Hunting for Happenstance - A Clean Romance That Will Keep You Turning Pages

SALT LAKE CITY - Jan. 30, 2014 - PRLog -- HUNTING FOR HAPPENSTANCE: A Merchant Street Mystery #2 just released in ebook format.

A Merchant Street Mystery is Cindy A. Christiansen’s first series. She states, “These aren’t mystery novels with clues but mysteries defined as something that is difficult to understand or explain."

On a fictional street in Salt Lake City, Christiansen creates a hometown feeling of shops built in the 1800s with dogs that greet the customers. The shop owners are competing with the new commercialized city mall and struggling to survive.

In each of the romances, the main characters face an added mystery. In the first book, Time Will Tell, the characters are trying to figure out why so many people are willing to kill for a not-so-valuable antique clock. In the second book, Hunting for Happenstance, the main characters are trying to figure out why the heroine’s uncle has gone missing while out deer hunting.

“Writing a series has added a new level of skills to my repertoire,” Christiansen says. “Keeping all the characters straight, their back stories, their uniqueness, and tying it all together is challenging. To add to the complexity, this is the first time I have added different ethnic characters and unique dialects. For instance, Daniela is Chilean and Kipp Waterbury is Hungarian. I’ve enjoyed the challenge.”

Storyline: High-spirited Daniela Estrada is tired of waiting for life and love to come to her in her poppa’s butcher shop. She wants to open her own doggie grooming business on Merchant Street and get practical Duston “Buck” Cooper, who owns the Bird Dog Gun Shop, to step out of his shell and ask her out.

Instead, while her Uncle Benito is deer hunting, he ends up missing and the area is swarming with aggressive black bears which holds up the search party. Duston and his dog, Ruger, have helped the police on other cases, and he is training a Karelian Bear dog. Will he help Daniela find her uncle?

Duston adores Daniela but secrets about his brother prevent him from getting close to anyone. He believes that if something is meant to be, it will just happen. Is Daniela’s missing uncle just the shot in the dark the two need to find love and happiness?

“In her next book for the Merchant Street series, the author Cindy Christiansen, weaves a mystery filled with knowledge which provides the reader with facts not fluff on a variety of subjects. The very likeable characters, Daniela and Buck, must work together to find Daniela's missing uncle. As the search progresses, each one strives to overcome personal issues in order to find their "happily ever after" which culminates amidst the warmth of family and friends at the town's yearly gathering. Several aspects of the book that I particularly enjoyed were Daniela's high-spirited nature, the portrayal of a close-knit family and community, the familiarity of characters from previous novels in the series, and the author's inclusion of factual information, all of which contributed greatly to my enjoyment of this novel.” 5/5 Stars, D. Anderson

Christiansen has also self-published a prequel novella to this series, Worth the Wait. It takes place fifteen years before the series begins and deals with the love story between Adele Abberley and Kipp Waterbury. Their romance continues through the series. It is available for free download. One more book has been contracted for the series, but Christiansen says you never know where your characters will take you. Hunting for Happenstance will also be released in paperback in March 2014.

Christiansen’s writing guideline:

·         A clean read with no bedroom scenes or profanity.

·         A tantalizing, fast-paced plot.

·         Down-to-earth heroes and heroines with everyday jobs.

·         A rollercoaster ride of emotions you face right along with the characters.

·         A special dog to steal your heart.

·         A few added facts, a good message, and that important happily-ever-after ending.

Because of her love of dogs, Christiansen includes them in her books and features them on her covers. She donates a portion of her proceeds to organization that help abused and abandoned dogs.

You can find Hunting for Happenstance in ebook format on the following sites:

Sweet Cravings Publishing

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

All Romance eBooks

And other fine ebook retailers