Love on the Line by Kirsten Fullmer Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Love
on the Line
Women
at Work Book 1
by
Kirsten Fullmer
Genre:
Women's Fiction, Romance
She’s
an ordinary girl in an extraordinary situation.
Andrea
left her comfortable home and her family to take a job building a
pipeline with her estranged grandpa, Buck. She’s always been
curious about his job, and why her mother dislikes him so much. She
doesn’t expect, however, to uncover buried family secrets, for the
job to be so difficult, or to be the only women on site.
Rooster
isn’t a bad guy. He respects women; he was raised by one of the
best. But that new girl on the job is too small and feminine. She’s
a distraction, plain and simple, and she doesn’t belong on a
pipeline. This job is his chance to impress Buck Brennan, a pipeline
legend, and no girly greenhorn or workplace romance is going to ruin
it for him.
Will
Andrea prove herself to her grandfather and forge a relationship with
the old man, or will continuous disagreements and unexpected sexual
tension between Andrea and Rooster derail their hard work? Find out
in this extraordinary coming of age story
**Only
.99 cents!!**
An elbow in her side caused Andy to jolt forward and she stumbled her way down the rest of the wooden trailer steps. Several men glanced her way as they passed, then quickly looked away as if she were fascinating yet horrifying, like kryptonite.
Trying to remember where Buck had parked his work truck that morning, she headed across the yard. As she picked her way through the snow and frozen mud, she noticed a group of nine or ten men who looked different than the others, standing near flat bed trucks with dual tires and machines of some sort on the back. They stared at her silently as she passed. Unlike the other workers, these men were in no hurry. They didn’t wear hardhats or safety glasses, instead they wore soft cloth caps with long bills, some of which were turned sideways, with the bill flipped up against their heads. Their jeans were clean, new dark blue, and ironed crisp with a crease. Arrogance radiated off the group.
There had been a group of boys like that back in high school. She remembered their eyes boring into her as she passed in the hall, their eyes glued to her chest. Invariably one would shove another, causing them to fall directly into her. How could she report being groped when--
A horn honk startled Andy, causing her to trip on a clump of frozen mud. With her cheeks flaming, she tore her gaze from the haughty men to find Buck’s truck pulled up by her side. Glad to have a get-away, she tugged open the door and stretched hard against layers of clothing to get her foot up into the truck. Pulling herself up into the cab, she settled into the seat, out of the wind and away from the glares of strangers. With a grunt she tugged the door closed behind her.
As they drove through the yard, Buck was silent, but offered a nod and the lift of two fingers from the steering wheel in greeting as he passed workers. Heat pumped from under the dash as the truck growled and bumped over the frozen ruts, jarring and rattling the paperwork and gear scattered throughout the double cab.
“Who were those guys?” Andy asked, leaning forward to see the group of haughty men in the side mirror.
Buck pulled the truck to a stop at the gate of the yard. “Who?” He bent forward to peer up then down the road, waiting for a break in the traffic streaming past on the highway.
“The ones wearing the funny hats.”
He glanced in the mirror. “Them’s welders,” he snorted.
Unsure why a welder would be different than any of the other workers, she shrugged.
Time clicked past as they drove. Brilliant bursts of morning sunlight flashed through the towering hardwood forest as it slid past Andy’s window. Never before had she seen such dense growth. Even the ground cover was thick and deep. This place was very different that the open rolling green fields of Kansas. Bushes, briars, and plants of every kind made her wonder how anyone could navigate between the trees. She turned from the scenery and back to Buck. “Where are we going?” She asked. It was a simple enough question, but having no idea what lay ahead, she braced herself for the unexpected.
Kirsten
is a dreamer with an eye for art and design. She worked in the
engineering field, taught college, and consulted free lance. Due to
health problems, she retired in 2012 to travel with her husband. They
live and work full time in a 40' travel trailer with their little dog
Bingo. Besides writing romance novels, she enjoys selling art on Etsy
and spoiling their three grandchildren.
As
a writer, Kirsten's goal is to create strong female characters who
face challenging, painful, and sometimes comical situations. She
believes that the best way to deal with struggle, is through
friendship and women helping women. She knows good stories are based
on interesting and relatable characters.
My
latest book, Love on the Line, is the story of Andy, a woman who
chooses to work building a pipeline in the rugged mountains of West
Virginia. Why did I write about this? I wrote it partly because I was
inspired by the experiences of my own daughter who entertained me
with many of her personal experiences as a pipeliner. But I also
wrote it because I too chose to work in a male dominated field back
in the day. Some of the struggles of women in these fields are
upsetting, but many are inspiring and funny, thus perfect material
for the kind of books I love to write. Just because not many women
choose to do it, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done, right?
More
than any time in recorded history, women are choosing to work in male
dominated fields. Every day you come across a woman truck driver,
firefighter, or pharmacist. And even though it’s become
commonplace, many fields stick with their traditional titles such as
policeman, draftsman, and even garbage man. Given this plus the
infamous glass ceiling, why would a woman choose to spend their
entire career fighting an uphill battle? There are a million reasons,
but overwhelmingly, the answer I find is “because I want to” or
“because the job appealed to me,” or “My dad and grandpa did
it, why shouldn’t I?”
When
was the idea planted for women to take the jobs they wanted, even if
they were traditionally considered only suitable for men? Some
would say with Eve, but both folklore and history are filled with
women who not only worked at the jobs they pleased, they ruled
societies: Joan of Ark and Cleopatra, to name a few. In Victorian
times, women who wrote were forced to use a male pen name or work
without recognition. But the women of my grandmother’s generation
were forced to work at jobs considered appropriate only for men
during world war II. They worked everywhere from factories to
the fields. Sadly, after a taste of the liberation a paycheck affords
a person, these women were expected to quietly step back into the
kitchen once the men came home.
My
mother’s generation, were blessed with not only their mother’s
experiences, but all manner of modern conveniences which allowed them
to clean and cook and generally care for their families in a fraction
of the time it took their mothers. Many of these women took it upon
themselves to “have it all” and step out into the working world,
and not just as nurses and schoolteachers. Their bravery gave
the women of my generation the encouragement and conviction that we
too could plan a career. However, we quickly learned that we couldn’t
be super mom and have a demanding and time consuming career without a
shift in attitude, and this shift had to come from the men. The
change had to happen not just because of the aforesaid glass ceiling
on the job, but because we needed help at home.
Do
I think only women who work have value, and somehow women who don’t
work away from home are lesser somehow? Of course not! In my lifetime
I have been a stay at home mom, a sick in bed mom, a full time
student mom, an employed full time mom, and a retired mom. All of
those words we put on women are pointless when you realize that we
are in this together, and we should be supportive and understanding,
no matter what roll you chose.
So,
take a moment this summer to grab a copy of Love on the Line. Then
curl up in a corner with a cup of coffee and prepare yourself for a
heartwarming story filled with feminine strength, challenge, bravery,
friendship, and romance.
Follow
the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!
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