Daughters of the Sea by Julie Eberhart Painter

Back Cover Blurb: Laura, descended from the Tahitian princess Kura, explores her heritage to find answers to her unusual past. Why did her birth father, the last Polynesian navigator, insist she be raised by her American family? What secret threatens her through her Tahitian bloodlines?

Ian, an English journalist, falls for the lovely Laura the first day she arrives on Tahiti. During her quest, he’s by her side when dejá vu overtakes her. They are plunged into 1769; Captain Cook’s first landing date on the islands.

Chased by the demons of her ancestor’s and fearing for her sanity, Laura and Ian work together to resolve the inequities in her past

Excerpt: This is the legend Ian shares with Laura via the snail mail from New Zealand, where he is writing a travel article about the Maori culture:

Like Tahitians, Maoris tell stories to explain nature. My favorite so far is based on one of their lakes, extremely deep here, It’s an amazing phenomena, explaining the rise and fall of Lake Wakatipu. Legend has it that the s-shaped lake is 1100 feet deep, and rises and falls five inches every fifteen minutes. This was documented. Although there are a few scientific explanations for the phenomenon, I prefer the Maori version:

A giant coveted the Maori chief’s wife and stole her away from him. His wife was the love of his life, and he lost his ‘mojo’ or powers. Nothing went right for the chief after that and he decided that he couldn’t continue as chief unless he first got his wife back. So he headed out to find her.

He pursued the giant through the forest and came upon his campfire. Held captive next to the sleeping giant was the chief’s beloved wife. Realizing he could never kill the giant in a face-to-face confrontation, he decided to put hot coals over him and burn him up, which he did. However, not everything burned. The giant’s beating heart remained. To this day, his heart beats under the lake, making it rise and fall five inches every fifteen minutes. (Just as mine beats only for you.)

About the Author: Julie Eberhart Painter

I am a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania and have worked with the elderly in Ohio, Georgia and Florida, where I saw many an adopted old person still wondering about their birth families. As an adoptee myself, the “what if” has been large in my life. 

Watching a special about the Tahitians who settled in New Zealand, calling themselves Maoris, piqued my interest. What if an exotic beauty living in eastern Pennsylvania discovered she was born to a Polynesian navigator who read the waves to find new land in the South Pacific? How would a girl raised by a father she trusted react to learning she was half Tahitian, and no one had told her? Wouldn’t she want to know everything about these ancestors and how she fit into both her American family and her ancestral one? What culture did she leave behind, and where does she belong?

Travel and Duplicate Bridge are my get-away passions. Most recently, Kill Fee, a cozy mystery won both the Coffee Time Romance & More award and Best Book 2011 from Champagne Books. Medium Rare, the sequel, released in December 2012.

As Maggie, I read and professionally review other people’s books for CTR. I’m a regular contributor to http://cocktailsmagazine.wix.com/fictionandgossip#!issue-14, an online slick, and write flash fiction at http://www.bewilderingstories.com/bios/painter_bio.html Learn more at www.books-jepainter.com

Daughters of the Sea, Paranormal Romance available at MuseItUp Publishing

Novel: Julie Eberhart Painter
Release: January 25, 2013
Editor: Fiona Young-Brown

Cover Designer: Charlotte Volnek