While getting ready for the holiday season, Team H&H found this previously released story from Kieran Kramer's House of Brady Series, originally featured at Not Another Romance Blog. We hope you enjoy it! 

First, a special message from Kieran:

Holiday greetings, everyone! When I decided to write this vignette involving an off-key carol singer within the Brady household, I laughed out loud imagining it unfold—because I’m from a family of extreme singers! What does that mean? Well, we all love to sing, and we harmonize together so well that people often say we’re like the Von Trapp family from The Sound of Music, and they wonder why we didn’t have stage parents who made us form a group like the Osmonds. But my family just enjoyed singing for singing’s sake, especially around the holidays. Christmas Eve was a big deal because we’d all pile on a wagon that my dad pulled behind his tractor, and we’d go down the dirt road from house to house in the country neighborhood we lived in and sing carols.

I still remember being twelve and sitting in that wagon on a pile of hay. I remember looking up at the starry night sky and seeing one special star twinkling—I was sure it was the Christmas star. It was such a wonderful feeling, knowing that we were all together and singing and that the next morning, Christmas would be there…

Next thing I knew years passed, and I married a man who can’t sing his way out of a box! He’s so cute, though, when he does sing, and it makes me realize listening to him that the best singing is heartfelt. It doesn’t matter if you don’t sound real purty—just sing! Let your heart express in song what words can’t always do alone.

And that’s what I love most about music. It says things words can’t—and as a writer, that’s a pretty big thing for me to admit. But I’m glad to—I love music, and without it, my life would feel incomplete. And that’s a fact. Especially around the holidays, I want my Thanksgiving songs and my Christmas carols!

Now that you know where I’m coming from, I hope you’ll enjoy this scene I wrote from the heart (and I played Christmas carols while doing it):

Enjoy this story from Kieran Kramers's House of Brady Series, Caroling Off-Key on Christmas Eve. And look for the newest book in the House of Brady Series, The Earl is Mine, available Febuary 26, 2013.

Everyone at Ballybrook should be as happy at Christmas as I am, thought Marcia Lattimore, Lady Chadwick, and said a quick prayer that each resident, from the lowliest stable boy to the wine steward to her parents, the Marquess and Marchioness of Brady themselves, felt as loved as she did at that moment.

[Continue on to read Caroling on Christmas Eve...]

The limited-time sneak peak at Kieran Kreamer's House of Brady e-novella The Earl with the Secret Tattoo has come to an end. However, you can still pick up a copy when it goes on sale on December 18! Plus, look for the second novel in the House of Brady series, The Earl is Mine, out on February 26.

Lady Eleanor Gibbs is shocked when she stumbles upon a tattooed London gentleman involved in an illicit embrace. Five years ago, a masked man bearing that same tattoo saved her and the six children of the Marquess and Marchioness of Brady from a band of thieves. Now, Ellie’s “hero”—better known as the notorious Earl of Tumbridge—appears to be no more than a common cad. When this master of seduction and corrupter of virtue dares to sabotage her marital opportunities, it’s more than Ellie can bear. What Ellie does not yet understand is that the inked scoundrel has a reason for ruining her chances for love: He wants her all to himself...

To learn more or to pre-order a copy of The Earl with the Secret Tattoo by Kieran Kramer:

And don't miss the second novel in Kieran's House of Brady series, The Earl is Mine, out on February 26, 2013:

MARCIA GETS SCHOOLED…

Of the three Brady sisters, Lady Marcia has always seemed the girl most likely to lead a perfectly charmed life. But after a handsome cad breaks her heart, she swears off love and devotes her life to teaching girls at a private school. In spite of her family’s wish for a London debut, Marcia is happy where she is—until terrible news sends her back to the Brady clan…and into the arms of an unexpected suitor.

ON THE SUBJECT OF LOVE

A dark and dashing earl who knows Marcia’s past, Duncan Lattimore is surprised by what a fascinating and independent woman she’s become. Marcia, too, is surprised—by the fiery attraction she feels for Duncan. But why—why—must he be the brother of the scoundrel who broke her heart? Why must Marcia’s rival at school forbid her from seeing him? How can this lady possibly resist this fellow—when they know that it’s much more than a hunch…?

 Get a sneak peek of Kieran Kramer’s Loving Lady Marcia  (available August 28, 2012), the first book in the all-new House of Brady series, with an excerpt of Chapters 1-2.

Chapter 1
1814

A girl knows when her life really begins, and for fifteen-year-old Lady Marcia Sherwood, daughter of the Marquess and Marchioness of Brady, it was the moment she met the two Lattimore brothers.

When the first one took his seat in the Brady carriage, she had to clamp her teeth together to keep her mouth from falling open. If her friends at school could only see him. They’d never believe he was this handsome.

[Log in or register to read an excerpt of Loving Lady Marcia...]

If life were a fairy tale, Daisy Montgomery’s stepmother and two stepsisters would surely be cast in the wicked roles. For years, they’ve made life miserable for Daisy. But when she discovers she has a godmother, she’s determined to ask her for help. Little did Daisy expect her godmother to play matchmaker with her very own grandson—who happens to be a viscount!

A freewheeling playboy, Charles Thorpe, Viscount Lumley, is bored with his wealth-seeking female admirers. Not only that, he’s been cut off from the family coffers. One day, on a bet, he rids himself of what little money he has left in his pockets and vows to solve problems using his wits alone. But when the Impossible Bachelor is confronted with Daisy’s plan to save her castle, the payoff is more than he could have bargained for. Sometimes, if you give a girl a viscount, you just might find love…

Get a sneak peek of Kieran Kramer’s If You Give a Girl a Vixcount  (available November 1, 2011) with an excerpt of chapters 1-2.

(Then, click here to sign in or register in order to enter for a chance to win a copy of the book!)

Chapter 1

On a sunny afternoon high in the left turret of a small, crumbling castle in the northwest of Scotland, Highland lass Daisy Montgomery scrubbed the hearthstones in her bedchamber and dreamed of finding her prince. He’ll make me laugh, she thought, wringing out her rag in a bucket of cold water. Then, as she applied all her muscle to the coal-black stone, I’ll make him laugh.

[Sign in or register to read an excerpt of If You Give  a Girl a Viscount…]

Every woman dreams of saying “I do.” Jilly Jones did—and years of a deeply imperfect marriage followed. Now living in London and working in a charming bookshop, the free-spirited Jilly is perfectly content with her newfound independence…until she meets a dashing naval officer who sparks her longing for a real happily ever after.

An exclusive extended excerpt of Chapters 1-3 of Cloudy with a Chance of Marriage (Available April 26, 2011) by Kieran Kramer.

Chapter One

Books  were Jilly’s great escape, but unless she chose to use them as missiles—which she’d considered but decided against as they were her source of livelihood now—even they couldn’t save her from the unpleasant task before her. She must stop the loud goings-on at the dead end of the cobblestone lane once and for all.

She walked up from a murky bed of fog that swirled thickly about her knees onto the front steps of 34 Dreare Street and knocked on the door. The sprawling three-story  house was situated on a scrap of lawn at a right angle to her own shop. A tattered skull-and-crossbones flag hung listlessly against the roofline while a piece of wood painted with the words house for sale leaned against the aged foundation.

No answer.

She knocked again and heard bumping noises and several loud male voices, one of them singing off-key.

[Read more...]