• Shop
My Account
  • Register
  • Login
Header Logo
You are here: Products Coquina Hard by Lorain O’Neil

Coquina Hard by Lorain O’Neil

We were all taught that thirteen colonies united against the British in the American Revolution—nothing is ever mentioned of the fourteenth colony, the one that went loyalist, fought against the Revolution, and paid a devastating price: Florida.

Coquina Hard opens amidst the true story of the British military crushing the rebellion of thousands of Catholics who’d been tricked into slavery by a British aristocrat, Dr. Turnbull, sailed to Florida, and forced to build a town (New Smyrna, which exists to this day).

One of those enslaved is orphan Toria Brighton who escapes and falls in love with a handsome Georgia patriot who gives her the chance of returning home. Instead, Toria chooses to return to New Smyrna to lead survivors to freedom in St. Augustine (the daring escape is true and well documented historically) while the American Revolution explodes around her.

SKU: B004QTOOXA Categories: Historical Romance, Romance Tags: adventure, alpha male, American Revolution, epig, florida, historical fiction, humor, kidnap, saga, swashbuckler, war
  • Description
  • Reviews (0)

Description

Find more from this author on:

Buy this book on Amazon
Amazon
Author's Website
Author Site


About the author:

Lorain O’Neil is the author of Coquina Hard [Historical Fiction Standalone], Alien Advantage [Humorous Adventure Standalone], The Dangerous Path of Loving Jaesha [Very Dark Erotic Humorous Standalone Thriller], Angelique Rising [Humorous Standalone Dark Thriller], A Kiss From Moët [Humorous Paranormal Standalone Romance], The Liar Charms [Humorous Standalone Thriller], and co-author of Bedmonsters are Cool [Humorous Standalone Fantasy], all available on Amazon.

What inspired you to write your book?

Shogun by James Clavell

Here is a short sample from the book:

PROLOGUE
August, 1768
“Kill me first,” her disbelieving mind shrieked as she rammed her mortally thin body between the barrels. “Don’t let the Italians touch me.”
Forni had already raped two Minorcan girls, declared himself Captain-General over the settlement and seized a schooner to flee Florida. Three hundred of Forni’s rioters now roared toward her, smashing storehouses, plundering rum casks, murdering overseers. She heard one overseer die trying vainly to ward off the rioters’ blows, dying in the sand as the Greeks stabbed him in the groin, chopping off his nose and fingers.
Her name was Toria Brighton and she was a member of the largest single migration ever to come to America, surviving a wretched Atlantic crossing only to be crushed by starvation in the new Florida settlement.
“Help me, God,” she hissed, every fiber of her bursting in terror. “Save me.”
The frenzied mob careened onto the great coquina wharf of New Smyrna, directly to the barrels Toria cowered behind.
New Smyrna itself was more than a hundred thousand acres of Florida swampland and pine barrens, owned by one Dr. Andrew J. Turnbull and his aristocratic partners. Rushing to settle Florida, the British Crown had rashly granted huge tracts of land to British speculators but on one invidious condition: the land had to be peopled within three years. Failure resulted in complete forfeiture.
A man smashed a barrel, exposing her. I’m dead now, she told herself as mind-numbing horror engulfed her. Hands seized her, but not the drunken Greeks or Italians, but sixteen-year old Levy the Jew, from Minorca.
“Levy!” she tried to scream above the roar of the mob. For just an instant, the bellowing of the men and the wails of the captured women already forced onto the schooner distracted the rioters.
“GET ABOARD!” Forni exploded in Italian from the deck of the Balmer. “We’ve got to make tide, you dung-eating bastards!” Forni was ursine, his dark skin stretched tightly over a gaunt frame. He knew, as all New Smyrna’s survivors knew, they’d been tricked into slavery at New Smyrna and nothing but death awaited them there.
“Freedom!” a crazed Greek howled from shore. In chaos, a hundred rioters overwhelmed the Balmer’s gangplank and joined the hundreds of men already on board. Levy the Jew went with them, clutching Toria tightly. Aboard, he placed her on the deck where the abducted women already dragged on board cringed in a group, crying.
“They’ve tied up overseers below,” a panicked woman whispered in Catalan, the language of Minorca. “They’re going to starve them, say it’ll teach them what it feels like.” In the months the colonists had been at New Smyrna each had received only a quart of corn a day. Hominy was ladled out and men were forced to publicly whip their wives for trying to steal bread for their starving children.
Forni continued thundering orders at the mob, the Greeks not understanding Italian, the Italians too drunk to care.
We’ve wasted too much time, Forni snarled in boiling fury, too much time! Three days to convince the Greeks to come, never able to convince those idiot Minorcans. But now we have Turnbull’s ship, we’ll make Havana, and leave those stinking Minorcans to die here in the pissing swamps!
The wind in the harbor was against them and they missed the tide.
“A pox on this place for eternity!” Forni raved. “Now we have to wait for the next filthy tide to get us over that devil’s sandbar!” And out of Mosquitto Inlet forever. “Turnbull might be warned by then!”
“Ha!” a drunken voice answered. “What can Turnbull do against hundreds of us?”
Forni paid the fool no attention. Have they heard of our revolt in St. Augustine? he asked himself for the hundredth time. He scanned the north horizon uncontrollably, searching for the mast of a ship, any ship. They can’t get here in time he prayed. But three days, three days has been too long! Three days to organize the men, kill the overseers, provision the boat, wait for the tide. That foul sandbar! I’d be gone from Florida forever but for that damn bar blocking the harbor!
Forni sailed the Balmer southward, following the waterway close to the beach, waiting for the high tide to lift the ship up over the bar and out to sea. To Havana. To freedom.
“Maybe the British in St. Augustine will come,” Toria cried out, unable to accept her fate.
“How could they know what’s happened? And if they did come what would they do? Blast us out of the water!”
She turned and saw Levy the Jew behind her. He slipped a piece of bread into her hand and walked away, looking at the north horizon.
All eyes riveted on the north horizon. And the tide. The tide was rising.
“We’re going to make it!” Forni gasped.
The Balmer turned and warped easterly from the lagoon, toward the sea. They were within a cable’s length of the bar when they saw the first British packet bearing down on them from the north. Then they saw the sloop that accompanied her.
Forni cursed wildly at the two British vessels patiently waiting for him on the other side of the sandbar.
“The East Florida and the Juno!” he screamed furiously, uselessly. “Fitted with carriage guns and swivels!” And deckfulls of troops.
The rioters and prisoners hushed, all wondering in sickening horror whether Forni would fight or surrender. From the north the East Florida began crossing the bar toward them. The Juno waited outside with grim efficiency.
The Balmer was blockaded.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” a berserk voice shouted as thirty-five of the rioters’ leadership hurled themselves overboard onto a small boat.
The East Florida fired one cannon ball at the Balmer intentionally missing. Panic exploded on deck and two Greek gun crews grabbed swivels to fire back.
“NO! NO!” Forni screamed insanely, his black eyes flaming. The Greeks paid him no mind and fired one round each at the East Florida.
It was enough.
The recoil of the weapons caused the stolen schooner to run aground backward onto the bar.
“I’m hung,” Forni muttered in madness as he watched his escaping friends in the rowboat disappear southward and the Juno glide off after them.
The Balmer struck, and when the rising tide lifted her off the bar the East Florida forced her back up the harbor. The women and children were freed and seventy-five of the three hundred rioters were taken prisoners by the British.
Toria ran from the boat to the tiny palmetto hut that was her home. She was nine years old and amazed to still be alive.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “Coquina Hard by Lorain O’Neil” Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related products

Prev Next
  • Cover image of the book

    Three Happy Endings (Secrets, Surprises and Submission: Three Passionate Romances from New York Times Bestselling Author) by Opal Carew

    0 out of 5

    “TOP 15 B&N BESTSELLER (THREE)

    TOP 100 E ROMANCE ON AMAZON (THREE)

    Three men are better than one…

    Secrets, surprises, and submission – three torrid tales of triple passion!

    THREE

    Hot steamy dreams… a sexy stranger… and his two brothers… all add up to a sexy adventure she’ll never forget.

    Lori’s steamy dreams about a hot hard stranger are hitting fever pitch. She needs way more than eye contact and a smile across a crowded subway station. An instant connection sizzled between them and now Lori, who’s never believed in love at first sight, is its helpless victim.

    When Lori goes to her best friend’s cabin for the weekend to spend time with Marie, her new husband and his brothers, she’s surprised to wind up face-to-face with her fantasy stranger. But he’s Marie’s husband!

    When she meets his brothers, however, she finds that there just might be a way to make her dream come true.

    Now Lori is experiencing her wildest fantasy yet, three ultra-sexy men all focused on her. But she wants more than a steamy dream brought to life. Because she’s in love. But can her sexy stranger return her love?

    Note: This intriguing short story is scorching hot, with more than one handsome hunk to bring your wildest fantasies to life. Consider yourself warned!

    THREE MEN AND A BRIDE

    What do you do when you can’t stop lusting after your new husband’s two gorgeous brothers?

    Can Marie successfully suppress her fantasies of the three brothers making wild, luxuriant love to her, or will she have to endanger her happy marriage by admitting her feelings to her husband, Drake?

    Although this is the second story in the erotic THREE series, this steamy read is the prequel to Three. You can enjoy Three Men and a Bride on it’s own, or after you have read THREE.

    THREE SECRETS

    Keeping one secret is intriguing. Two is naughty. Three… deserves to be punished.

    Sharing secrets has never been so exhilarating…

    When they met in Paris, Nicole and Abel enjoyed a sensual, romantic two month fling. The last thing Nicole wanted was to fall head over heels for this sweet, loving man, because she knew he would never accept the truth about her. Unfortunately, the heart wants what it wants, and hers wanted Abel. But Nicole was not one to be controlled by anyone or anything, so once they returned home, she walked away.

    When the pain of losing Abel became too much, Nicole finally decided to share her secret with him. Little did she know he had a secret of his own.

    Will Abel’s secret extinguish Nicole’s craving for him once and for all? Will Nicole’s revelation bring Abel to his knees?

    This is a collection of super hot short stories.

    Length: 25,500 words

    Plus excerpts from The Office Slave (Volume 1 of The Office Slave Series) and His To Possess (about billionaires, bikers and bad boys all rolled into one).”

    Read More
    Quick View
  • Cover image of the book

    Coffee Break by Hayet Brach

    0 out of 5

    A girl putting herself on display. An unexpected guest. A couple overwhelmed by desire. Three new tales of love and lust – enticing, enthralling, and exciting.

    Includes the stories ‘Coffee Break’, ‘The Guest’ and ‘Something In The Water’.

    Read More
    Quick View
  • Cover image of the book

    What Do Lesbians Do In Bed? 21 Sapphic Stories by Giselle Renarde

    0 out of 5

    Have you ever wondered what lesbians do when they get together? Is it all fingers and scissors and lips between legs, or is there WAY more to the slippery story of lesbian sex?

    In this hot new anthology, enjoy twenty-one explicit tales of lesbian love. From shoe fetish to opera gloves, sex in public to quiet winter mornings, from a taste of taboo to strap-on DP to extremes that shan’t be mentioned here to full-on Sapphic bukakke, even connoisseurs of fine girl-on-girl action are likely to discover a new idea or two in this sexy new collection.

    Whether you can appreciate this book’s title ironically or you’re authentically curious about what girls who love girls do in bed (or in parked cars or at the office or in a church basement or in a restaurant bathroom), grab a copy today and get in on the nitty-gritty secrets of lesbian sex.

    Giselle Renarde’s erotic fiction has appeared in over 100 anthologies, including prestigious collections like Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Lesbian Romance, Best Women’s Erotica, Girl Fever, and the Lambda Award-winning collection Wild Girls, Wild Nights.

    Read More
    Quick View
  • Cover image of the book

    A Touch of Passion by Uvi Poznansky

    0 out of 5
    Read More
    Quick View
  • Curvy Girls Love it Hot by Marisa Michaels

    0 out of 5

    My best friend since elementary school, Trevor Larrson, is a handsome professional football player who was just traded to our local team in our hometown. Trevor always dated skinny girls who looked like models, not girls like me. When he moved back and sparks started to fly between us, it was a dream come true. I had lusted after Trevor for a long time. I didn't think a curvy girl like me would fit into Trevor's world, but the way he looked at me said that wasn't true at all.

    Read More
    Quick View
  • Cover image of the book

    Close Up and Personal by JS Taylor

    0 out of 5

    Actress and director. The stage is set for passion…

    Drama-school graduate Isabella Green wants to be a script-writer. But when she meets famous director James Berkeley, she’s tempted into the glamorous world of acting.

    Behind the camera, the mysterious Berkeley commands discipline at all times. But Isabella soon discovers his dominant male tendencies also extend into the dressing room.

    Suddenly Isabella is discovering a side of herself she never knew existed. But she is also learning more about the alluring James Berkeley. Is his desperate past something she can help heal? Or will the flames of passion consume them both when the cameras start rolling?

    Lights, camera, action…

    Close Up and Personal strips down to zero dollars over Christmas – 24th-28th December – get yours free!

    Read More
    Quick View
  • Cover image of the book

    Those Necessary Thorns Desiree Elizabeth Taylor by Sabrina Childress

    0 out of 5

    Desiree’ Elizabeth Taylor (Desi) is a sexy, smart, and no-nonsense kind of woman. Some would say she is wholesome — while others would gladly call her a bitch.

    After years of living the life of the perfect, wife, friend and business savvy know-it-all, Desi had a secret that would destroy everything she’d worked so hard to achieve.

    The cast of characters in her life are starting to unravel and Desi is losing control fast! Her marriage is on the rocks and her best friend is turning into a spiteful enemy.

    What happens when Desiree decides its better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission?

    {Adult themes} {Explicit Content}

    Read More
    Quick View
  • Cover image of the book

    Duty and Desire by Kristina Wright

    0 out of 5

    The only thing stronger than the call of duty is the call of desire. Duty and Desire enlists a team of hot-blooded men and women from every branch of the military who serve their country and follow their hearts. Stateside and abroad, these warriors meet passion and danger head-on.

    From the army grunt who unwraps his wife like a gift in “Fighting for Fresno,” to the injured soldier who sets his heart on the line for the nurse who healed his body and soul in “Out of Time,” these tales embrace the ache of deployment and celebrate the sweet relief of shore leave. With a foreword by bestselling author Cat Johnson, Duty and Desire features stories of U.S. soldiers, sailors, aviators, marines and many more. Uniforms have never been sexier.

    With contributed stories by Delilah Devlin, Connie Wilkins, Shanna Germain, Craig J. Sorensen, Ericka Hiatt, Kelly Maher, Lucy Felthouse, Catherine Paulssen, Anya Richards, Sacchi Green, Elizabeth L. Brooks, J.K. Coi, Charlotte Stein, Christine D’Abo, Mercy Loomis, Lynn Townsend, Michelle Augello-Page, and Kristina Wright.

    Read More
    Quick View

Book Categories

  • Collections & Anthologies
  • Contemporary
  • Erotica
  • Fantasy
  • Gothic
  • Historical Romance
  • Multicultural & Interracial
  • Mystery & Suspense
  • Paranormal
  • Romantic Comedy
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Travel
  • Westerns
  • Romance
  • Author Interviews
banner-01testtesttesttest
banner-01testtesttesttest
banner-01testtesttesttest

Top Rated Products

  • Her Majesty's Harem by N.J. Adel
    5.00 out of 5
  • More Than Everything by Delphie Gray
    5.00 out of 5
  • Forever Loyal by Sheppard Brothers
    5.00 out of 5
  • Crashing Into Me by R.L JACKSON
    5.00 out of 5
  • Bad at Love by Emeline Piaget
    5.00 out of 5

Author Marketing Club

WantonReads.com supports indie authors!

for Authors

  • Submit Your Book
  • Submit an Author Interview
  • Get Featured Placement

for Readers

  • Discover New Books
  • Meet the Authors
  • About WantonReads

Thanks for visiting!

  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
© 2017 - WantonReads.com