| Phoebe Sinclair combines her love of flowers and teaching to nurture a cut flower business on her grandfather’s land. She’s got her hands full growing the farm, growing her customer base, and dealing with her growing attraction to the aloof man who’s volunteered to help make her farming dream come true. Can she focus on her main job, or will a pair of yearning eyes and a hurting heart divert her worthy goals? Heath Daniels has resigned himself to a life of singleness as he watches his siblings couple up and set wedding dates. Tracking their happiness, however, is more difficult than he expected. A real struggle, in fact. Feeling the old troubles from his college years creeping back to tempt him, he’s propelled to volunteer for manual labor, leaving him exhausted, but out of danger, at the end of every day. His additional hours of agri-business, however, lead to different struggles with an intriguing farmer. Does he have the strength to resist old temptations as well as a beautiful new one too? |  |
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: January 24, 2024
Release Date: January 24, 2024
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Interview with Hope
#1. Do you have favorite character(s) in this book?
I love Mr. Dempsey, Phoebe Sinclair’s grandfather and the owner of the farm she’s trying to turn into a cut flower business. He’s mourning his wife but is still engaged in life. He tends roses to spend time with her memory and crochets a beanie every week to donate to the local hospital in her honor. He has a good sense of humor, too.
I love Mr. Dempsey, Phoebe Sinclair’s grandfather and the owner of the farm she’s trying to turn into a cut flower business. He’s mourning his wife but is still engaged in life. He tends roses to spend time with her memory and crochets a beanie every week to donate to the local hospital in her honor. He has a good sense of humor, too.
#2. What do you hope your readers will take away with them when they read this book?
Forever Free has a subtheme about singleness being a gift from God. It’s an interesting idea especially since I write romance, but I feel strongly about this topic. A dear friend of mine became a widow in her early 50’s. She doesn’t have a lot of positive stories about her experience as a widow in churches. She says churches love families but don’t always know what to do with widows, divorced people, or people who are single adults. I’d like readers to see single people in their churches and other groups and include them.
Forever Free has a subtheme about singleness being a gift from God. It’s an interesting idea especially since I write romance, but I feel strongly about this topic. A dear friend of mine became a widow in her early 50’s. She doesn’t have a lot of positive stories about her experience as a widow in churches. She says churches love families but don’t always know what to do with widows, divorced people, or people who are single adults. I’d like readers to see single people in their churches and other groups and include them.
#3. Tell us a little about yourself, your family, friends.
I grew up loving books and words and became an English major in college. I taught English on the college level for a few years before I started focusing on my family. During the years I reared my children, I also sporadically wrote pieces for local newspapers and magazines. I started writing fiction the summer our oldest daughter graduated from high school.
My husband and I have four grown children and live on land that’s been in my family for generations.
I grew up loving books and words and became an English major in college. I taught English on the college level for a few years before I started focusing on my family. During the years I reared my children, I also sporadically wrote pieces for local newspapers and magazines. I started writing fiction the summer our oldest daughter graduated from high school.
My husband and I have four grown children and live on land that’s been in my family for generations.
#4. If you could change one thing in your life, past or present, what would it be?
I would consistently journal. I have partial journals from elementary school, but I have a lot of blank years, too. I’d love to have them not only to read and remember events but also for fodder for stories.
I would consistently journal. I have partial journals from elementary school, but I have a lot of blank years, too. I’d love to have them not only to read and remember events but also for fodder for stories.
#5. What one piece of advice would you like to give readers?
Encourage your favorite authors by writing reviews. Reviews are so important.
Encourage your favorite authors by writing reviews. Reviews are so important.
More from Hope
A few years ago, I decided to write a series since readers enjoy reading stories with familiar characters. Four siblings came to mind, perhaps because I have four children, and the Daniels family from Charlotte, North Carolina, burst onto my computer screen.
I’ve loved spending time with Ben, Heath, Sam, and Josie for the past several years and sharing how three of them found their happily ever after. One, however, always appeared on the fringe of the story, participating, yes, but always a bit set apart from the family.
Heath Daniels is the second oldest sibling, the middle brother between Ben and Sam. Readers will discover him first in Forever Music and then in a larger role in Forever Home, but he never disclosed too much about himself in those stories.
Before I began the series, I didn’t know to plan key plot points and goals for each story as well as the whole series. As a panster, I wrote each story as it came to me or as I needed to like, for instance, the novella, “A Hatteras Surprise.”
When it came time to write Heath’s story, I hardly knew him. I wasn’t sure about his backstory, his occupation, tastes…nothing. He grudgingly released those missing pieces bit by tiny bit.
At the beginning of Forever Free, Heath feels like the black sheep in the family. In the high achieving Daniels clan, he’s the one who dropped out of college, the one who struggled with substance abuse, the one who feels less than. With all his siblings coupling up, he’s staring at a single future because of old misguided beliefs.
Guilt from an early tragedy along with bad choices play important parts in Heath’s personality. Phoebe Sinclair has her hands full nurturing her cut flower farm, plus she has to deal with a cute, but distant employee, the mysterious Heath.
I enjoyed getting to know Heath and watching his growth from the sullen, misunderstood character to the confident businessperson who wants Phoebe to achieve her dream. I hope you’ll enjoy his story, too.
Here’s a recipe Phoebe bakes for her grandfather in Forever Free. I’m not sure why it’s called Swedish Nut Cake, but I’m sure it’s delicious.
I’ve loved spending time with Ben, Heath, Sam, and Josie for the past several years and sharing how three of them found their happily ever after. One, however, always appeared on the fringe of the story, participating, yes, but always a bit set apart from the family.
Heath Daniels is the second oldest sibling, the middle brother between Ben and Sam. Readers will discover him first in Forever Music and then in a larger role in Forever Home, but he never disclosed too much about himself in those stories.
Before I began the series, I didn’t know to plan key plot points and goals for each story as well as the whole series. As a panster, I wrote each story as it came to me or as I needed to like, for instance, the novella, “A Hatteras Surprise.”
When it came time to write Heath’s story, I hardly knew him. I wasn’t sure about his backstory, his occupation, tastes…nothing. He grudgingly released those missing pieces bit by tiny bit.
At the beginning of Forever Free, Heath feels like the black sheep in the family. In the high achieving Daniels clan, he’s the one who dropped out of college, the one who struggled with substance abuse, the one who feels less than. With all his siblings coupling up, he’s staring at a single future because of old misguided beliefs.
Guilt from an early tragedy along with bad choices play important parts in Heath’s personality. Phoebe Sinclair has her hands full nurturing her cut flower farm, plus she has to deal with a cute, but distant employee, the mysterious Heath.
I enjoyed getting to know Heath and watching his growth from the sullen, misunderstood character to the confident businessperson who wants Phoebe to achieve her dream. I hope you’ll enjoy his story, too.
Here’s a recipe Phoebe bakes for her grandfather in Forever Free. I’m not sure why it’s called Swedish Nut Cake, but I’m sure it’s delicious.
Swedish Nut Cake
Ingredients for cake: Ingredients for icing:
2 C flour 1 8 oz pkg creamed cheese
1 ¾ C sugar 1/2 stick butter
2 eggs 1 t vanilla
2 t baking soda 1 ½ C powdered sugar, sifted
1 t vanilla
½ chopped nuts
1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple with juice
2 C flour 1 8 oz pkg creamed cheese
1 ¾ C sugar 1/2 stick butter
2 eggs 1 t vanilla
2 t baking soda 1 ½ C powdered sugar, sifted
1 t vanilla
½ chopped nuts
1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple with juice
Directions:
Mix all ingredients for cake and bake in a greased 9×13 pan at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
For icing, mix all ingredients and frost the cooled cake. Store in the refrigerator.
Mix all ingredients for cake and bake in a greased 9×13 pan at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
For icing, mix all ingredients and frost the cooled cake. Store in the refrigerator.
 Hope Toler Dougherty | Hope Toler Dougherty holds a Master’s degree in English and taught at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, and York Technical College in Rock Hill, SC. Her early novels are Irish Encounter, Mars…With Venus Rising, and Rescued Hearts. Her Forever series includes Forever Music, Forever Home, and the novella, “A Hatteras Surprise,” which is featured in Candy Cane Wishes and Saltwater Dreams. A chronic volunteer, she’s a member of ACFW, NC Writers’ Network, and Triangle East Writers. She and her husband live in North Carolina and look forward to visits with their two daughters and twin sons. |
It's Time For A Giveaway!
To celebrate her tour, Hope is giving away the grand prize package of
a $75 Amazon gift card and a set of the 4-book Forever Series!!
a $75 Amazon gift card and a set of the 4-book Forever Series!!
Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries!
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Back Porch Reads, March 17 (Author Interview)
The Lofty Pages, March 17
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Where Crisis & Christ Collide, March 19 (Author Interview)
Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, March 7 (Author Interview)
Simple Harvest Reads, March 8 (Author Interview)
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, March 8
For the Love of Literature, March 9 (Author Interview)
Texas Book-aholic, March 10
Tell Tale Book Reviews, March 11 (Author Interview)
Life on Chickadee Lane, March 12
Blossoms and Blessings, March 13 (Author Interview)
Locks, Hooks and Books, March 14
Artistic Nobody, March 15 (Author Interview)
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 16
Back Porch Reads, March 17 (Author Interview)
The Lofty Pages, March 17
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, March 18
Where Crisis & Christ Collide, March 19 (Author Interview)
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