Southern Lady Book Club “Book Besties” Giveaway

When we want a book that will lift us up, get us thinking, and leave us feeling empowered, we reach for a story with a strong woman at its center. The kind of woman who will inspire us, start to feel like a dear friend, and stay with us long after her novel ends. We call those characters our “Book Besties,” and we’re giving away a selection of books featuring female protagonists who you’ll wish could be your real-life friends. Plus, we’re including a second set of books and fun goodies so you can invite your friends over and share!

One Grand Prize winner will receive a Book Besties Prize Pack featuring:

• Lily Pulitzer Cappuccino Mug Set (it includes four 8 ounce mugs with in a gold metallic counter caddy)
• Two floral tea candles
• One set of Sunnylife Flamingo fairy lights
• Two copies of Once a Scoundrel by Mary Jo Putney  
  Sail the high seas on an unforgettable journey of love and adventure in Once a Scoundrel by New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney, one of the most critically acclaimed writers of historical romance today. Set in 19^th century England and off the Barbary Coast, this thrilling love story features two outcasts of high society: Lady Aurora, an Earl’s daughter who ran away from home to escape the traps of convention and marriage, and Gabriel Hawkins, the son of a proud dynasty who was disowned by his family when he left the Royal Navy in disgrace. Even if they endure the perils of the sea and enemy lands, can their love survive a return to England, where the distance between a disgraced captain and an earl’s daughter is wider than the ocean?

• Two copies of The Gold Pawn by L.A. Chandlar  
  November 1936. For most of the country, it is the era of soup lines, but for Manhattan’s cosmopolitan set, the Big Apple is a decadent swirl of creativity, cocktails, music, gangsters and romance. At the center of it all is Lane Sanders, the high-spirited personal aide to Mayor La Guardia, sprinting through the corridors of City Hall in her stylish red shoes as she confronts the ghosts of her past and investigates a missing persons case that threatens to destroy everything. Through glittering Art Deco-era Manhattan to the shadowy outskirts of 1930’s Detroit, a ride on the Hindenburg, a band of city urchins, a narrow escape, and many new friends who go on to become the movers and shakers of the Thirties, one peculiar thing ties the mystery of Lane’s past and La Guardia’s current debacle together:  The Gold Pawn.

• Two copies of When Winter Comes by V.A. Shannon  
  Inspired by 19th century diaries, survivors’ accounts and newspapers, the mesmerizing story of a young woman’s resilience and survival during one of the most harrowing episodes in pioneer history. In 1846, the novel’s plucky fifteen-year-old narrator leaves her neglectful, abusive family in Cincinnati and joins a wagon train headed for California, acting as nanny and helpmate to one of its families. The group soon becomes part of The Donner Party, whose members chose to take an unidentified short cut over the Sierras. And history buffs are familiar with what happened to that ill-fated group of settlers… V.A. Shannon’s unnamed heroine, a fictional character, is one of the survivors, and she reveals her story as a memoir from a distance of thirteen years later, when she has become Mrs. Jacob Klein. She contends with the bitter memory of that tragic winter, and harbors within her a secret connected to it which, if divulged, will mark her for the rest of her life. In a writing style that evokes the period, straightforward yet romantic like Alcott and the Brontës, Shannon weaves a mesmerizing tale of a young woman facing up to dangers she never could have imagined..

• Two copies of Violet Tendencies by Kate Dyer Seeley
  Britta Johnston is a quirky florist with a passion for wine…and crime! Together with her Aunt Elin, she runs a floral boutique in Portland, Oregon, on the banks of the Willamette, in a quaint district of cobblestone paths and cherry trees. The wine bar featuring Pacific Northwest vintages is a tasty bonus, offering another kind of bouquet to enjoy. But things aren’t as peaceful as they look…especially when the leader of local protest group turns up strangled by a garland of violets just before the annual Rose Festival. It’s up to Britta to find out who arranged the murder before the crime gets pinned on an innocent suspect!