Winner of Pieces of Sky

Congratulations to


Silent Raven

who won a copy of Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner.

Thanks everyone for participating!

Giveaway: Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner

To celebrate Kaki Warner blog tour, and because I loved Pieces of Sky so much, we are giving away my copy of her book. To enter just follow the rules:

- one entry per person
- leave a valid email adress
- open Worldwide
- giveaway closes the 24th March by midnight GMT

Good luck!

Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner

Pregnant and burdened with a terrible secret, Jessica has left England for the American West in search of a new life. Brady, a hard-bitten rancher haunted by the violence of his past, is desperate to protect his land and family from a blood feud that has already claimed one brother. She’s fancy hats and pamphlets on deportment. He’s rough manners and twenty years of blood on his hands. An improbable pair. But after their stagecoach crashes and Jessica is stranded at his high mountain ranch until she gives birth, antipathy slowly becomes attraction. He teaches her to trust and laugh again — she helps him find the joy he’d lost. Faced with hard choices and unspeakable loss, they draw strength from each other to overcome the horrors of their pasts, and in the process find redemption, forgiveness, and ultimately love.

For weeks I saw Pieces of Sky recommended by several blogs I use to follow. The story but specially the setting immediately aroused my curiosity.

Jessica Thornton left in a hurry her beloved home in England to join her brother in New Mexico. Traveling by stagecoach, she looks completely out of place and this doesn't escape the notice of the other passengers. If she seems all fashionable and delicate, this young woman is a spitfire heroine. Jessica seems to have lead a somehow sheltered life until the attack of her brother-in-law but she doesn't hesitate to leave everything behind to start a new life in a completely different country where everything seems wild and confusing to her. When she starts to think that her decision might be a mistake, she meets Brady Wilkins a local rancher who clearly doesn't understand what a woman like her is doing in the West.

After so many years involved in a family feud, fighting, killing and suffering, Brady Wilkins steeled himself against any feeling except revenge. A man marked by tragedy whose only worry is his brothers' safety. He carries a very heavy burden with him, one he knows he will never be able to share with anyone. Brady doesn't seek happiness or tries to build a life for himself until he meets the pregnant and quick-witted Jessica.
These two learn how to heal themselves slowly and together. It was heartwarming to see them to get to know each other and how a simple smile or just a look can do wonderful things to a damaged soul. The scenes after the birth were filled with angst and sorrow and I confess that I fell in love with Brady watching him bring Jessica alive again.

If the book is mostly about Brady and Jessica, everyone has its place in it. The characters are strong and yet very real. It's easy to identify ourselves with them and I could perfectly see myself among the Wilkins family and friends sharing a dinner laughing and teasing. But they also make mistakes and try to make the best out of it, even when all hope seems lost. The interaction between the brothers are some of my favorite scenes and I can't wait to read more about Hank and Jack.

One of my favorite parts of this book is how vividly Ms Warner describes the life in the West without romanticizing it. It was tough, sometimes dangerous but also held the promise of an opportunity to start all over again.

Kaki Warner's storytelling talent is obvious from the first pages. She gently invites you to take part of an incredible and quite unexpected ride filled with beautiful and striking scenes that will remain in your memory longtime after you read the last words of Pieces of Sky. It's going to be hard to wait until June...

Grade: 4.5/5

Why do I love to write about the West? by Kaki Warner

Because it’s born into me and is as elemental as taking the next breath, and because it will always be the best of my past.

I spent my early childhood in a small Texas town, playing to the drone of cicadas in the mesquite trees on lazy summer days, and sleeping to the tick-tick-tick-whrrr of the big hayfield sprinklers. I ate persimmons off the tree, and dodged tarantulas and sticker burrs, and rode a fat pony on army maneuvers and Indian war party raids. I caught lightning bugs and ran barefoot in warm rain and lived among people who loved the land because it was forever and it would never let them down.

Then I moved to the city.

The yodel of coyotes changed to the distant wail of sirens and honking horns, and the sweet smell of fresh cut alfalfa became the sharp scent of cool raindrops on hot asphalt. The sky shrank. Stars dimmed to pale pinholes in a sooty sky that never seemed to grow dark, and the heat-shimmered horizon ended at the brick wall of the building next door. I remember pushing my bed up against the window and putting my pillow on the sill so I could feel the breeze on my face and see a patch of moon as I drifted to sleep. And I dreamed of going back. But I never did.

So when I sat down to write Pieces of Sky, and all those sights and sounds and smells from my childhood returned in a flood of memories—hawks silhouetted against lint ball clouds, cattle dotting rolling grasslands, people struggling stoically to hold on to a way of life and a patch of ground so they would have something to leave behind for the generations to come—I knew I had to write about a place like that, and people who never gave up, and a sky so vast it made your soul soar.

And then there’s that whole myth of the West thing that Zane Grey described in his 1934 novel, The Code of The West. How can your heart not resonate with ideals like integrity, self-reliance, accountability? How can you not respect those stoic settlers to whom loyalty, hospitality, fair play and respect for the land was a way of life? Romanticized in music, books and film, the cowboy era still and forever remains an enduring symbol of American culture.

Never shoot a woman, no matter what.
Always remove your guns before sitting at the table.
Never try out another man’s horse, hat or wife.
Don’t inquire into a person’s past—measure people by what they are today.

Words to live by. Still.

As a sub-genre, western historical romance has had its ups and downs. Since the release of Pieces of Sky, I’ve heard from many readers who are coming back to it after an absence of many years. Why? What’s pulling you back? And to those die-hard western romance readers who never left, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what you like best about the genre? And what turns you off?

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Kaki Warner is the award-winning author of the Blood Rose Trilogy (Berkley Trade, Pieces of Sky, January 2010, Open Country,June 2010, Chasing the Wind, 2011), a historical series about the unpredictable West and the men and women who brought it to life against all odds. Although Kaki now lives on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State, she actually grew up in the Southwest. Her years spent riding horses and enjoying the expansive views of Texas became the inspiration for the backdrop of her novels – the wide open spaces of historic New Mexico Territory. Kaki spends her time gardening, hiking, reading, writing, and soaking in the view from the deck of her hilltop cabin with her husband and floppy-eared hound dog.

For more information, please visit Kaki's website at http://www.kakiwarner.com/.