Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Kiss My Blarney Stone (The Complete Serialized Novel)
    Kiss My Blarney Stone (The Complete Serialized Novel)
    Kiss My Blarney Stone (The Complete Serialized Novel)
    Ebook155 pages2 hours

    Kiss My Blarney Stone (The Complete Serialized Novel)

    By Mimi Riser

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    High-spirited romantic comedy with an Irish lilt and a sprinkle of magic (the complete serialized novel, 3 parts in 1 volume)... The year is 1975. The place is Ramhaillim Manor, a whimsical old mansion (which may or may not be haunted) on the west coast of Ireland. The girl is Sharon O’Shaughnessy, an Irish-American spitfire who has just inherited Ramhaillim from her Great-Aunt Deirdre – or half of it anyway, as Sharon discovers when she reaches Ireland and meets Rory Egan, the handsome Irishman who has inherited the other half of the house. This could be a good thing, because Sharon loves horses, and Rory is a horse breeder. Except Rory is also full of blarney, Sharon is quite sure. He’s an incorrigible rascal, and a smart girl shouldn’t believe a word he says. Sharon, of course, is a smart girl. You’ll never find her falling under the man’s roguish spell. Or will you?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMimi Riser
    Release dateAug 27, 2013
    ISBN9781301318858
    Kiss My Blarney Stone (The Complete Serialized Novel)
    Author

    Mimi Riser

    Mimi Riser is a longtime author of fiction and nonfiction, including several series and spanning a variety of genres (with flavors ranging from sweet to spicy hot). Her books celebrate the upbeat, the offbeat, and “beating the odds.” She began life in the urban northeast, but now resides in the rural southwest with her best friend & husband Rob.

    Read more from Mimi Riser

    Related to Kiss My Blarney Stone (The Complete Serialized Novel)

    Related ebooks

    Historical Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Book Lover

      Jun 29, 2021

      The Book Lover
      6 min read

    • Article

      Lasting LOVE

      Feb 28, 2024

      Lasting LOVE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Left To Lose

      Jul 10, 2022

      Around the time she gives up her name, it starts to feel like this entire revolution isn’t worth it anymore. The world is probably lucky that Kelian—she still remembers Kelian, in spite of everything—is there to pick up the pieces, the way he always

      11 min read

    • Article

      Australia Reads At Home

      May 18, 2020

      Australia Reads At Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      Love Is All Around

      Jan 16, 2020

      IT’S a leap year, gulp. As if the Valentine’s gush isn’t enough, now the girlfriends and single ladies among us must publicly announce our undying love by proposal. I’ve spent at least two leap years and nearly a decade of Valentine’s Days concentrat

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Til Death Do Us Part

      Oct 26, 2023

      ‘Til Death Do Us Part
      5 min read

    • Article

      Planof Action

      Oct 5, 2021

      Planof Action
      6 min read

    • Article

      Heave’s Whisky

      Feb 27, 2024

      Heave’s Whisky
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cricket Ceague

      Apr 1, 2019

      Penelope Berkeley, age 9 Mars Hill, NC Night had fallen, and Luna awoke from where she had been sleeping in a cornfield. She moved steadily through the stalks with barely a sound, keeping her eyes on the glittering glass rooftop of the greenhouse in

      7 min read

    • Article

      Suspicious Minds

      Apr 7, 2022

      Suspicious Minds
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Wildest Place OF ALL

      Mar 16, 2022

      The Wildest Place OF ALL
      9 min read

    • Article

      Happy Families

      Aug 5, 2021

      Happy Families
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Wildest Place OF ALL

      Mar 2, 2022

      The Wildest Place OF ALL
      9 min read

    • Article

      Plan of ACTION

      Oct 3, 2023

      Plan of ACTION
      6 min read

    • Article

      Summer at BEACON BAY HEIGHTS

      Aug 16, 2023

      Summer at BEACON BAY HEIGHTS
      9 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Helen

      Jun 5, 2023

      She was a friend of my family—the Carlins, as I have chosen to call them. She and my father met in the fifties through the editor of the architecture magazine where she began her career. My father had taken her out a few times. They were never lovers

      30 min read

    • Article

      This Family Saga Finds Grace And Beauty In Ordinary Lives, Fully Lived

      Jun 10, 2021

      Simon Van Booy's new novel Night Came With Many Stars follows several generations of a Kentucky family, their crossroads and choices, their curses and hard memories, their luck and their chances.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cast Out

      Jul 10, 2021

      Verity pushed back the quilts, rolled off her straw mattress onto the floor, felt for the poker, and stirred the ashes. The embers glowed. She wouldn’t have to go fire-borrowing again. Her chilled hands were clumsy. One glowing bit of wood rolled fro

      21 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      Pa And His Darling Boys

      May 1, 2023

      Pa And His Darling Boys
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Kiss My Blarney Stone (The Complete Serialized Novel)

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Kiss My Blarney Stone (The Complete Serialized Novel) - Mimi Riser

      <><><>

      KISS MY BLARNEY STONE

      The Complete Serialized Novel

      (3 parts in 1 volume)

      MIMI RISER

      www.mimiriser.com

      Serial Copyright 2014 by Mimi Riser

      All rights reserved.

      <><><>

      Smashwords Edition, Smashwords License Statement: 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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      [All rights reserved: No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the author, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.]

      Disclaimer: This novel is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

      <><><><>

      <><><>

      Kiss My Blarney Stone

      Prologue

      A grand old gal, Kathleen Kelly O’Shaughnessy. Everyone said so. Small of stature she was, but huge of heart. An Irish leprechaun—well, Irish anyway—Celtic to the core, with a smile for all and a generous endowment of good-natured blarney.

      She’d immigrated to the States with Danny O’Shaughnessy, the love of her life and a champion racehorse trainer. Together they’d traveled the length and breadth of the country. After his death Kathleen had continued her husband’s business, moving from job to job, first with her and Danny’s son, then with a fairy-faced waif in tow. Her orphaned granddaughter, Sharon—gold curls and blue-gray eyes like the magical mists of Galway—her sunshine and her shadow. The girl followed her everywhere, and Kathleen adored her.

      But children needed a stable home, didn’t she know, not an endless round of stables. Kathleen had learned that lesson the hard way—bitter hard—with Sharon’s father, God rest his soul. He’d run too free, her wild boy, run into a bad marriage that drove him to a bad end. Her fault, her mistake, but one she’d never make again. She’d failed her son, but she’d not fail his daughter.

      The year Sharon turned fourteen Kathleen bet her life’s savings on one big race, and won enough to retire on. Enough to keep Sharon safe until she could see her wed, and happily so, like the girl’s grandparents had been—and her luckless parents hadn’t. That pair had never understood happiness at all. Kathleen hoped she’d taught Sharon better. She certainly knew the sort of man she wanted for her—knew the very man, in fact.

      The trick would be arranging the matter.

      To that end—without a hint to Sharon, who never guessed the plan and would’ve been mortified if she had—Kathleen sent a letter and photograph to Ireland, proposing a proposal, so to speak. A bold move, for the one she wrote to was none other than Deirdre Kelly Egan herself, the grandmother of the young man in question—grandmother by marriage at least, if not by blood—and the twin sister Kathleen had left behind decades ago.

      They hadn’t parted on the best of terms, and hadn’t spoken since. Blame Danny O’Shaughnessy, the darling devil, for choosing one twin over the other. Deirdre felt Kathleen had stolen her beau. But since she’d ended up with a good husband regardless, a handsome widower with a fine little boy, surely now she could let bygones be bygones.

      Or not.

      Over my dead body! Deirdre wrote back.

      And wouldn’t you know that’s exactly what happened?

      Still, it all worked out. Eventually. Some called it ironic the way things went. Others dubbed it divine destiny. But perhaps it was just the luck of the Irish rising to the fore—with a bit of blarney behind it, of course, doing the shoving.

      Chapter 1

      Boston, 1975…

      How could you have an aunt when neither of your parents had siblings?

      Oliver Winthrop III made it sound like an accusation. He was in one of those moods. Were all law students so sulky and serious? Sharon met his reproachful stare with a shrug. She was busy, and he was, at the moment, in her way.

      "I thought I told you Aunt Deirdre was my great-aunt—my grandmother’s twin sister. She paused in the middle of folding a sweater, her head cocked to one side. You know, I’d never even met Aunt Deirdre, never even seen a picture of her. Gran didn’t talk about her much. Isn’t that odd?"

      Very. Considering her will. Oliver scowled.

      Sharon sighed, giving herself a little shake, then stuffed the half-folded sweater into an already crammed duffle bag perched precariously on the edge of her bed. She was busy and pressed for time.

      Oliver, move. I need to get into my closet.

      Reluctantly, he stepped aside, a pensive pout on his lips. If you never met the old broad, why such an all-fired rush to get out to her moldy old castle?

      Someone was cruisin’ for a bruisin’.

      I may never have met her, but I bet she was nicer than some of those stuffy snobs you call relatives, Sharon said with half feigned and half real indignation. "And I’ll thank you to not refer to my inheritance as a ‘moldy old castle.’ It’s an elegant manor house—from the Georgian period, I believe." She drew herself up to her full five-foot-four height and gave a delicate sniff, trying to affect the air of an old-fashioned aristocrat.

      Oh, come off it! Oliver snorted in obvious disgust. You’re acting like a stupid child. Sharon, you know nothing about what you’re getting into. Most of those old manors don’t even have proper plumbing—or heating. You’ll freeze to death over there!

      Gee, how alarming. To hear him you might think Ireland was in Scandinavia instead of the British Isles. Poor guy, it really was difficult to take him seriously sometimes.

      Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of warm clothes. Grinning, she began to toss the contents of her closet into an open suitcase near her feet. There was no time to decide what to take and what not, so she was taking it all.

      You’re certainly packing enough, Oliver grumbled. I thought you were going for just a couple of weeks.

      Um, actually, I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. Sharon braced for an angry outburst.

      Oliver went strangely silent.

      Taking advantage of his unusual reticence she hurried on. I figured that as long as I already had to go to Ireland I might as well take some extra time and tour the rest of the Isles while I was there, England, Scotland, Wales… Sort of combine business with pleasure. Don’t you think that’s a good idea? She hoped.

      I guess so.

      He sounded less than convinced, but at least he wasn’t arguing. Sharon celebrated with a small sigh of relief and dove back into the frenetic packing, chattering cheerfully to fill an uncomfortable silence.

      I’m so glad you agree with me. You know, I really am excited about this trip. I can’t wait to see Ramhaillim. That’s the name of the house. It’s Gaelic, but I don’t know what it means. I only know enough Irish to know how to pronounce it. Ram-hay-lee-im, she broke it into syllables for him. Oliver? Are you listening?

      No. He sucked in his breath and squared his narrow shoulders, as though having come to a sudden decision. "But I hope you will."

      To what? She had a bad feeling about this.

      Listen, Sharon… He cleared his throat. I realize this trip is…well, important to you, but if you’ll only postpone things for a few weeks, I could go with you. You could take care of any business you need to on your aunt’s estate—he gained speed as he spoke—then we could go anywhere else you wanted, even to France or Italy or Spain. It could be our…honeymoon. His eyes glowed with triumph.

      Why, Sharon couldn’t imagine because she hadn’t said anything remotely resembling yes yet. And wouldn’t.

      Marriage? Shit. You date a guy for a couple of months, and he thinks he owns you.

      Oh, Sharon, I want you so much… He reached for her.

      She dodged free, determined to deck him if he pursued. But he didn’t, thank God.

      "Oliver, I can’t marry you."

      Why? Icicles dripped off the word.

      "I can’t marry anyone right now. I…I’m just not ready for marriage. What else was there to say? I’m sorry," she added gently.

      Oliver’s thin form went rigid as he regarded her from beneath heavy lids. "Yes, well, I suppose that’s that then, isn’t it?" He spun about and strode for the exit, trying to maintain a dubious dignity while picking his way through the wreckage of her packing. When he reached the door, he turned around to fix his icy stare on her one last time.

      "Goodbye, Sharon. I hope you have a pleasant trip."

      In other words, screw you, bitch.

      The door slammed shut behind him.

      Sharon collapsed with a brief bout of hysterical giggles. Not because the situation was funny—even though it was, in a way—but more as a tension release. She liked Oliver okay—or had until now—but frankly he could be a bore. And what she’d told him was dead true. She had no intention of marrying yet. She was only twenty-one, for godssake. It would be years before she’d be ready to settle down with a husband. Sharon O’Shaughnessy would never be one of those girls whose sole aim in life was finding a man, she vowed to herself.

      "You’ve got to learn to be happy with yourself before you can ever be happy with another," her grandmother had often said. When you meet the right man, you’ll know it.

      "But how, Gran?"

      "Never you mind, child, you’ll understand well enough when the time comes," was all she’d ever reply, a cryptic glint in her eyes. Sharon could hear and see her clearly even now.

      Oh, Gran, I miss you!

      The dear woman had been dead for almost two years, but sometimes it felt like only an hour, so much did Sharon still long for her company.

      Sharon’s maternal grandparents had wanted nothing to do with her, and her own parents had been killed in a car crash. Suspected suicide, the police termed it, and they were probably right; the car, in good condition, had been driven off a good road in good weather straight into a huge oak. But Sharon was only an infant when it happened. She didn’t remember her father and mother at all. Kathleen O’Shaughnessy was the one who’d raised her, and had done such a loving job of it, Sharon had never strongly felt the lack of any other family.

      It had taken her grandmother’s passing to teach her the meaning of bereavement. Granted, the sharp edge of sorrow had dulled with the passage of time, but deep inside, Sharon felt an

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1