Rich Tapestry by Ashe Barker

Black Combe

Black Combe is the West Yorkshire moorland setting for most of my trilogies. Some of my stories feature parts of the Lake District too, which is another favourite haunt of mine and the setting for the opening scene in Rich Tapestry.

The house at Black Combe is fictitious, but was inspired by a number of properties I know, a sort of cocktail of some of my favourite country homes. I’ve embellished it rather as the stories have developed, but it was always a large home, a barn conversion with bells on. The actual number of bedrooms is left unclear, but there are at least six.  I did take something of a liberty with the name of the house. Black Combe is actually a mountain in south Cumbria but it seemed to fit so I used it

The most striking feature of my Black Combe is the views. The surrounding countryside is spectacular, mile after mile of rolling moorland, a timeless and colourful landscape made famous by Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights. Top Withens, the ruined farmhouse generally accepted to be the inspiration for Emily’s masterpiece is still standing, and is a much loved haunt of tourists and hikers on the Bronte Way. It is just a couple of miles from my fictional Black Combe. The location is somewhere between Haworth and Colne, a stunning part of the Bronte moorland scenery and a route I travel quite often on my trips to the north west of England. It was as I returned from one of these excursions that I started to imagine a house here, and the collection of people who might inhabit it.

In Rich Tapestry this unique setting captivates Summer Jones when she first arrives as a guest. She shouldn’t like Black Combe, but she does. It is everything she normally tries to avoid – noisy, busy, crowded, but in spite of all that she seems to fit in. The place has a few surprises in store for her though, including more than one reunion with someone she thought she would never see again.

She’s unsure of herself, scared of how Dan makes her feel, and terrified of what he might instruct her to do next. She knows she won’t refuse him. But despite the bustle and din, and Dan’s unsettling presence there, she finds that Black Combe is a safe place, a calm place, a place full of friends, people who seem determined to like Summer despite her insecurities. What better setting for Summer and Dan’s story to unfold?

I’ve tried to do justice to the local scenery, both in Yorkshire and in Cumbria where Summer and Dan first meet. I believe we are all shaped by the places we live and love, and this is just as true of characters in books. I feel that the setting for my stories is almost a character in its own right, and I try to share with my readers the fascination that these wonderful places hold for me. I hope it works.

Blurb for Rich Tapestry:

No act of kindness goes unpunished.

Summer Jones likes things to be tidy. Predictable, well-ordered and meticulous—she likes to be in control. So when she finds herself waiting for a friend in a BDSM club, she is horrified when an attractive Dom offers to show her around. She agrees, but there’s a catch. Her sassy mouth has earned her a punishment at his hands. She has to accept his terms or spend the evening alone. Despite her apprehension, Summer can’t deny her curiosity about this lifestyle and the pleasures it seems to offer.

But will one night with accomplished Dom, Daniel Riche, fulfil her dreams, or will it just prove to her what she always suspected, that anything so intense is best avoided?

Scared, confused, and utterly horrified at her response to Daniel’s touch and his dark brand of pleasure, Summer still finds herself yearning for more. Why, despite her pleas and his obvious appreciation of her body, is he peculiarly reluctant to deliver all she demands from him?

Hurt and confused, Summer is desperate to escape. But can she leave her memories of Daniel behind? Does she really want to?

Like the sound of Rich Tapestry? You can buy it here:

https://www.totallybound.com/rich-tapestry?utm_source=literarynymphs&utm_medium=blogtour&utm_campaign=richtapestryblogtour

Author Bio for Ashe Barker:

Until 2010, Ashe was a director of a regeneration company before deciding there had to be more to life and leaving to pursue a lifetime goal of self-employment.

Ashe has been an avid reader of women's fiction for many years—erotic, historical, contemporary, fantasy, romance—you name it, as long as it's written by women, for women. Now, at last in control of her own time and working from her home in rural West Yorkshire, she has been able to realise her dream of writing erotic romance herself.

She draws on settings and anecdotes from her previous and current experience to lend colour, detail and realism to her plots and characters, but her stories of love, challenge, resilience and compassion are the conjurings of her own imagination. She loves to craft strong, enigmatic men and bright, sassy women to give them a hard time—in every sense of the word.

When she's not writing, Ashe's time is divided between her role as resident taxi driver for her teenage daughter, and caring for a menagerie of dogs, cats, rabbits, tortoises and a hamster.