my subscribers with gmail accounts that they don’t receive my emails and it’s because they haven’t been delivered to the main inbox.

Within 24 hours of receiving a subscription request, I send a personal email (not an automated email) with links to a mini-novella I’ve written exclusively for my subscribers. If you don’t see that email from me after you subscribe, it’s being diverted to one of those other boxes. If you still can’t find it, contact me through my contact page

Have a fabulous day!

 

 

 

Settling Auld Scores by Sandra Orchard

I’m pleased to announce that my next instalment in the Scottish Bakehouse Mysteries has shipped to subscribers from Annie’s Fiction. 

Aye, I’ve had a right braw (wonderful) time contributing to this series. Admittedly, at first I dinnae ken (didn’t know) if I’d feel at home in auld Loch Mallaig. But once I had a right old blether with the bonnie lads and lassies in town, I could hear the Scottish accent in every line. But don’t worry, only the odd Scottish word made it into the book. After all, I wouldn’t want my readers to think my heid’s full o’ mince. (every word that comes out of my mouth is non-sensical) 😀 

About Settling Auld Scores by Sandra Orchard

As Bread on Arrival’s head baker, Laura Donovan is used to scoring touchdowns in the kitchen, especially when she teams up with her best friends and business partners, Molly Ferris and Carol MacCallan. However, when it comes to parenting, unmarried Laura is a true rookie. While her brother and his wife are out of the country, Laura has agreed to host her teenage nephew, Henry, an up-and-coming football star now playing for the Loch Mallaig High Loons. Laura suddenly finds herself on defense as the safety of Henry and his teammates is tested by a persistent prankster, and Laura worries that her nephew is the main target.

From vindictive rival coaches and jilted former players to lovelorn teens intent on revenge, Laura’s roster of suspects seems endless. And as the pranks become more dangerous at every turn, Laura fears that a truly deadly incident could be next. She must take the offensive prankster out of the game before the clock runs out—or else someone could face sudden death.

Click to learn more about the Scottish Bakehouse Mysteries Bookclub from Annie’s Fiction

More Scottish Bakehouse Mysteries by Sandra Orchard

 

Check out this New Romantic Suspense Book Club

2021 marks the beginning of a new series from Annie’s Fiction

The series is called Sweet Intrigue and features standalone romantic suspense. I’m super-excited to be amongst the many authors writing for this 12-book club.  

When you subscribe to the club, you’ll receive one hardcover book every four weeks (or an Ebook if you prefer), starting with Betrayal of Trust by DeAnna Julie Dodson.

About Betrayal of Trust:

Grieving widow Julianne Montgomery is starting over in the Midwest town where she grew up. Still reeling from the recent death of her husband, nothing could’ve prepared her for the shock of seeing him show up at her door late one night, very much alive, injured, and insistent that she’s in danger.

Are you intrigued? 

My first contribution to the series is Dangerous at Heart . I don’t have the cover art or official book blurb to share with you yet, but those details will be coming soon. The book releases April 16th, 2021

About Dangerous at Heart by Sandra Orchard: 

After the police pin the fatal hit-and-run of their town’s beloved doctor on a dead man, witness Laura Brennan teams up with the doc’s nephew, Garrett Simons, to find the real killer. But when Laura asks her cousin, an aide to the state senator, to use her political pull to help them, her cousin disappears. What they discover in their search for her cousin, and for the truth, is a web of lies, corruption and coverups, surrounding the state’s largest manufacturer and perhaps the senator herself. But can they ferret out the facts and figure out who can be trusted to bring the perpetrators to justice, before they’re silenced too.

If stay-at-home orders have you down,

this might be just the series you need to get your blood pumping. Best of all, it will be delivered right to your mailbox, or inbox. 🙂 You can also cancel at anytime. 

Go to Annie’s Fiction for all the details about how to join the club.

In the Mood for more Art Crime? Book Sale

Hey, everyone. Sorry I’ve been quiet here for so long. The past six weeks have been a blur. I had a fabulous time at my first Bouchercon Mystery Conference. It was especially fun to meet Maureen Jennings, the author of the original Murdoch Mysteries, and to hear how they evolved into a popular TV series. 

Then my grandson had another surgery on his whole leg to straighten it, so I’ve been spending a lot more time with him and his siblings, helping out, since they also have a new little baby in the family, and it will be a few more weeks yet, before he’s mobile again. He is progressing fabulously, though, and we so appreciate the prayers of the many who have been remembering him. 

Now . . . to the book sale news. 

If you’ve only recently discovered my novels, you may not realize that before Serena Jones and the Port Aster Secrets series, I wrote several romantic suspense novels. 

One of them, Perilous Waters, is about another member of the FBI Art Crime Team, Sam Steele, and he’s chasing down the bad guys aboard an Alaskan cruise.  

Cover for Perilous Waters

May I just inject here how much fun I had researching this novel!  😉 

The great news is that right now, Perilous Waters is on sale for 99¢ on all the Ebook platforms. 

Sooo, if you’ve enjoyed following Serena Jones’s cases, now is a great time to pick up Perilous Water, because I’m not sure how long the sale will last. 

Click on the book’s cover above to go to the book’s page on my site, where you’ll find links to iBooks, Kobo, kindle etc. through the “buying options” button. And after you read the book, check out it’s bonus features here

Celebration Sale!

We’re celebrating the healthy birth of our newest grandchild with a month-long book sale! 

My publisher has slashed the E-book prices

in all formats on my

Serena Jones Mysteries

For those wishing to download Kobo or iBook versions, be aware that their prices haven’t yet changed, but they should soon! Click the image above to go to kindle versions. Click the book images in the side bar, for full descriptions. 

If you’ve finished the series…

Please join our chat (without spoiler worries) in our private Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1680399125601702/

A Weekend Writing Adventure

This past Saturday, I had a blast leading a workshop at a retreat for Hospice Niagara Volunteers.

Hospice Niagara is a fabulous organization that provides compassionate care, hope, and encouragement to residents of Niagara with life-limiting progressive illnesses, as well as support to their caregivers, families and those who grieve their deaths.

Of the more than 350 volunteers with Hospice Niagara, 80 attended the retreat. And as the comedian who opened the event for us noted, with the majority of those volunteers being women, it’s a great place for retired single men to meet women…ur, volunteer. 😀

The theme for the retreat was about Inner Growth – stretching oneself to try and learn about new things. So…with the help of my daughter…

writers workshop b

I took my group of about twenty participants on a whirlwind tour of my journey from know-nothing newbie to published author, (which as it turned out, inspired some of the memoir writers in the group to do some revising to incorporate more fiction techniques into their writing). Then I coaxed everyone (well…almost everyone) into unleashing their imaginations as we brainstormed the plot and characters for a collaborative mystery story.

We had a riot, exploring motives and methods for…ur…killing off someone at the retreat–fictionally, of course.

We tallied an impressive list of suspects among the attendees. My secret suspicions that one person in our midst was CIA turned out to be not far off, as he later admitted to me that he was a former federal investigator.

Guess whose number I now have on speed dial? 😉

As part of my demonstration of how writers use seemingly incidental events as red herrings or secret reveals, my daughter wowed the participants with her acting talents

We also talked about how eccentric characters add so much to the texture of a story and searched the room for a few.

Finger Knitting

Enter Barb, our finger knitting lady–a topic for a whole other blog!

We also decided Barb would make a wonderful sleuth, since she loves to read mysteries, especially yours truly’s. How can I not admire her taste? 😆

As a bonus, I’m writing the story we brainstormed and sending it to the participants and my newsletter subscribers (click here to not miss it).

The faint of heart will be happy to learn that to keep the story short, our sleuth needed to solve the mystery at the event, so I opted to not allow our would-be murderer to actually succeed. That way the paramedics can truck off the victim to the hospital, as of yet unaware of the cause for his near-death condition, so we can dispense with the police getting in our sleuth’s way with all their rules and regulations.  😎

You can learn more about my talks and workshops on my Invite Sandra Orchard to Speak at your Event page.

Here’s a clip from this past weekend’s event (right click to open in a new window to allow time to load

Your Turn: What kind of topics would you like to hear an author talk about?

What’s Scribd and Why Should you Care?

If you enjoy reading books on an Ereader, tablet, or other electronic device, and you read more than a couple of books a month, then you need to check out Scribd.

Scribd has been called Netflix for books. For one low monthly fee, you can download and read as many books as you want.

Screenshot 2014-10-17 22.48.58

The number of Christian fiction and non-fiction titles in Scribd’s library is growing daily.

Harlequin has begun adding their family of Love Inspired titles to the subscription service. So far, all the books in my Undercover Cops series are there, as are my Port Aster Secrets books from Revell Publishing.

And the best part is, thanks to Harlequin’s special promotion…

You can try Scribd for free for three months by clicking here

You can download up to 20 books at a time to read offline, as well as, organize all your chosen titles onto personal library shelves while online.

Scribd describes itself as “your personal digital library, where you have unlimited access to the world’s largest collection of e-books and written works.” With their premium subscription service you’ll have access to over half a million books from nearly a thousand publishers, from New York Times bestsellers to literary classics.

They also store an eclectic collection of user-uploaded written works, from landmark court filings to academic papers from scholars around the world.

You have nothing to lose by trying it. If you decide it’s not for you, just be sure to cancel before your free trial period ends and you won’t be charged a penny. But be sure to read all my books first.  😉

Find all Sandra Orchard’s titles on Scribd here.

I’m guessing that if you choose to “follow” me on at my profile on Scribd, you’ll receive notices when new books are added.

If you still have questions, check out Scribd’s frequently asked questions page here. I’m still learning my way around the place myself, working on “claiming” my author profile so I can add a photo etc.  😀

BTW, you won’t find any erotic fiction (at least not at this time) available in the subscription service–reassuring if the kids start browsing.

Stack of BooksYour Turn: What do you think of this concept? Do you plan to try it?

 

The service has been around since 2007, but I imagine with Harlequin now on board the number of users is bound to boom, at least for the next three months. However, I would very much hate to see it further undermine the viability of our local bookstores.

 

Image courtesy of Master isolated images at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Introducing Kara Grant or… is she?

Identity_WithheldIdentity Withheld is my newest Love Inspired Suspense, and although the novel doesn’t hit bookstores until November, it’s already available directly from Harlequin. So, I thought I’d whet your appetite by interviewing the heroine today. [Just in: Tuesday & Wednesday only, buy 2 books and get 1 free at Harlequin, using coupon code: HNB2OC14]

Identity Withheld is Jake Steele’s story, brother to Sam Steele, the hero of Perilous Waters. But the identity of Jake’s romantic interest is a tad more complicated. Thankfully, I’ve managed to coax her into revealing a little more about herself here today.

Sandra:  Tell us about yourself, Kara, and how you came to be in the midst of such suspense. 

Kara:  My real name is actually Nicole Redman, but after witnessing what looked like a man buying a baby while out for a jog in the park in my hometown of Boston, bad guys tried to kill me with a parcel bomb and the police sent me into witness protection. I was quietly biding my time as the rechristened Kara Grant, nighttime janitor, living across the continent in a small town outside of Seattle, until the bad guys found me and set fire to my new home. That’s how I met firefighter Jake Steele.

Sandra:  Tell us about Jake.  What was your first impression? 

Kara:  My very first impression, was not good, I’m afraid. When he spotted me running from the scene, he thought I’d set the fire and grabbed me none too gently. But once he realized his mistake, he was very gentle and protective and had the sweetest, lopsided smile, even if he was annoyingly insistent that I go to the hospital when it was the last place I wanted to go.

Sandra:  It sounds like the two of you clashed more than once. What would you consider your strengths and weaknesses?          

Kara:  I guess my determination to do the right thing no matter the personal cost would be my best strength. My boyfriend in Boston warned me to not go to the police after I witnessed what I was sure had to be the sale of a kidnapped child, saying it would only lead to trouble, but I couldn’t not speak up. Thankfully, I’ve always been fairly self-reliant as well, which helped me a lot once I was placed in witness protection, although Jake would probably say that is my weakness, since I’m so resistant to letting him help me.

Sandra:  You have a scripture at the beginning of the story.  Tell us why this scripture is significant.       

Kara:  When I learned I would have to move across the country and cut off all contact with my friends and family, I clung to this scripture with all my might: “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

Sandra:  Why can you never see yourself ending up with the hero?

Kara: My life isn’t my own. Kara Grant is not who I really am. And I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone who I was. Being with me, puts Jake and his son in danger and I couldn’t live with myself if I brought them to harm or had to uproot them from their family here in Washington State, because the bad guys have found me and I have to be moved again.

Sandra:  What do you hope people will learn from your experience?

Kara:   To do what’s right even when it hurts and trust God to work it all out according to his plan and purpose.

A worthwhile lesson! Thank you for visiting with us today, Kara.

Blog readers, if you’d like to read more of…

Kara’s interview and other bonus features, such as deleted scenes, as well as an excerpt of chapter one, click here.

If you like to bake, you’ll want to check out the recipe for Gran’s Pumpkin Muffins, also in the bonus features. October 13th is Thanksgiving here in Canada, so in preparation we’ve been experimenting with a few new recipes. As these pumpkin muffins baked, they made the house smell wonderful. They tasted great too!

Your Turn: If you had to go into witness protection, what would be the hardest thing for you to walk away from?