Friday Feast | Escape to Ireland in "The Accidental Heiress" by Cj Fosdick
Welcome to another special Friday Feast in Mary's Tavern! My guest today is the lovely and talented author Cj Fosdick! Not only is Cj talking about her upcoming new book release, but she's also sharing a delicious recipe with us. Oh, I'm definitely looking forward to making this chocolate loaf this weekend.
First, let's take a peek at Cj's new book, The Accidental Heiress...
A plane crash in the Shannon River spins Jessica’s Irish honeymoon into a wilderness of unexpected emotions. For Robbie, the heroic Irish time-traveler she met and married in Wyoming, it becomes more than a reunion to the homeland he left…in the nineteenth century.
Things have changed since then. The old manor house of his youth has become the honeymooners B & B, run by descendents of his wild boyhood friend and the willful heiress of the estate. Dual era love stories, a hidden diary and the l04-year-old family healer reveal scandalous secrets and consequences that began with Robbie and trickled down through generations. Can he reset history and restore honor without losing Jessica, the soulmate he vowed to love “forever and a day?”
Sneak preview from The Accidental Heiress
His face twisted. “I feel like I’m standing at a cliff edge, afraid to step forward into a life I don’t deserve or fall back into a past I could reset.”
“Isn’t that arrogant—thinking you have that kind of power?”
“Jess, I just want to do the right thing.”
My stomach clenched. “And risk what we have?”
His gaze snapped to mine. “What if you’re the angel I sought, and I’m the ghost you once loved, and deep down we both know we belong to a different place and time?”
“Oh my God, you have such doubts?” My heart was thumping in my chest.
Preorder your copy here
(Release Date: 12.20.20)
A Message from Cj Fosdick
Life happens…with unexpected plans. Completing The Accidental Heiress in the age of Covid enabled a sprint to the finish for me. Novel characters often become dear friends hard to let go of—especially in the final book of a trilogy that explored a slip, a flip, and a possible reset in time with mistaken identities and choices that guide us to our soulmates.
The fictional heroine in the historical Part Two of Heiress joined the ranks of 10,000 women who were actual penitents in an Irish scandal that took 200 years to come to light. It seems oddly coincidental that 100 years—almost to the date—when America’s suffragettes won voting rights for women, we lost the voice of Ruth Bader Ginsburgh. No Coincidence, however, that our strong sister-Irish heroines bridge time and place with personal stories that still seek reparations today.
As I do with every book, a vintage recipe finds a way into the stories and the B&B where Robbie and Jess stayed served a no-bake chocolate treat that I have to share. It is a big favorite in Ireland and when I tested the recipe, I can see why. Enjoy it with another favorite of Eire—the immortal cuppa tea.
NO BAKE CHOCOLATE BISCUIT LOAF
4 c. broken graham crackers
3-3 ½ c. dark chocolate (16 oz.)
2/3 c. sweetened condensed milk
1 2/3 sticks unsalted butter
I used cinnamon grahams & Teddy grahams-broken in chunks & put in a large bowl. Melt the chocolate & butter in a double boiler or microwave. Pour chocolate over crackers and and mix to coat well.
Line a loaf cake tin on all 4 sides with parchment paper. Fill the tin with the chocolate mixture, pressing down hard with back of a large spoon or a spatula. Scrape sides of mixing bowl and spoon evenly over the top of the loaf.
Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. When set, it slices easily! Great for a quick dessert.
Chef Finnegan at the B&B in The Accidental Heiress sometimes adds cut up candied
cherries, or serves this with fresh berries. It keeps well in fridge or freezer.
(I give it 5 stars, hoping you give them back to me in a book review!)
Meet the Author
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Cj moved west to the medical mecca in Rochester, MN where her writing career bloomed with articles and award-winning published stories to her “Accidental” novel series about mistaken identities and finding a soulmate with a time slip, a flip, and the reality behind resetting history. Living on a country hilltop haven for decades, she raised children and rescued animals that included horses for summer riding lessons. She did venture down on occasion to climb a Jamaican waterfall, float in the Dead Sea, kiss the Blarney Stone and research every adventurous book setting.
Connect with Cj here
Email: falorac@gmail.com
