Spotlight & Giveaway: The Hope Chest by Carolyn Brown

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Carolyn Brown to HJ!

Hi Carolyn and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Hope Chest!

 
Good morning everyone, and a big thank you to Harlequin Junkie for inviting me back to talk about my new book, The Hope Chest.
 

Tell us about the book with this fun little challenge using the title of the book:

T is for Today
H is for Hope
E is for Empowerment

H is for Happiness
O is for Overcoming
P is for Peace
E is for Experiences

C is for Compassion
H is for Hope
E is for Experiences
S is for Stitches
T is for Trust

Please share the opening lines of this book:

“It’s a good place to be from,” Flynn O’Riley muttered as he looked at the bright red T-shirt printed with Where the heck is Blossom, Texas? that was hanging on the wall. He scanned Weezys’ Restaurant for his two cousins, but evidently he was the first one to the meeting that afternoon.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book.

All three of the main characters who inherit Nanny Lucy’s house and land are only children and cousins. Nessa is a teacher who comes from West Texas, and is the organizer in the trio, but she has her own baggage and background, coming from super religious parents who still want to control her life. On the opposite side of the scale is Flynn, a womanizer who’s followed in his father’s rebellious steps. And then there’s April, who the other two thought was crazy for leaving Blossom as soon as she could, but they didn’t know the abuse she had suffered.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The waterfall near Nanny Lucy’s house. was inspired by LIttle Niagara, a small waterfall located in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, Oklahoma.
• When our two daughters were sixteen, Mr. B build each of them a Hope Chest with their initial hand carved in the front panel. Since then he’s built each of our granddaughters one when they graduate from high school. Knowledge of how he did that job came in handy for this book.
• I went to several quilting bees with my grandmother at her church, and remembering the ladies sitting around the frame came back to me as I was writing.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Jackson just wants to build his furniture, and be left alone, but his heart ignored what he wanted when he saw Nessa.
Nessa had vowed that she would never get into another relationship if it involved her being totally submissive, but when she met Jackson she began to rethink her idea.

The First Kiss…

Maybe just a little snippet of their first kiss:
Nessa leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. Instead of landing where she intended, the kiss landed square on his lips. He wrapped her up in his arms for the third time, and kissed her back—long and slow, sending tingles all the way to her toes.
When the kiss ended, she took a deep breath and said, “That’s to thank you for saving me, but I really only intended it to be a sweet kiss on the cheek.”
“I’m glad it was more,” he said. “I guess this was a date since I got a goodnight kiss at the door. Maybe we’ll go out again sometime.”
“You’ve got the number here at the O’Riley house.” She figured he was joking, but down deep inside she hoped he wasn’t.
“Night, Nessa.” He waved over his shoulder as he and Tex disappeared into the darkness.

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

This scene shows the three cousins in the quilting shed and gives a little background about them.

She shook her head to get such thoughts out and poked Flynn on the arm. “I always gave her rose-scented sachets for holidays. You might want to take them out of her dresser drawers before you unpack your things. The women might not flock around you like flies on a fresh cow patty if you smell like roses.”
“Then I will leave them right where they are,” Flynn told her.
“What’s this?” A cold chill chased up Nessa’s spine. Was Flynn having the same kind of emotional turmoil as their grandmother? “The playboy isn’t on the prowl anymore? Do give us details.”
“Like I said, it’s a conversation for another day, maybe never if we don’t become friends.” Flynn’s tone left no doubt that there was a story hidden deep in his heart—or maybe his soul.
“Did you find a picture of Jesus in your morning toast and decide to turn your life around?” Nessa asked.
Flynn turned toward her and gave her a dirty look. “Uncle Isaac would get a cold chill down his back over that comment.”
Nessa ran her hand over the first few squares in the quilt. “I doubt that. He would love to find a picture of his lord and Savior in a pancake or in his morning oatmeal. That would make him famous.” A heavy, tense feeling hovered in the shed as they all stared at the quilt again. “I loved coming out here with Nanny Lucy and watching her quilt. She had the neatest little stitches, so even and uniform.” Not even the good memory eased the tension.
“I was practically raised in this shed.” April sighed. “Nanny Lucy told me that she used to put me on a pallet before I could even crawl. And I spent hours under the frame when I’d done something bad, like remind her of my mother. I learned to stay down by the waterfall as much as possible just to stay out of her way. When Nanny Lucy put me under the quilt, I got tired of listening to them singing hymns and talking about the healing properties of the Spirit of God and patterns for making future quilts. I often wondered if God had quilting frames in heaven, and if he didn’t, would Nanny Lucy be happy there? I always felt like her quilting business, the ladies from the church and her garden club women came before me. I was just the burden from my mother’s death.”
“I wanted to live here when,” Flynn hesitated for a second, “my mother passed way. Nanny Lucy told me that she couldn’t raise another kid, and maybe if my father had to take care of me, it would straighten him out, but she was wrong. Nothing could ever straighten Matthew O’Riley out.”
“You might have been luckier than you realize.” April whipped around and glared at Flynn, bringing even more tension into the shed. “Nanny Lucy was over fifty when I was born, and thought she was done with raising kids. She told me that on a daily basis. When my mother died, she said that God told her she had to raise me.” She pushed a hand through her hair. “But enough of that depressing old story. Let’s get out of this place.”
“You’re not the only one that didn’t have a perfect life, girl. It’s a wonder that I ever got to come spend time here with you and Nanny Lucy,” Nessa said as she started outside. “Daddy used my time here as a disciplining tool, and believe me, I was not a perfect child.”
“Did you have to eat your carrots to get to come to Blossom?” April did a head wiggle when she smarted off.
“I wish that’s all it was,” Nessa didn’t even try to smile, “but it was more like ‘Vanessa, if you don’t say your prayers for at least thirty minutes, you don’t get to go to Blossom this summer.’ Or from Mama, it was, ‘Nessa, if I catch you wearing makeup again, you won’t be visiting your Nanny Lucy this summer. Jesus says I have to love Mother Lucy, but she’s a bad influence on you, and I don’t love that.’ Carrots had nothing to do with the way things were done in the Reverend Matthew O’Riley’s house.”
“I had no idea,” April followed her out of the shed. “I figured that, since you had parents, both of you were so much better off than I was.”
“I thought that, since you got to live with Nanny Lucy, you were so much better off than me or Flynn.” Nessa closed the door behind her. She had brought her own baggage to Blossom with her, but somehow her problems seemed minor compared to what she could see in her two cousins. “What about you, Flynn?”
“I’m not ready to talk about the past, but I would rather have lived here, no matter how tough it was, than live with my dad,” Flynn said.

If your hero had a sexy-times play list, what song(s) would have to be on it?

These might not be sexy times songs but they were important in the book.

• Everything’s Gonna be Alright by Kenny Chesney
• I’m Gonna be Somebody by Travis Tritt
• Where Corn Don’t Grow by Travis Tritt
• Broken Haloes by Chris Stapleton
• Storms Never Last by Miranda Lambert

If you could have given your characters one piece of advice before the opening pages of the book, what – would it be and why?

Keep talking to me so that I can get your stories all just right. I know it’s emotional for you, but I need to hear your feelings.

What are you currently working on? What are your up-coming releases?*

Small Town Charm (a novella from Small Town Rumors), July 13
Second Chance at Sunflower Ranch (with Small Town Charm as a bonus), July 27
Secrets in the Sand (a reissue and updated version of Honky Tonk Angel), July 27
Holidays on the Ranch, (reissue of Cowboy Boots for Christmas), Sept. 28
The Sunshine Club (women’s fiction), Dec. 7
Red River Deep (reissue of Red River Deep), Dec. 28
Texas Homecoming (2nd book in Ryan Family series), Jan 25, 2022
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I will give away a $25 Amazon gift card.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Have you ever quilted, or had a hope chest that you put prized possessions in?

 
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Excerpt from The Hope Chest:

“It’s a good place to be from,” Flynn O’Riley muttered as he looked at the bright red T-shirt printed with Where the heck is Blossom, Texas? that was hanging on the wall. He scanned Weezys’ Restaurant for his two cousins, but evidently he was the first one to the meeting that afternoon.
The mixed aromas of burgers, grilled onions, and coffee filled the place, bringing back memories of his childhood when his mother would pick him up at the local burger shop in Blossom. He always spent two weeks with Nanny Lucy, and even just as a toddler he would cry when it was time to leave his grandmother’s house. Stopping for a hot dog had started out as a ploy to keep him from crying when he left his grandmother’s house, but as he grew older, it became a tradition. One that he’d wished had never started after he was fifteen. That was the year his mother was killed in a terrible car wreck on her way to pick him up in Blossom.
He crossed the room, found an empty booth, slid into it, and tried to shake off the memory of the last time he’d sat in that same booth. Weezy’s had only been open for a little while, and he and Nanny Lucy were meeting his mother there for the first time. Always before, they’d met at a different café in town. He still remembered the smell of the steaming coffee that Nanny Lucy had ordered that morning. He looked at the table in front of him and got a visual of the half-eaten hot dog sitting before him that day when the policeman came in and whispered something to his grandmother.
Nanny Lucy told him bluntly that his mother had died in a car wreck that morning on the way from Austin to Blossom. “I loved that woman as much as if she’d been my own daughter, but your dad didn’t appreciate a good thing when he had it,” she’d said.
Nanny Lucy was a tough old girl, and Flynn had never seen her cry, not even that day to sympathize with him. He wept until he had no more tears, and then Nanny Lucy told him that his life would never be the same, but he was strong and would endure whatever got thrown at him.
“You can stay with me until the funeral is over, but then you have to go live with Matthew,” she had said. He knew better than to argue with Nanny Lucy, but anything—living in a cardboard box under a bridge—would be better than living with his dad, who Flynn was sure didn’t want him.
Matthew, Flynn’s father, was her estranged son. Flynn could count on the fingers of one hand the times he’d seen him from the time his folks divorced until his mother died.
“But Nanny Lucy,” he argued with tears streaming down his face, “Daddy doesn’t even want me for weekends or a couple of weeks in the summers.”
“You’ll have to learn to get along with him,” Nanny Lucy said.
The next three days were a blur. The graveside service was held at the cemetery there in Blossom. Only a handful of people were there. His mother had been the only child of parents who had been only children, and they were gone. The only family he had was Nanny Lucy and his father, and neither one wanted him. His father came to pick him up the very next morning. That was the year that Matthew had filed for divorce from stepmother number three, so for the next couple of years, it was just Flynn and Matthew in a fifth-floor apartment down near Bay City, Texas.
“I’m not changing my lifestyle one bit, boy,” Matthew had said when he showed Flynn the bedroom he would be using. “You can earn your keep around here by taking care of this apartment and learning to cook, and you are responsible for your own laundry. As soon as you’re sixteen, I’ll get you a job in the oil field business doing odd jobs after school and on weekends. Good hard work will keep you out of trouble.”
“Yes, sir,” Flynn had said and had borne his grief alone. He blinked away the past, coming back to the present. According to the sign on the wall, they still had coconut pie like Nanny Lucy had ordered that day. He imagined that hot dogs would be on the menu, but he still gagged at the thought of biting into a one. The taste always took him back to that terrible moment.
“Flynn O’Riley?” a masculine voice asked from the end of the booth.
“That’s me,” Flynn said, glad for the interruption that put an end to the sad memories.
“Paul Jones, Lucy O’Riley’s lawyer.” He stuck out a hand, pushing his wire rimmed glasses up his nose with the other.
Flynn shook with him. “Pleased to meet you. Nessa and April should be here soon.”
“I’m a little early,” Paul said, “and I’ve got a lot of papers for you grandchildren to sign. Would you mind if we moved to that table,” he nodded toward the other side of the room, “to give us more room?”
Flynn slid out of the booth and followed the short, gray-haired man across the room. Paul took a seat at the head of the table, pulled one of the extra chairs around to sit beside him, and put his brief case on it. He flipped it open and began spreading papers out in three stacks.
A waitress came from a booth full of ladies, laid two menus on the table and asked, “What can I get you guys?”
“Coffee and a cherry fried pie,” Paul answered, but he didn’t look up.
“Just coffee for now,” Flynn answered. “Maybe something to eat after we take care of this business, and we’ll need another menu or two by then.”
“Sure thing.” The young girl left smiling and returned in a couple of minutes with their order and extra menus.
“I’ll wait until your cousins get here to go over all this”–Paul motioned at the stack with a flick of his wrist–“but I can tell you that Lucy’s son, Isaac, didn’t have a leg to stand on when he protested this will. All he did was prolong this day for six months. It had to be tough on Vanessa to take the stand against her own father. I’d wondered why you and April didn’t show up, then. But most of all, I’m wondering why you’re here today, since I’m sure Vanessa told you the details of the will and the court proceedings.you all know the details in the will.”
“I don’t know about my cousins, but I need a month away from my lifestyle to get some perspective. But if you’d have asked me to testify back then, I would have been there. Nessa and I couldn’t find April at that point, so she probably didn’t even know there was a will or that Uncle Isaac had contested it. He probably thought being a preacher put God on his side.” Flynn chuckled. “
He’s not on my side, that’s for sure. I need this month away from women. Away from my father. Away from myself, he thought.
“Blossom is a good place to get away from everything, for sure, and you’re right about Nessa. The Reverend Isaac was pretty full of himself in court, but Vanessa proved him wrong. He was pretty angry when things didn’t go his way. I’ve wondered if it caused a split between him and his daughter.” Paul nodded, and changed the subject. “I love the cherry pies in this place. And their hot dogs are amazing.”
“I’m a burger man myself,” Flynn said. Just the thought of a biting into a hot dog a wave of horrible memories.
“They’re pretty good, too,” Paul agreed.
“I really thought Uncle Isaac would convince the judge that Nanny Lucy was out of her mind when she made her last will. He’s very persuasive and usually gets what he wants. But Nessa is tough. I imagine that she did fine without me and April to back her up.” Flynn looked up as the door opened and was glad to see that April had arrived with Nessa.
“She sure did.” Paul nodded.
Flynn was only five feet-eight inches tall, but Nessa was even shorter. Her curly red hair was pulled up on top of her head, adding about three inches, with springy curls going every which way. She marched across the floor with the same no-nonsense expression he remembered her having when they were kids. The sunlight coming through the window lit up every one of the hundred freckles on her square face, a face the same shape as Nanny Lucy’s. He hadn’t seen Nessa since Nanny Lucy’s funeral six months ago, but she hadn’t changed a bit. She gave off the impression that she could spit in a charging bull’s eye without hesitation.
April was a different matter. She was only four months younger than Nessa, but she looked ten years older. She’d always been tall and thin, but that day her clothes hung on her like a burlap bag on a broom stick. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a ponytail, but a few strands had escaped to stick to the sweat on her narrow face, and her green eyes looked haunted as they darted around the restaurant. She finally managed a weak smile when she locked eyes with Flynn. He hadn’t seen her in at least ten years, and she’d definitely changed—a lot!
“Sorry, I’m late. I got stuck in construction traffic around Wichita Falls.” Nessa pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.
“And I’m running on a prayer and four bald tires, so I didn’t dare go very fast.” April sighed as she slid into a chair beside Nessa.
“So, this is it, Mr. Jones,” Nessa said. “Is Daddy still cussin’ you through his lawyer? He’s tried every way in the world to find a loophole to appeal this will.”
“Please, call me Paul. There are no loopholes. Miz Lucy O’Riley made sure of that when she had me draw it up,” he said, “and you ladies aren’t late. We’ve only been here a few minutes.” He adjusted his bifocals and focused on April. “You’re the youngest one of the grandchildren, right?”
“Yes,” she answered. “I’m April, born in that month. Nessa was born in January and Flynn on the last day of February, so I’m just barely the youngest, and I’m pleased to meet you.” April’s eyes seemed to be glued on the last bite of pie on Paul’s plate.
“Do y’all want a cup of coffee or a fried pie?” Flynn asked. “I’m going to wait until we get done here before I order.”
“I’ll wait, but I am hungry. I skipped lunch so I wouldn’t be too late,” Nessa said.
“I’d like a sweet tea,” April said.
Flynn caught the waitress’s attention and ordered tea for April and refills for Paul and himself.
“Are we ready then?” Paul handed each of them a folder. “This is a copy of her will. In simple language, it says that you three grandchildren inherit her entire estate to be held jointly, which is the two-bedroom house, her quilting shed, the four and a half acres that it sits on and everything in the house. The property cannot be sold. She wanted it to always be there in case one of you needed a place to live or just wanted to use it for a vacation home. There is a quilt in the frame out in her work shed, and before any of you can leave, you have to hand quilt it. She was adamant about that part of the will. It cannot be quilted on the sewing machine. If any of you fail to work together, then you forfeit your third to the other two.” He flipped through a few more papers. “There is a hope chest, also known as a cedar chest, that you will put the quilt in when it is completed. That hope chest is now in the care of Jackson Devereaux, her friend and nearest neighbor, and it will remain in his care until one of you gets married. The person who marries first inherits the chest. Jackson also has the key to the hope chest and will open it for you when the quilt is finished. You can see whatever is inside when you open it, and at that time, the contents will belong to you three grandchildren. She didn’t even tell me what’s in the chest, so it will be your surprise.”
“It’s probably some of her extra pillowcases,” Nessa said.
“Or maybe she kept all her money in there rather than burying it in quart jars out in the back yard,” Flynn chuckled. She had to have money hidden somewhere. She lived frugally, and sold her quilts and quilt kits for a high price, so what did she do with the profits?
“What if we don’t give a damn about the hope chest or what’s in it?” April asked.
“That’s your choice, but I would advise you strongly to at least finish that quilt and find out what Lucy has left you. Now, the last thing we need to consider is her car. It is part of the estate and cannot be sold. The keys are on this ring with the house key.” He handed the ring to Nessa, and then laid out a stack of papers with yellow, red and blue tabs. “Each of you need to sign on every sheet. This is acknowledging that I have explained the terms of the will and that you are accepting them. April, you are yellow, Flynn you are blue, and Vanessa red.”
Nessa picked up the pen first and began flipping pages and signing on the appropriate lines. “What if none of us want to leave at the end of the quilting stuff?” She tucked an errant strand of curly red hair behind her ear as if focused on the document, but her steely blue eyes floated in tears.
Leave it to Nessa to ask that question. She’d always been Nanny Lucy’s favorite of the three, even when she rebelled against her father’s strict religion and did not marry the guy that he had picked out for her. Nessa looked like Lucy and had been the daughter of her favorite child.
“Then I suggest you learn to live together in harmony,” Paul answered as he pulled envelopes from his briefcase.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 

Book Info:

A grandmother’s loving bequest changes three lives forever in a heartwarming novel about finding love, hope, and family by New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown.

An inheritance has reunited three estranged cousins. Their grandmother Lucy left Nessa, Flynn, and April her home nestled in the woods near Blossom, Texas, as well as a hope chest to be unlocked after they complete a special task. Together, they must hand-stitch a cherished quilt Lucy left unfinished. It meant everything to her. And now, to three people struggling with their own patchwork pasts…

To Nessa, the house has always been an escape from her strict parents—a home away from home. Flynn has followed a profligate path into adulthood, never guessing it would lead him here. And the town of Blossom only stirs up a lifetime of disappointments for April. Lost and with nowhere to go, her last chance is helping fulfill Nanny Lucy’s final wish.

Thread by healing thread, Nessa, Flynn, and April bond over the quilt and all it represents. As they discover the family they’ve been looking for in one another, they share more than memories. They share the hope of new beginnings.
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Meet the Author:

Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly and #1 Amazon and #1 Washington Post bestselling author and a RITA finalist. She is the author of more than 100 novels and several novellas. She’s a recipient of the Bookseller’s Best Award, Montlake Romance’s prestigious Montlake Diamond Award, and also a three-time recipient of the National Reader’s Choice Award. Brown has been published for more than 20 years, and her books have been translated 20 foreign languages.
When she’s not writing, she likes to plot new stories in her backyard with her tom cat, Boots Randolph Terminator Outlaw, who protects the yard from all kinds of wicked varmints like crickets, locusts, and spiders. Visit her at www.carolynbrownbooks.com.
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