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    A Labyrinth of Love and Roses: The Touchstone Series, #4
    A Labyrinth of Love and Roses: The Touchstone Series, #4
    A Labyrinth of Love and Roses: The Touchstone Series, #4
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    A Labyrinth of Love and Roses: The Touchstone Series, #4

    By Beth Barany

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    About this ebook

    A Fairy Tale Romance.

    What if what you wanted got in the way of your destiny?

    French MBA grad Lili Grenault needs to succeed at her last pitch meeting to fund her international green tech business. But her grandmother tells her to drop everything, find her one true love, and embrace her magical legacy by Beltane, in one week, or chaos and failure in her life will ensue.

    San Francisco investor Brett Barnaby wants to find his great-grandfather's gravesite in Amiens, France, one of the primary battle sites of World War I. Family legend says that purpose, greater mission, and perhaps even untold riches, will be unlocked when he finds that grave. But his search in Amiens brings up fear, anger, and dire warnings about some wild Green Man. He turns to local Lily Grenault for help.

    Can these two independent freethinkers work together to prevent chaos from triumphing and find love in time in the labyrinth of roses?

    From award-winning novelist, Beth Barany, comes another magical tale of romance and adventure. A sweet, Hallmark-like tale.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFirewolf Books
    Release dateSep 24, 2014
    ISBN9781519929020
    A Labyrinth of Love and Roses: The Touchstone Series, #4
    Author

    Beth Barany

    Award winning author, Beth Barany writes in several genres including young adult adventure fantasy, paranormal romance, and soon science fiction mysteries.Inspired by living abroad in France and Quebec, she loves creating magical tales of romance, mystery, and adventure that empower women and girls to be the heroes of their own lives.For fun, Beth enjoys walking her neighborhood, gardening on her patio, and watching movies and traveling with her husband, author Ezra Barany. They live in Oakland, California with a piano, their cats, and over 1,000 books.When not writing or playing, Beth runs her own company helping novelists as a book coach, speaker, and teacher to help them write, market, and publish their books to the delight of their readers.FICTIONCheck out her award-winning sci-fi mystery series, JANEY MCCALLISTER MYSTERY, about intrepid space station investigator. While each book is a standalone murder mystery, it's most fun to be read in order. Because subplots.INTO THE BLACK, Book 1LURED BY LIGHT, Book 2GONE GREEN, Book 3RED RUNNING DEEP, Book 4Check out her series award-winning trilogy, HENRIETTA THE DRAGON SLAYER:HENRIETTA THE DRAGON SLAYER, Book 1HENRIETTA AND THE DRAGON STONE, Book 2HENRIETTA AND THE BATTLE OF THE HORSE MESA, Book 3Check out her Magical Tales of Romance and Mystery in the TOUCHSTONE Series:Touchstone of Love (Touchstone, #1)A Christmas Fling (Touchstone, #2)Parisian Amour (Touchstone, #3)A Labyrinth of Love and Roses (Touchstone, #4)A Cupcake Christmas (Touchstone, #5)"Travel into a novel to come back home to you."READERS START HERE for a free book: https://author.bethbarany.com/free-books/NONFICTION FOR WRITERS: Barany School of Fiction seriesTwitter for Authors: Social Media Book Marketing Strategies for Shy WritersThe Writer's Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book (for Novelists and Creative Nonfiction Writers)Overcome Writer's Block: A Self-Guided Creative Writing Class to Get You Writing AgainMastering Deep Point of View by Alice Gaines (Publisher)Plan Your Novel Like A Pro: And Have Fun Doing It! by Beth and Ezra BaranyConnect with Beth on the social channels:TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/beth_baranyFACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/bethbaranyLINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/WRITERS, START HERE: Free ebook for writers: 10 Ways To Generate Ideas: https://bethbaranyschooloffiction.teachable.com/p/10-ways-ebook

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      Book preview

      A Labyrinth of Love and Roses - Beth Barany

      COPYRIGHT PAGE

      Note: This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.

      A LABYRINTH OF LOVE AND ROSES

      First Edition

      Copyright © 2014 Beth Barany

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, scanning, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Published by Firewolf Books

      771 Kingston Ave., Suite 108, Piedmont, CA 94611

      www.firewolfbooks.com

      Place special or bulk orders via info@firewolfbooks.com

      Cover design by Ezra Barany

      Cover images by Francesco Maria Curá and Vojtech Vlk

      License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the vendor and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

      Chapter One

      April 25

      Amiens, France

      Lili set out the tea and the mismatched fine china they both liked. Her hand shook. Something about Gramma’s voice over the phone an hour earlier made her nervous. Gramma or Gra-mere in French, said, We need to talk in her serious voice.

      She set out some speculoos cookies from the cupboard and some croissants she’d run to get fresh at the corner boulangerie.

      She spun in her tiny but tidy apartment, really more like a studio, her bedroom separated by a curtain. It was all she could afford from her savings and her summer jobs from being a migrant fruit picker in the south of France, outlandish and as horrifying as it was to her upper class French family. She didn’t want to take any money from them.

      She wiped down the kitchen counters and glanced around again. Oh, her laptop. She shut it and draped a cloth over it. Her grandmother wouldn’t want her to be distracted by it when she came over, and distracted she was. She’d been working for months on her prospectus for the investor pitch the next day. Despite the gorgeous spring weather in Amiens and the smells of the island gardens calling to her, she’d been holed up with her computer for days—chatting with her team via Skype and instant messaging, exchanging documents, getting everything ready for the big day tomorrow.

      She had to get her business funded so she could go international. Her team spread around the world was counting on her. If she didn’t get this funding from the international group of investors in town for the special World War I commemoration, she didn’t know when she’d have another chance like this. She’d have to start at square one. When would there be another chance like this, where people who wanted to invest in local talent and clean tech software companies would be coming around again? She was born and raised in Amiens, well, Paris too. But that city was second in her heart to the river-wound city of Amiens with its gorgeous ancient cathedral and many, tiny farming islands.

      A knock at her door interrupted her ruminations. Lili opened the door and smiled at her petite grandmother, shorter than her own five foot five inches. Gra-mere Leonora squinted up at her. You’ve been worrying, dear, and brushed past her to step into Lili’s apartment. Lili couldn’t deny it. If she did, Gra-mere would know. She always knew when Lili was lying.

      So she shut the door and said, I have my big presentation tomorrow morning, Gra-mere. I told you. She set the kettle to boiling, so her back was to her grandmother for the moment. She just had to ask. Gra-mere, what was so important that it couldn’t wait until after my pitch?

      She heard the chair scrape against the wood floor and her grandmother sit. When Gra-mere or Gramma, depending on which language Lili was speaking, didn’t answer, Lili turned around. Gra-mere eyed her intently.

      Sit down, child.

      But the water—

      Forget about that. The water takes care of itself and so must you.

      Lili wanted to cross her arms across her chest, but resisted the urge. She pulled out the chair and sat. Gra-mere often spoke in riddles. That was one of the things Lili always loved about her. She was so unlike the rest of the stuffed-up family—well, mostly her parents.

      Gra-mere watched her intently. Lili squirmed, then jumped up when the kettle whistled. She poured hot water into the teapot. The rich aroma of tarragon and rose hips filled the room. Still Gra-mere said nothing.

      She tried again. Gra-mere, what was so urgent—?

      Shh. I’m listening.

      To what?

      The tea.

      Lili sat back, amused but still antsy. She really needed to do one more pass, check some numbers on her slide deck.

      Finally Gra-mere poured the tea into their cups, then spoke. I came by to tell you about your legacy, dear Lili of mine.

      Lili sputtered her tea that she was sipping. What legacy, Gra-mere?

      The one handed down from my mother, and her mother, and all the mothers before, since the time of the Great Calamity.

      What about Mom? And, what Great Calamity?

      Gra-mere waved her hand. We’re not discussing your mother. We’re discussing you. And I think you’re ready.

      For what?

      For the truth. In seven days, by Beltane, you must go through your Rite of Initiation on the island to formally accept your legacy and find your one true love, not necessarily in that order. Magic finds magic. And yours is to be the Bringer of the Rose and protect the earth and all who live on it, but not with gadgets. With your heart.

      Gra-mere, what do you mean? Lili jumped up. This—this is farfetched even for you.

      Sit down, dear, and let me tell you what’s at stake.

      But Lili couldn’t sit. She circled her studio, chewing on her fingernails. When she realized what she was doing, she stuffed her hands in her jeans pockets. She stopped by her laptop and put her hand on the cloth that covered it. But Gra-mere, you realize how important this presentation is to me tomorrow, don’t you?

      Gra-mere watched her with a small frown on her face, looking more like a disapproving matron than the high-spirited, artsy, young-at-heart woman she usually was around Lili. Lili plowed ahead. With this funding, my water purification technology and app can go forward and get into the hands of anyone in the world who needs it. After a bit more testing and getting a factory set up in China or India—not sure yet. Ideally, Africa, but we haven’t found the place with the right infrastructure—

      Your legacy is more noble than that, Gra-mere interrupted her.

      What can be more noble than making sure everyone on the planet has drinking water?

      "Making sure that everyone will be alive to enjoy that drinking

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