‘Aloha With Love’ [EXCERPT]
August 20, 2021 1 Comment
We love a good, clean Hallmark love story, especially when it is set in a gorgeous destination and populated with characters who are easy to like. In Aloha With Love, one of the channel’s favorite screenwriters, Terence Brody, joins forces with author Lindy Miller to present a feel-good story about a young woman who inherits a dilapidated Victorian house in Hawaii where she must work with her sister and an annoying contractor to restore the building to its former glory. Enjoy the excerpt!
EXCERPT
He sounded impressed, but Jenna’s smile turned wistful as her thoughts wandered to Terrace Pines. “But I guess sometimes having your happiness depend on others’ happiness is a risky proposition, right?”
“Maybe,” Ben agreed. ‘But isn’t that what it’s all about?”
“What what’s all about?”
His eyes found hers, and again they hung on too long. This time, however, Ben didn’t look away. “Love.”
Jenna felt as if she were being tugged down, like the specks in Ben’s gaze were magnets drawing her into him. She forgot about losing her pitch, or about all the reasons she’d left the island. Reasons she hadn’t come back. Or whatever it was it was they had been talking about. All she thought about now was another dimple in his jaw she’d somehow missed before. Another shade of blue hiding in his eyes.
“Uh. I wasn’t talking about love,” she managed.
“Sure you were,” Ben said. “My question was what do you love best about being an architect. And you told me. In life, in work, with people, love should be at the heart of everything we’re about.” He held her gaze for a heartbeat longer and then blinked, breaking the spell. Clearing his throat, Ben propelled himself back up to a sitting position and Jenna turned her attention elsewhere, anywhere that wasn’t warm and deep and inviting—or specked with gold.
“We should get back to banging nails,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically brusque.
A dreamy feeling had collected in the back of her throat, and Jenna swallowed it back. She was here to renovate Aunt May’s house, not swap googly eyes with the ruggedly handsome contractor slash romantic literature bard.
“Back to work,” she agreed.
SYNOPSIS
Soon to be a motion picture. From the screenwriter of Rescuing Madison and A Lesson in Romance on Hallmark.
“[A] charming romance. Miller and Brody do a masterful job of pacing and plotting, while creating a hero and heroine readers will easily relate to. This sweet, G-rated contemporary should draw in Hallmark Channel devotees in droves.” —Publishers Weekly
After a tough week that includes losing a big job opportunity and being dumped by her long-term boyfriend, Jenna Burke receives word that her beloved Aunt May passed away.
Traveling back to her Hawaiian hometown for the reading of the will, Jenna discovers she and her sister have inherited May’s dilapidated Victorian home on desirable beachfront land. The sisters can do whatever they want with the property, but there’s one catch: the house must be renovated before it can be sold, and Jenna has to oversee the work. Their Aunt even stipulated the contractor for the job—Ben Fletcher—who has a gift for making things beautiful again. He also has another skill: driving Jenna crazy.
Jenna vows to sell the property the moment the job is done. But as Aunt May’s broken old house starts to feel like home again, Jenna is torn between the life she’s been chasing in the city, and the one she’d left behind.
ALOHA WITH LOVE
By Lindy Miller and Terence Brody
202 pp. Rosewind Books. $14.95.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Lindy Miller is an entrepreneur, award-winning professor, and publishing professional. In 2011, Miller was part of the executive leadership team that founded Radiant Advisors, a data and business intelligence research and advisory firm, where Miller developed and launched the company’s editorial and research divisions, and later its data visualization practice, for clients that included 21st Century Fox Films, Fox Networks, Warner Bros., and Disney.
She is the author of numerous papers and two textbooks under the name of Lindy Ryan: The Visual Imperative: Creating a Culture of Visual Discovery (Elsevier) and Visual Data Storytelling with Tableau (Pearson).
Miller holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration: Entrepreneurship and Strategy, and a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and a Doctorate in Education, Organizational Leadership.
For more information, visit her website at LindyMillerRomance.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Terence Brody is an active captain in the New York Fire Dept, assigned to Ladder 10 in lower Manhattan.
Two of his feature scripts, Rescuing Madison (Ethan Peck, C. Thomas Howell, Alona Tal) and A Lesson in Romance (Kristy Swanson, Scott Grimes, directed by Ron Oliver) aired on the Hallmark Channel.
In 2021, his script, Aloha With Love, was produced by Oren Kamara/Fade to Black Films, Branscombe Richmond, and Brian Bird of When Calls The Heart. The movie starred Trevor Donovan and Tiffany Smith and was directed by Brian Herzlinger. The novel is co-written with author Lindy Miller (July 2021).
Brody also wrote the screenplay for Miller’s novel Sleigh Bells on Bread Loaf Mountain (2021) and The Christmas Spirit by Alexandrea Weis (Nov 2020).
Brody resides in Long Island, NY with his wife and two children.
Purchase Aloha With Love direct from Jathan & Heather Books or from one of these other fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Half Price Books, Hudson Booksellers, iBooks, IndieBound, Kobo, Powell’s, Target, or Walmart.
Aloha With Love is brought to you in association with Xpresso Book Tours.
GIVEAWAY
Enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card from the folks who are bringing you Aloha With Love. Giveaway is not presented by Jathan & Heather, Jathan & Heather Books, Jadeworks Entertainment, or any of its subsidiaries. Contest ends August 26, 2021.
About Jathan Fink
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