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ENCHANTÉ – ENCHANTING THE SWAN – A LOVE STORY

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Oh! those beautiful swans! Ever listened to that wonderful Swan melody by Camille St. Saëns? It’s the core of the moving and heartbreaking story of Paul and Fiona, two lovebird musicians at the venerable College of William & Mary in Virginia – that beautiful State with the logo “Virginia is for Lovers!”- who form a duo in their last graduate year. Paul at the keyboard and Fiona playing cello. They fall in love when playing “The Swan.” And kiss for the first time on the famous Crim Dell Bridge in the W&M gardens.

Enchanting W&M Crim Bridge 1

And agree to get married after graduation. But then bad luck strikes and their future together seems doomed.

Enchanting-cover

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Fiona’s Belgian godparents who raised her – her parents perished while sailing off the Belgian coast when she was two – block the marriage because Paul is an American. She must marry a titled Belgian as her parents had wished, a nobleman and family friend she knew early on.  When Paul lunches with Fiona at the Grand Place in Brussels, she tells him in tears she is forced to break up. Noblesse oblige…

Roi restaurant Gr-Place

Right: Bistrot Roi d’Espagne at the Grand Place

For Paul, it means a terrible psychological setback, for Fiona it means forsaking her love and hope of a life shared in playing classical music together.

Paul is offered a job in a bank in Geneva and takes the TGV.

Paris, Gare de Lyon: People with luggage walking to their train.

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but his life there is without light despite skiing and mountains. He falls for a selfish career girl. Then gets used by another in a bank fraud. His career seems doomed and he must return home. Through a sheer coincidence, he hears Fiona is back in the US and divorcing. A miraculous encounter at a house concert brings them back together, but Fiona is broken and has suffered severe abuse. Paul faces an uphill battle to win her back.  As the trailer puts it, will they ever play the Swan again?

I wrote this book because I am a romantic, like Nicholas Sparks, or Barbara Bradford-Taylor; love romantic classical music, and adore W&M’s Department of Music. What this story tells is that luck is not a given and that it can be taken away from you; that you must fight to gain it back; that you must persevere; that you must learn to accept the changes that take place in your beloved and yourself. And that when you do all that, you may enjoy happiness again, but at a different level, one that is matured to accept life as it evolves.

What readers said about this story on Amazon.com:

MJM: “John writes beautifully – I found the book difficult to put down – an easy read, full of intrigue, love, passion, international travel and dubious banking business, and lots more – a must read.”

Dan: “John Schwartz has written a fine romantic thriller that doesn’t let go until the very end…”

Doris: “…I loved this book!…After only 3 chapters I was hooked…”

Neal: “…a beautiful story — full of suspense, drama, and enduring love centered around music. John Schwartz has created a whole world, and a wonderful escape. The characters jump off the page with such personality and imagery that this book could make a great movie…” 

Vera: “Enjoyed the book. Well written book. First book to read by the author, but sure will read more books by him in the future…”

So, would you not want to read it, too, at the special e-book price of $2.99,  or spoil yourself with a nice paperback?

http://amzn.to/1rzpB4H

Give yourself a chance!

 

 

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ROMANCING ENCHANTING THE SWAN

John 2Bois de Boulogne

THREE THINGS INSPIRED ME WHEN WRITING ENCHANTING THE SWAN: ROMANCE, LOVE FOR MUSIC AND MUSIC IN LOVE. IN SHORT: FOREVER ROMANCE:

http://amzn.to/1LPFw5o

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Don’t take me wrong:  it is not only love that makes the world go round:  pigheaded ultraconservative family rules preventing a SHINING love blossoming from the heart and conceived in music, GREED versus compassion, JEALOUS PURSUIT to snatch away someone else’s love, ABUSE IN MARRIAGE, desperate escape and FINAL REDEMTPION in music: it’s  all in ENCHANTING THE SWAN, a love story as no other.

(LEFT CLICK ON PICS WILL ENLARGE THEM ON MOST COMPUTERS. BACKSPACE TOP LEFT TAKES YOU BACK TO THE BLOG)

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Paul Cramer, MBA graduate and Fiona Baroness de Maconville, cellist, play The Swan, a famous cello-piece by Camille St. Saëns, before their William & Mary Audience. That’s where their love bloomed: at the Department of Music in the Ewell Hall, located at the College of William & Mary, situated in rustic Williamsburg, Virginia.

Neal Cary, Professor and cellist teacher at the College of William & Mary, writes about Enchanting The Swan: “…a beautiful story — full of suspense, drama, and enduring love centered around music. John Schwartz has created a whole world, and a wonderful escape. The characters jump off the page with such personality and imagery that this book could make a great movie. Enchanting the Swan is a very enjoyable read, and I recommend it highly.”

http://amzn.to/1LPFw5o

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Enchanting Cover Design-a   Enchanting Back flap pic

As you see from the back flap, the beginning of their love seems doomed in a bitter family feud of old stiff Belgian nobility with modern times. Fiona, an orphan raised by godparents after her parents died sailing into a storm at the Belgian coast, must break off because her noble godfather wants her to marry into their Belgian circle. At a heartbreaking lunch in a restaurant at the Grand Place in Brussels, The Roi d’Espagne (right on the photograph) she tells Paul she can’t marry him.

Roi restaurant Gr-Place

Paul joins a financial postgraduate course at the Free University of Brussels for a few weeks in the hope Fiona and her godparents change their mind, but eventually must capitulate, and when offered a promising internship at First Swiss Bank in Geneva he takes it. And off he goes, heartbroken,  not knowing this step leads him into lots of trouble. Read the story in http://amzn.to/1LPFw5o

Paris, Gare de Lyon: People with luggage walking to their train.
TGV
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Paul’s Office

Paul skiing on Swiss Alps

Paul skiing in Swiss Alps

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Facing the Mont Blanc from the Dole near Geneva with devilish Diane

After a disastrous career start-up in Geneva, Paul returns to New York where he finds to his consternation Fiona in utter disarray, divorcing after an abusive marriage.

What did Dan Dwyer say of this novel? “…If you like old fashioned romance stories, you will like Enchanting The Swan…She marries into nobility while Paul trudges off to the same continent to work for a Swiss bank where he gets involved with another woman whose lack of scruples gets him in trouble. No sooner does he extricate himself than he finds out that Fiona is unhappy in her marriage. That’s all Paul needs to know. Fate and friends conspire to bring them together, but not so fast. There’s more to this story than Dewey eye romance. John Schwartz has written a fine romantic thriller than doesn’t let go until the very end. “

New York Skyline at sunset

Will Paul and Fiona ever get together again and play their Swan?

Find out for an intriguing Christmas end and snatch it at http://amzn.to/1LPFw5o

 

two swan in love forming

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GOODREADS – THE SWAN IS FLYING OUT

two swan in love forming

GOODREADS have launched our GIVEAWAY contest: duration for one week,: September 9-16, and only FIVE FREE AUTHOR SIGNED COPIES, postage paid. Competition appears severe.

Go to: goodreads.cohttps://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/153831-enchanting-the-swan

Enchanting Cover Design-a

After just one day,  more than 100 entries have already been made, all eager to read this moving novel about two grad students and passionate musicians, Paul, pianist, and Fiona, cellist, whose love life at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg falls apart after a brilliant and promising beginning. If you click in the photographs most computers will enlarge the picture.

Enchanting W&M Crim Bridge 1

They kiss for the first time on this famous Crim Dell Bridge at W & M, after successfully performing their program’s rehearsal before friends, teachers and a few faculty members in the Ewell Hall. The summit of the program is The Swan by Camille St. Saëns. This is a great moment for them. Then graduation comes and their love is shattered by Fiona’s godparents in her home  country, Belgium, who do not consider Paul a good enough match in their noble family. Paul visits her family in Brussels, but the father is hostile, the mother cool, distant, and reserved, though she points out where Fiona can be reached. Then he meets distressed Fiona, who has to abide by her family’s dictum: as her parents had willed it, she must marry into her own noble Belgian circle. It is all written down in her parents’ testament. A young nobleman she has known when studying at the Free University of Brussels will become her husband. She forces the break-up with Paul during lunch at the Grand Place, and Paul is devastated.

Roi restaurant Gr-Place

Restaurant-bar Roi d’Espagne, on the right where Fiona breaks-up in tears.

Only much later does Paul find out that Fiona’s godfather, a senior manager at the Brussels’ Société Générale, and her future husband, also a banker – had only one thing in mind: remain the masters of her sizable trust fund for their own gain.

Paul finishes an advanced investment seminar at Brussels University (ULB) but does not see Fiona anymore. To his chagrin, the decision is final and cannot be rescinded.

BRUSSEL,BELGIUM - 18 MAY, 2015: A formal alley at La Cambre, is a renowned architecture and visual arts school founded by Henry van de Velde in Brussels in 1926.

To get rid of his sour mind and keep his sanity, Paul plays piano at the Salle Delveau in the “Cité”. He is lucky that a guest speaker at his investment course is impressed with his mathematical skills and offers him a job at the Geneva branch of First Swiss Bank. So, deeply hurt Paul travels to Geneva with the TGV to start his career, completely the opposite of what he had hoped for with Fiona in New York.

Paris, Gare de Lyon: People with luggage walking to their train.

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Paul’s bank on the left

But Geneva proves Paul’s pitfall: the girls he meets are aloof or insensitive, except one who is married. Higher-ups in his bank are scheming to make clandestine money and the fat girl Diane he helps on the ski slopes turns out the daughter of the wealthy and influential businessman involved.  High up in the Jura Diane forces him to be the whistleblower of the scheme in the bank to save her father from downfall and bankruptcy. It nearly destroys his internship and he must return to the USA.

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View of the Mont Blanc from the Dôle on the Swiss Jura near Geneva where Diane gives Paul her bombshell.

A hasty departure for New York follows after Paul completes his internship successfully and, despite all what happened, with distinction. He is transferred to First Swiss Bank in New York in a managerial position.

New York Skyline at sunset

And then by sheer coincidence he meets the son of Fiona’s aunt at an office party, who tells him Fiona is in New York, shattered by an abusive relationship and divorcing! They meet at a house concert at Fiona’s aunt…can they put humpty-dumpty back together again or not? A long struggle that ends up with a loud shot!

cover ideaBANG-BANG!!!

NOW YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO READ THIS STORY TOO!

PARTICIPATE IN THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY FOR A FREE SIGNED COPY POSTAGE PAID…ONLY TILL SEPTEMBER 16!

goodreads.cohttps://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/153831-enchanting-the-swan

IF THE LINK DOES NOT WORK, PASTE IT INTO YOUR URL OR GO TO GOODREADS.COM -GIVEAWAYS.

OR IF BY CHANCE YOU ARE NOT LUCKY OR WANT IT RIGHT AWAY, BUY IT (PAPERBACK OR KINDLE) AND ENJOY A “GOOD READ”:

AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1LPFw5o
BARNES & NOBLE: http://bit.ly/1Kw8gys

JOHN

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