Five Stars for To the Wind!

To the Wind received a five star rating from Reader's Favorite!

"As in the first novel, Sweet Lenora (Dark Heroes), Ute Carbone captures the reader's interest immediately with an adventurous, emotional tale of a sailor's life on the sea as they follow orders from bosses within the trade business of the California gold rush era. It also tells of incredible love, heartfelt compassion, and the pure admiration a young couple can have for one another. Ute Carbone's To the Wind has a bit of everything in it, making it appealing to many types of readers. It is a short story written so skillfully and descriptively it is as though you are watching a movie screen rather than reading a book." Michelle Robertson for Reader's Favorite Reviews

Read the entire Review HERE

To the Wind The Journey Continues In this sequel to Sweet Lenora, Anton and Lenora sail away from trouble in Rio de Janeiro only to encounter new problems. With only half a crew and a first mate that is hated and feared, they venture to San Francisco plagued by threats, mutiny,and illness. As they arrive at their destination, the ghosts of the past come back to haunt them and may prove to be the greatest menace of all. At each turn, the love they have forged is tested. Will it prevail?    Available at: Amazon Champagne Books Kobo Read more about the book on the To the Wind site To the Wind has been nominated for a RONE as best historical novella. Reader voting is in a few weeks Meantime, Reader voting for Afterglow, in the best contemporary (general) category is going on all this week. You can vote HERE

RONE nominees

The RONE awards are given by InDTale magazine each year for stories that are Indie or small-press published. This year, I'm honored to have two of my books nominated

Afterglow was nominated for best contemporary

India Othmar isn’t having a great year. Her husband of thirty-one years has left her for their son’s ex-girlfriend. Her grown children have moved home. Her best friend Eva seems determined to set her up with every oddball in their small Massachusetts town. And her most significant relationship these days is with Cherry Garcia.

But India is more resilient than she thinks. And though it will take a broken arm, a lawn littered with engine parts, some creative uses for shoes, and a scandalous love affair of her own, she learns, much to her surprise, that her life hasn’t ended with her marriage.

The book can be purchased at:

Champagne Books

Amazon: 

ARE: 

To the Wind was nominated for best historical novella

The Journey Continues

In this sequel to Sweet Lenora, Anton and Lenora sail away from trouble in Rio de Janeiro only to encounter new problems. With only half a crew and a first mate that is hated and feared, they venture to San Francisco plagued by threats, mutiny,and illness. As they arrive at their destination, the ghosts of the past come back to haunt them and may prove to be the greatest menace of all. At each turn, the love they have forged is tested. Will it prevail?   

The book can be purchased at:

Amazon

Champagne Books

Kobo

Saturday#Snippets To the Wind

The To the Wind blog tour finished up yesterday, but I wanted to give everyone one more look. Will they burn the Sweet Lenora? Anton worries they will.

My head and my heart had been filled with Lenora, yet I knew well how the disease had ravaged the crew. They were a rough lot, true, but no one deserved to die at the hands of such devilment as the yellow jack. “I know how bad things were aboard.” I cast my eyes to the door behind which Lenora slept.

“Then you must be aware such disease can linger. You suspect Rio, so you told me yourself, as the origin of your misery. Look how far you have carried the miasma. The ship is contaminated.”

“If it can but be saved. I’ve heard they use carbolic and lime. I would scrub down every inch of her if she could be spared burning. She is new, it is her maiden voyage, and we’ve yet to take her to the Orient. She would have broken the record from New England to SanFrancisco if not for foul weather off the Brazil coast. How I wish we’d never stopped in Rio port, yet we had no choice. We came from that port with but half a crew and still made ’Frisco in two months time. Two months, sir. It is a testament to the ship’s fine build and to her value.”

“There will be other ships,” was all Mather had to answer to my plea.

“Nay,” I said. “Her maker has died. There may never be another like her.” With that, I took my leave and went back into the room where my Lenora slept.

Click below for more on-

To the Wind

The Anton and Lenora Series

Saturday #Snippets To the Wind

The To the Wind Blog Tour starts on Monday. To the Wind is part two of the Anton and Lenora series. It's a historical novella, set on a clipper ship in 1852. Anton Boudreaux, the ship's captain, tells the story. Here's the opening.

 The world is a wicked place, full of lies and deceit. A man must stand strong against the force of evil, lest he perish. So I thought before Lenora came into my life. She was an angel, appearing in a moment’s time upon the deck of Sweet Lenora, the ship named for her. The ship I commanded. She seemed so fragile a creature I knew I must protect her from the world. And protect her I vowed to do for all my days on this earth. I had locked my heart away in a box of iron, but Lenora broke the seal and set my poor heart free. 

We had gone through much in our brief days together, Lenora and I. As we ran from the trouble that pursued us from Rio port, my heart flew against the wind and I believed again in love. I had my Lenora beside me and where, but a few hours before, I dwelt in the shadow of a hangman’s noose, I was free now to gaze into her green-as-emerald eyes and run my fingers through her long, red-gold hair.

Yet even as Sweet Lenora heeled into the current, trouble had not departed us in its entirety. We left a dead man in our wake. We sailed with but half a crew, a motley lot of rag-tag ruffians assembled  from the few willing to sail on with me. 

Those among them I trusted could be counted on a single hand. Rupert, my cook, was one. A New Orleans man I had known since I was a child, he had served on the Carmen Anne, where I had been first mate. Maurice, the cabin boy, was another. He was but a child of ten, on his first voyage and the son of a good friend to my mother. I promised her to keep him in my care. And there was my heart, Lenora, to whom I entrusted my very life.

To the Wind is the second novella in the Anton and Lenora Series. 
Learn more about the series here 
You can purchase the novella at 
CBG
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

To the Wind Blog Tour

 

The sails are unfurling! To the Wind is going on tour.

Anton and Lenora will be visiting these blogs:

December 23

It’s All About the Romance

December 24

Blue Rose Romance

Rose Caceres

December 26

Dawn’s Reading Nook

December 30

Harlie’s Books

January 2

Book Reviews by Xunaira J.

January 3

3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too!

Coming in April--All Things Returned

All Things Returned, part 3 of the Anton and Lenora historical series,  is coming to Champagne Books in April of 2014.

San Francisco Harbor 1852

Anton and Lenora Boudreaux have settled into an idyllic cottage overlooking San Francisco Bay. They’ve left trouble behind them and found happily ever after—family, friends, and a business that has every expectation of being successful. Until the Willow sails into port.

The captain of Willow, Jacob Lowell, is privy to secrets that threaten Lenora’s reputation and Anton’s life. When Anton sails to Seattle on a business enterprise, Jacob tries to blackmail Lenora, threatening to expose all he knows and forcing her to make decisions that will test her love of Anton and her life with him.

All Things Returned is the third book in the Anton and Lenora historical novella series.

I hope you'll look for this release come April. Meanwhile, the first and second novellas of this series are available for download--

 

 

Anton and Lenora--the journey continues today

Journey to adventure on the high sea.  To the Wind, book two of the Anton and Lenora series is now available. Anton and Lenora is a series of historical novellas set in the 1850s. To the Wind is told in the voice of Anton Boudreaux, Captain of the Sweet Lenora. It

In this sequel to Sweet Lenora, Anton and Lenora sail away from trouble in Rio de Janeiro only to encounter new problems. With only half a crew and a first mate that is hated and feared, they venture to San Francisco plagued by threats, mutiny,and illness. As they arrive at their destination, the ghosts of the past come back to haunt them and may prove to be the greatest menace of all. At each turn, the love they have forged is tested. Will it prevail?   

To the Wind is available for download at most e-book distributors including
 Champagne Books

and
 

PS The first book of the series, Sweet Lenora, can be purchased here: