With: Lynnette Austin
Giveaway Alert!
I love second-chance romances—both to read and to write! Our couple’s first chance has generally happened before the book begins, and, then, they meet again—with all the ensuing angst. This is no slow-build relationship but rather a raging inferno from the get-go with the chemistry and connection full-blown on page one.
The once-lovers often face-off as enemies; the conflict is built in. Something caused their relationship to implode the first time around. When they meet again, that problem remains unresolved. If they couldn’t solve it before, how can they hope to now?
On top of that, neither the hero nor the heroine has remained in a vacuum during their “away” time. They’ve both had lives for these two or five or ten years. Both have changed, and those old emotions, resentments, and frustrations have had a chance to fester.
Picture Perfect Wedding, the third book in my Magnolia Brides series, is a second-chance-at-love story. When Tansy Calhoun left for college, she promised to return to Beck Elliot, who stayed behind in Misty Bottoms, Georgia, to save the family business. She reneged on that promise and married someone else, had his baby.
Five years later, divorced and broke, she and her daughter return to Tansy’s small hometown to create wedding cakes for Magnolia Brides. The question isn’t whether or not she and Beck will fall in love but rather will either take a chance on risking his heart again.
One mistake can change everything…forever.
If you love this trope as much as I do, I’m sure you have favorites! Here is one of mine:
Ain’t She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Sugar Beth Carey ruled Parrish, Mississippi, fifteen years ago. When she left town, she left behind a lot of hatred and resentment, all well-earned. Collin Byrne’s animosity is almost a living entity.
At the story’s start, this golden girl crawls back to Parrish with her deceased third husband’s dysfunctional dog and barely enough money to feed herself and put gas in her car. One of the feistiest heroines ever, it’s a veneer. She’s the girl you love to hate, the one who made high school a living hell. Yet, under Phillips’ expert hand, I found myself rooting for Sugar Beth, and, once the reason for her behavior was exposed, I wanted her to rise like the phoenix. Sugar is fighting for a second chance both at love and redemption.
My guilty confession—I’ve read Ain’t She Sweet at least six times, and, every single time, I cringe at the fork-under-the-table incident. I’m not telling. You’ll have to read it for yourself.
What’s your favorite second-chance romance? Why?
PICTURE PERFECT WEDDING
Third in the heartfelt and charming Magnolia Brides series
from Lynnette Austin
One
mistake can change everything…forever
Beck
Elliot and Tansy Calhoun were inseparable—until Tansy left Misty Bottoms,
Georgia, promising to come back after she finished school. Beck stayed behind
to save the family business, dreaming of the day when Tansy would return.
Instead, his trust and his heart were broken when she inexplicably married
another man and bore his child.
Five
years later, Tansy comes home, a sadder and wiser woman. Despite his anger,
Beck finds it hard to avoid her and her adorable little daughter—especially
with all the busybodies of Misty Bottoms going out of their way to throw him
and Tansy together, hoping a lingering spark will reignite their enduring
flame…
LYNNETTE AUSTIN gave up the classroom to write full
time. An author of eight novels, she has been a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart
Contest, PASIC’s Book of Your Heart Contest, and Georgia Romance Writers’
Maggie Contest. She and her husband divide their time between Southwest
Florida’s beaches and Blairsville, GA.
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EXCERPT
In a perfect world or, heck, even in a movie, music
would play softly in the background. The SUV’s windows would be down, her
auburn hair blowing softly in the breeze. Her hero would wait at the road’s
end, arms open and welcoming.
They’d
kiss…
Tansy
Calhoun Forbes’s cell rang, and, startled, she glanced in the rearview mirror.
Gracie, her four-year-old daughter, slept soundly, a welcome respite from
today’s endless are-we-there-yets.
“Hello?”
she practically whispered.
“You
unpacked yet?” Jenni Beth Beaumont, her best friend forever, sounded stressed.
“Still
a few miles from town, but almost there.”
“Good.
Great. Listen, I know this has been a stressful day, heck, a stressful year,
and you’re tired…”
Tansy
smiled. She could practically see her friend squirming. “What do you need,
Jenni Beth?”
“Oh,
Tanz, I have two weddings and a sixteenth birthday party coming up this week.
Magnolia Brides is booked solid for the next nine months—my dream come true—but
I’m dying here! I need cakes. Phenomenal cakes. Your cakes!”
“I
don’t have—”
“Kitty
said you can use the bakery’s kitchen.”
Tansy
sighed and ran her fingers through already-mussed hair.
“I
know, I know.” Jenni Beth’s tension vibrated over the airwaves. “I’m putting
you on the spot. Big-time. I’m a horrible person. An even worse friend.”
“No,
you’re not.” Determined, Tansy sat up a little straighter. “This is exactly
what I’ve insisted I want. Part of the reason I’m on my way home. Color me
stupid, but I’m in.”
As
the city-limits sign loomed, she hung up and removed her dark glasses. Misty
Bottoms, Georgia. The Low Country. Even slowing to a crawl didn’t stop the
inevitable.
Home, sweet home.
Right
back at the starting gate.
Waiting
for her? No music, no hero, and no kiss.
And
no one but herself to blame.
Tansy
pushed her sunglasses back in place and glared at the brilliant sunshine that
bathed the beyond-gorgeous autumn day. The humidity had dropped, and a few
white clouds drifted high in the bluebird sky. Shouldn’t
it be raining, the sky dark with ominous thunderheads?
Divorced
for fifty-three days, five hours, and—she checked the dashboard clock—six
minutes, and here she was, hell-bent on creating the cake for a bride’s special
day.
She’d
had her own shot at the dream and lost—because the wrong groom stood beside her
at the altar.
Walking
out of her supersized house that morning had been confusing. She’d expected a
huge weight to lift, and it had. Still, that was the house she’d brought Gracie
home to after she’d been born. Where her first four birthdays had been
celebrated. Christmases and Thanksgivings.
And
so much unhappiness and deceit.
A
building off to Tansy’s right caught her attention and caused a hitch in her
heart. Elliot Construction and Lumberyard.
Beck
Elliot, the groom behind door number one, the door she hadn’t chosen.
Oh
boy. Was she making another mistake? Should she have started over somewhere
else?
Ding, ding, ding. The low-fuel
indicator chimed, and the little red light blinked on. Shoot!
Tommy’s
Texaco loomed.
Relieved,
she flipped on her turn signal, veered into the lot, and pulled up to the gas
pump.
And
there it sat.
A
big red truck with Elliot Construction on the side.
The
door to the gas station opened, and Beck Elliot, looking hotter than any man
had a right in dusty jeans, a faded T-shirt, and old work boots, stepped outside.
He
tore the wrapper off a candy bar and took a bite.
Then
his intense, midnight-blue eyes met hers. The chill had her rubbing her arms
even though the temperature read seventy-five in the shade.
As
she got out, her gaze collided with Beck’s again.
His
eyes radiated resentment and betrayed hopes.
Hers?
She figured they held remorse, hurt, and impossible-to-deny desire.
Beck nearly choked on the bite of
chocolate. What the hell?
He
tossed the bar into the trash barrel outside the door.
Months
ago, he’d heard rumblings that Tansy’d enrolled her daughter in the local
preschool, but since no one had said anything else about it, he’d figured she’d
changed her mind. That fancy SUV of hers was loaded to the roof, though, way
more than she’d need for a quick visit.
His
chest constricted, and he swore under his breath. Why would she return to Misty
Bottoms? She looked like one of those emaciated French models in the magazines
his mom read. A good strong wind off the coast would blow her from here to
Atlanta.
The
strong, carefree Tansy he’d known had disappeared. She’d become… He didn’t
know. Ethereal came to mind.
Not
his business—and she’d be the first to tell him that.
“Hey,
Beck,” Tommy said. “Got your truck filled for ya.”
“Thanks.
I left the money on the counter. Later, pal.”
Without
another word, without another glance toward the woman he’d once expected to
marry, Beck hopped in his truck, turned the key, and pulled out of the gas
station, reminding himself that Tansy Calhoun—no, make that Tansy Forbes—was
history. Ancient history.
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