Morning gals and guys! My 50 books in 2015 is off to a great start as I have just finished book two! If I am able to keep up this momentum I will be able to double my original goal (now wouldn’t that be cool)!!

So, Breaking Ties is the first romance novel I have read in years and I have to say that I am very glad that I chose it!

Rose Payne, a tenant farmer’s daughter and clerk to a noble family, finds herself in need of a job, an escape and a fresh start when she finds herself fired for her relationship with the Duke’s son. It’s 1587 England so that escape/fresh start comes in form of sailing to the New World with a group of colonists. Before she boards the ship, she is warned by her brother of a potential plot to sabotage the City of Raleigh.
More desperate for the escape than she is falling prey to a conspiracy, she boards the ship anyway. In the months that follow (they are sailing, remember) Rose rides the waves of loneliness, friendship, accusation, trust, betrayal, love and even loss.
On top of various levels of attraction in this story, it is also full of humor, action and lots of suspense. If this is what a “high stakes romance” novel is, I greatly prefer it to anything I have ever read in the genre! With loads of likable (and not so likable) characters, I can see the potential for more stories (that I would be very excited to read)! The backdrop of the historical setting made the external struggles faced just as interesting as the developing relationships.
Breaking Ties is a great and (in my experience) quick read and I highly recommend joining Rose on her journey across the sea.

I was privileged enough to have Jo Grafford gift me a copy of this novel. So, THANK YOU Jo! I can’t wait to read the next books in the Lost Colony series.

You can get your copy here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/breaking-ties-jo-grafford/1117230076?ean=2940148412823

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/breaking-ties/id734879755?mt=11

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/368485

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/breaking-ties

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS (kinda)
CC’s thoughts (or not so polished ramblings)
-Rose gets KUDOS for standing her moral ground…TWICE
-I loved that there were just as many good men as a**holes
-I appreciated that the “love” had some time to grow and was tested. I imagine that back then it was pretty easy to take what you were given but these men and women are fighters and I like it!
-Jane and Agnes are great secondary characters who I would gladly follow into a second and third book
-Manteo…what a risk he was to fall for…what a risk he took falling
-Unexpected emotion hit me at the 75% mark as I thought about what it must have been like to be the invaders and the invaded. Very powerful!

Thank you for the story Jo! Thank you for Rose, Manteo, Jane, Agnes, Anthony, Eleanore and all the other unforgettable people of this story. I look forward to reading more about them all!!

If you sailed the high seas of this tale with me, please drop me a line. I would love to talk about it!
Happy Reading,
~CC