FOREVER AMORE - LASR Best Book!!!

*For a limited time only, Forever Amore is also up for Best Book of the week. Vote now at LASR; polls close soon!

Wow, amazing news arrived in my inbox yesterday in the form of Long & Short Reviews' take on historical romance Forever Amore: it's a LASR Best Book! According to site rating specifications, here's the Best Book breakdown:

For a book or story that is truly exceptional. You think about it when you're not reading it. You wonder what happens to the characters when you finish. You would absolutely buy everything else this author had to offer. The highest praise - and reserved for only a few.
- Long & Short Reviews

A huge thanks to the reviewer, Snapdragon, who praised Forever Amore so vividly! Here's a few clips from her review (with the bits I found most touching highlighted):

Amber Leigh Williams’ Forever Amore is a dynamic war-time romance novel.... the age-old story of forbidden love.... One of the nicest things about this is, in this case, it is the main characters’ own sense of duty, or propriety that provides the chief barrier. They are both extremely likable and engage reader sympathies at once. Perhaps, most touching is the efforts of everyday people – and the risks they take – to protect someone who is not even their own.... We feel very clearly the terror of invasion, the potential loss of family or home. The events here make the people who lived and struggled in World War II seem a finer sort than ordinary humanity. Through all this fear they still reached out to help someone else. We do know such tales have a basis in fact. This makes this story, this lovely romance, all the more moving.... There are so many scenes worth noting, that I fear this would become novel in its discussion. Suffice to say this features everything From dogfights to intimacy, love to desperation.... Williams has a particularly poetic turn of phrase and has brought the romantic back to romance. The wonderful visuals her words create and pace of the story give this an overall aura that is heartwarming. Our sympathies are engaged at once, and if feels as if we have stepped back in time and see these events first hand. I must give this a best book, as the rating sheet goes no higher. Mark this a must-read.

I can't thank Snapdragon or LASR enough for the honor of a Best Book rating. I'm incredibly humbled that LASR puts me on par with other Best Book rating recipients like Lisa Kleypas, Hank Phillipi Ryan, and fellow TWRP author Hywela Lyn. To read the full review, visit LASR.

Forever Amore is now available from Black Lyon Publishing in paperback and ebook. The Kindle version can also be downloaded now from Amazon.com.

I thought I'd celebrate by posting an excerpt. Here's the first meeting between Charles and Lucille:

"What …” She paused, trying to catch her breath. “What are you doing here?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

She didn’t think she could stand another round of emotional battering. “I was selfish. I wanted the escape of you. I wanted to know what it would be like to lay with a man I want to be with.”

“Not that,” he said, turning her face up to his. “Why didn’t you tell me it was arranged? Why didn’t you say you never wanted him?”

“After the way you looked at me after—” Tears burned the backs of her eyes, remembering. “I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe.”

“How can you be going along with this?” he demanded. “Your father… You have to talk to your father. Can’t he see that you’re miserable?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she cried. “They’re sending me away to Switzerland so I won’t cause anymore controversy when the Gestapo arrives.”

The muscles in his jaw jumped as they hardened in fury. “They’re shipping you away because of me.”

The door to the kitchen swung open. Lucille pulled him farther into the pantry to the back wall stacked from high ceiling to stone floor with a well-stocked wine rack.

“You can’t be seen here,” she whispered, gripping his lapel. “As soon as she leaves again, you must go back to the cottage.”

“I’ll talk to your father myself if I have to,” he hissed.

“Charles, I forbid you,” she said, voice trembling now. “You won’t accomplish anything, and he’ll send you away tonight.”

Forever Amore
(c) by Amber Leigh Williams