By Rachel M. Anderson, Freelance Writer

 

After enduring years of abuse at the hands of a man she had been forced to marry, Lilith dreamed often about what could have been. What if her fate had been her own, and she had been allowed to go out and search for her "Prince Charming?"

Just when she had given up all hope of ever being happy, a hero comes out of nowhere and rescues her, but what will be her fate once free of the tyrant?

That is the question explored in Stand and Deliver, a new historical romance by Karla Joan Thomas. She originally wrote the story as a gift for a friend, and believes the tale will appeal to anyone who has ever been in a bad relationship.

"Stand and Deliver was my way of helping my friend recover from her ordeal, helping her realize that not all men are terrible scoundrels," says Thomas. Now that the book is published, she is hoping others will benefit from reading it as well.

Stand and Deliver is set in 16th century England. In the prologue, readers are introduced to Lilith Ashton, a beautiful young woman who had been dragged to a card game by her unloving husband, Barnabas Ashton. He considered Lilith nothing more than a possession and after losing a small fortune at the card table, tried to get it all back by offering her as collateral.

One at a time, the cards are dealt. Ashton thinks he has a good hand, only to be beaten again by Andrew Fairfax, a professional gambler and thief who then rides off on horseback with Lilith. What becomes of the young woman? Is she going from one bad relationship to another, or has she finally found the love of her life? You'll have to read the book to find out.

Thomas originally wrote Stand and Deliver in 2003. "I had tried unsuccessfully to get it published a couple of times, and had pretty much given up," she says. That is until last year when she was contacted by Chris Fayers.

Fayers had just launched ebooksforpleasure.com, a Web site dedicated to publishing novels written by great writers who had failed to make it past the gatekeepers at the traditional publishers. "He offered to take it all out of my hands and publish it, and for that I was grateful," says Thomas. Once she had signed her contract with Fayers, he prepared the manuscript for distribution as an ebook. It went live on the ebooksforpleasure.com website in July 2010.

Thomas has two other books available on the site as well, and is currently working on a fourth.. Legend of the Wayfarer is the story of a man who at the age of 21 is cursed with immortality. Black List explores what life would be like, today, had World War III happened. All three books sell for just $5.99. Log on to www.ebooksforpleasure.com to preview each of the manuscripts, which are available for download directly to your mobile device or home computer.

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About Karla J. Thomas

Karla J. Thomas lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. She has always loved to read, but didn't get interested in the romance category until 2002, around the time she started work on Stand and Deliver. Thomas estimates she has 2,200 books on her shelves at home in all different categories.

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About ebooksforpleasure.com

Ebooksforpleasure.com is an independent ebook publisher, offering the main ebook formats: ePUB, which has been established as an international standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) in an effort to standardize ebook formats; and Mobi, the format used by Amazon's Kindle. PDFs of some books are also available.

To learn more about how to submit a manuscript for publication, log on to www.ebooksforpleasure.com and click on the "Author Resources" link.