Spotlight & Giveaway: Love in Catalina Cove by Brenda Jackson

Posted November 30th, 2018 by in Blog, Spotlight / 34 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Brenda Jackson to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

 

Hi Brenda and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Love in Catalina Cove!

 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Working on the premise of nothing is ever as it seems, I wrote a tale of how the past and present emerge for a future. Vashti had a past she needed to reckon with and Sawyer a present where he was just living. They needed each other to make their lives complete and to prove when you least expect it, love is within your reach.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Vashti Alcindor should be celebrating. After all, the official letter she’d just read declared her divorce final, which meant her three-year marriage to Scott Zimmons was over. Definitely done with.

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

  • I wrote a fictional setting, Catalina Cove, that will make you want to believe it’s a real place.
  • It will make you want to eat more blueberry muffins or try blueberry coffee.
  • It will entice you to spend at least one night at a bed and breakfast inn.

 

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Sawyer, the hero, was a law man through and through. He was also a great father who shared a wonderful relationship with his teenage daughter. He was a man ready for love, although he thought otherwise.

Vashti returned home to town whose memories were disheartening, only to discover Catalina Cove is where she really belonged. She rediscovered friends she’d left behind and made new friends that would make a lasting impression on her.

What surprised me about the couple was how their strong personalities worked for them than against them.

 

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

I would choose the scene when he pulled her over to give her a ticket. The flashy red Corvette convertible speeding down the highway with Vashti’s radio blasting, not knowing the sheriff is on her tail with blue lights flashing until he puts on siren. He’s angry when he gets out car and she’s wondering why he pulled her over. The chemistry upon that first meeting is dynamic.

 

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

You can go home again, knowing nothing stays the same and there might be changes for the good.

 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I am starting work on my next Westmoreland Legacy novel. I just finished Book 2 of the Catalina Cove Series and look forward to writing Book 3.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: 1 print copy of LOVE IN CATALINA COVE (limited to North American mailing addresses)

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you believe love in love at first sight?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from Love in Catalina Cove:

A few minutes later he sat down with his food in hand. By habit he rarely sat with his back to any door and selected a table that faced the door. He figured it was the former FBI agent in him. This particular table suited him just fine because he had the ability to see whoever entered long before they noticed him.
A short while later he stopped eating when Bryce Witherspoon walked in with the driver of that little red Corvette, Vashti Alcindor. He had a feeling Kaegan and Bryce had history. He’d derived that assumption from their body language whenever they were within a few feet of each other. Kaegan never said and he’d never asked.
He took in both women but his full concentration quickly moved to Vashti Alcindor as his gaze swept over her from head to toe. In the very spot where she was standing, while the brilliance of sunlight shined directly on her, she looked simply gorgeous. It had been a long time since he’d bestowed such a description on any woman but he would in this case. She deserved it.
While she was sitting in that car yesterday he’d only seen so much of her. Now he was seeing it all and he liked what he saw. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. So he didn’t, although maybe he should. No woman since Johanna had held his attention like Vashti was doing now.
Both women were wearing shorts and tops and his gaze sharpened as it roamed over her legs. They were a long and sleek pair that was perfect with her curvaceous hips and thighs. She was well toned and he knew a body as shapely as hers was the benefit of an active physical regime. More than likely she had a membership in one of those fitness centers in New York. You didn’t get a figure like hers just eating and sleeping.
Unlike yesterday when her hair had been down and flying in the wind, today it was pulled back in a ponytail and the style made her look younger. She could easily pass for a college coed instead of the thirty-two-year-old that he knew that she was.
His gaze went back to her face, an image he’d thought about after he’d gone to bed. A first for him there as well. He had been married to Johanna for twelve years and during that entire time hadn’t looked twice at another woman. Why was he trying to make up for lost time and why with this woman?
He watched her smile as she hurried across the floor when Chester came from behind the counter to engulf her in a huge bear hug. Even from where he sat Sawyer could see tears forming in her eyes and had to momentarily look away from such an emotional reunion. If what Trudy had said was true, and he had no reason to believe it wasn’t, this was Ms. Alcindor’s first time back to the cove in fourteen years. That was a long time not to come back home.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In her brand-new series, Brenda Jackson welcomes you to Catalina Cove, where even the biggest heartbreaks can be healed…

In the wake of a devastating teen pregnancy that left her childless and heartbroken, Vashti Alcindor left Catalina Cove, Louisiana, with no plans to return. Now, over a decade later, Vashti reluctantly finds herself back in her hometown after inheriting her aunt’s B and B. Her homecoming gets off to a rocky start when the new sheriff, Sawyer Grisham, pulls her over for speeding, and things go downhill from there.

The B and B, a place she’d always found refuge in when it seemed like the whole world was against her, has fallen into disrepair. When a surprising benefactor encourages Vashti to reopen the B and B, Vashti embraces a fresh start, and soon old hurts begin to fade as she makes new memories with the town—and its handsome sheriff…

But some pasts are too big to escape, and when a bombshell of a secret changes everything she thought was true, Vashti is left reeling. With Sawyer and his teenage daughter determined to see her through the storm, though, she’s learning family isn’t always a matter of blood—sometimes it’s a matter of heart.

Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Brenda Jackson is a New York Times bestselling author of more than one hundred romance titles. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and traveling. Email Brenda at [email protected] or visit her on her website at brendajackson.net.
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34 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: Love in Catalina Cove by Brenda Jackson”

  1. Mary Preston

    No, but I do believe in attraction at first sight. I think that true love takes time.

  12. Kay Garrett

    Definitely believe in love at first sight. My parents met on a blind date and were married 7 days later. They were married just shy of 60 years when my Dad passed away. They were still holding hands while watching TV every day.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

  20. BookLady

    I don’t believe in love at first sight. True love is complex and takes time.

  22. Patricia B.

    Yes in a way. My husband and I sat next to each other in chemistry class in high school. But that was it. just another classmate. When we met up again 7 years later, We were really meeting each other for the first time as adults. We both recognized there was something special between us.

  26. laurieg72

    Yes, I knew on our first date that I wanted to marry my husband. I had dated a lot prior to meeting him. The chemistry was undeniable. We are still together 41 years later.

  29. Jana Leah

    I’m more a believer in lust at first sight. Love takes a little longer.

  32. Debra Branigan

    I believe there can be a strong attraction that can lead to love, but I don’t believe a relationship of love can be built instantly.