Spotlight & Giveaway: WHAT WE COULD HAVE BEEN by Jess Sinclair

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Jess Sinclair to HJ!

Hi Jess and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, WHAT WE COULD HAVE BEEN!

 
Hi there! Thanks so much for hosting me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

In What We Could Have Been, we meet former childhood sweethearts Bluebelle Shea and Enzo Castellari in the aftermath of traumatic events that tore a rift between their two families years earlier. Blue is returning home to her small fishing town on Florida’s Gulf Coast, fleeing her toxic husband and crumbling marriage in hopes of repairing her relationship with her father. When Enzo encounters Blue, he is overwhelmed with the weight of his feelings for her; but his life is different now. There’s no way he can be with her; he struggles to leave the past where it belongs. As Blue begins to unravel what really happened the night her mother died, she discovers years of secrets, lies, and betrayal and works toward uncovering the truth and redemption for her father.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

Being face to face with Bluebelle Shea again was like walking a tightrope. Trying to forge a new friendship, even starting with baby steps, might be a bad idea. He’d have to keep his feelings in check. “Well. I happen to have an opening for a friend right now.” What the ever-loving fuck was wrong with him? Why had he said that?

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The characters of Enzo and Blue are (very) loosely modeled on my husband and myself, at least in part. We met when we were little kids, and spent every Saturday morning together at our Detroit grocery store waiting in line at the cartoon booth, though we didn’t end up friends or childhood sweethearts as Enzo and Blue did. But when we randomly met again at age 17, a decade later, we figured out that we’d already met years ago, as children. I started thinking about what might happen to a couple who has loved each other their whole entire lives, but is separated for years and then reunited.
• The book has a side storyline with Irish fairy lore, in Blue’s backyard fairy garden. Blue’s efforts to clear out the debris and restore the fairy garden she and her mother created works as a metaphor for Blue restoring herself .
• The truest, most conventional love story in this book is that of Blue’s best friend Sierra and her fiance, Chloe. Sierra and Chloe provide for Blue a living example of what love can be at its best. And when Blue is despondent and uncertain about every single part of her life, Sierra is the voice of reason, offering Blue an alternate perspective on love and marriage and how to know if someone is “the one.”
• I discovered Rumi while writing this book. I’d seen a quote or two before, but I found that Rumi’s philosophies fit so perfectly with the character arc of Blue and her son Murphy and even of Enzo and Blue, I ended up incorporating Rumi quotes into the storyline, delivered in a really cool way.

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

Blue and Enzo have been friends since they were three, when their mothers brought them to play on the beach and their families spent time with each other. But as teens, they gradually became much more; it was as if someone had turned a light on in another room that neither of them knew was there. Bluebelle is an only child, and she’s initially drawn to Enzo’s big Italian family; but more than that there is no one like Enzo to Blue. He sees her, all of her, he knows her better than anyone, still, and he’s always made her feel treasured.
Enzo is initially drawn to Blue’s sweet, calm nature, and her very small, loving family of three. He still remembers seeing her parents dancing in the kitchen and being aware that love looked different in her family than in his own. Enzo feels fully himself when he is with Blue; when she looks at him, he is home.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I don’t cry often, but this book made me cry several times while writing it. The ending had me smiling and sobbing, kind of a lovely thing to write through.
But there are several instances that made me laugh during edits as I was rereading; one is in the quote above, as Enzo knows he’s walking a tightrope and still goes ahead and takes a leap anyway.
The scene that made me blush takes place in a hospital hallway between Enzo and Blue, as she’s dealing with fear over her father’s illness and on the brink of falling apart and Enzo is trying hard to be there for her while not crossing any boundaries. Here’s a bit of that scene:

She turned her face into his neck, closing her eyes, and hugged him back. Her hand brushed over the hot, smooth skin at the back of his neck, and she slid her fingers into his hair. Like she’d waited forever to do when she was fifteen, like she’d done so many times after that. His breathing quickened with hers. She pressed her lips to his neck without any conscious
thought. He tasted of sweat and citrus.

Readers should read this book….

for a page-turning, hard to put down, Romeo-and-Juliet-esque romance without the tragic ending. Anyone who loves the emotion and drama of This Is Us, Virgin River, or Nicholas Sparks stories will love this book, an emotional rollercoaster ride with surprising depth and characters you can’t stop thinking about.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m working on GRACE OF MERMAIDS, a second book set in the same world, in which Enzo’s brother meets marine biologist Grace Kincaid, who was saved from drowning as a child by mermaids, who she later learned were manatees. A young widow, Grace is struggling to help her young daughter cope, as she hasn’t spoken a word in two years since witnessing her father’s murder. The manatees in Grace’s care at the Gulf Coast aquarium are dying, and as Grace works to discover a cure, she learns “her” manatees may also be the key to helping her daughter. But when Enzo’s brother Matteo confesses his family’s possible role in the manatees’ illness, Grace faces losing the man she’s falling in love with, and Matteo is forced to choose between love and family. This book doesn’t have a publication date yet; but fingers crossed!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I’m giving away two signed physical copies of WHAT WE COULD HAVE BEEN plus book swag! (US only)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What is your favorite romance trope? Or, what trope do you shy away from or prefer to avoid?

 
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Excerpt from What We Could Have Been:

Enzo’s brow was furrowed in pain. He finally let his hand fall away from his face and carefully, painfully looked up. From above, the sea blue eyes of Bluebelle Shea gazed into his.
Enzo was suddenly no longer in the emergency room. He was eleven years old on Bliss Beach, grains of sand in his nose and eyes, still choking from being swept out with the undertow of high tide, reeling from the disorienting pummeling and pulling of the waves until hands had grabbed his arms, dragging him upright and onto the safety of the beach before he drowned. Blue
staring down at him, the clear blue sky behind her pale blonde halo of hair, was permanently seared into his memory.
He blinked, and the stab of pain jerked him back to the present in Collier County ER. Her hair was longer and she was taller. There was something different about her eyes. But it was
her.
She pulled on gloves and handed him a tissue and finally looked into his eyes again, upside down. He searched her gaze, looking for something, some acknowledgment that she’d thought about him. One long blonde strand of hair had come loose from her ponytail and curved down over her jaw, just touching the pale skin of her neck. Enzo’s hand involuntarily twitched as he thought of brushing it back. He clenched his fists.
“This might sting a little.” She gently pulled his lower eyelid down and dabbed with a thin strip of paper. She let go. “Go ahead and blink a few times please to distribute the dye.”
He did as she said. It stung more than a little.
“There are two fragments,” she said. “Try to lie still.” Blue picked up an instrument and brought her face closer to his, concentrating.
Enzo’s heart pounded in his throat. She smelled exactly the same, how was that even possible? He inhaled, breathing in the scent of sweet pea flowers, a heartrending assault on his senses
and memory. His eyes filled with tears and he swallowed hard, trying not to blink.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and his throat closed, a hot tear streaking toward his temple. “I know this is uncomfortable. You’re doing a great job at staying still.”
He gulped air, knowing he was doing a shitty job at hiding what she had apparently misread as physical pain. Unable to escape the scent of sweet peas, images flooded his mind: Blue hopping the backyard fence in her junior prom dress, waves of pink fluffing out around her as he caught her; her pale, arched neck as his lips brushed her collarbone, every curve of her body pressed against his; her palms flat on his chest, shoving him away that last night, when she’d broken his heart.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In this richly imagined novel, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Taylor Jenkins Reid, a terrible betrayal triggers a feud that casts its shadow over the fates of two families in a small Florida fishing community. When a hunt for the truth rekindles a forbidden alliance, these families must choose to unearth more deception or finally claim redemption.

Bluebelle Shea and Enzo Castellari are hardly more than children when they fall in love, despite the objections of their families, who have been at war for years. They don’t know the reason for the brutal rift, but nothing matters except the way they feel. Their hopeful plan for the future is shattered the night Blue’s mother drowns—and her father is arrested for murder.

Ten years later, fleeing a disastrous marriage, Blue returns home with her young son, Murphy. As she settles into the community once more, chance throws her together with Enzo, and she is startled by the rekindled attraction he stirs inside her.

Drawn together time and again, Blue and Enzo try to untangle years of conflicting emotions and bittersweet memories. When a frightening crisis strikes, Enzo doesn’t hesitate to come to Blue’s aid. Resolved to put the past behind them, they fight to learn not only what really happened the night Blue’s mother died, but the truth behind the destructive clash between their families.

At its heart, What We Could Have Been explores the bonds between families, friends, and lovers, and poignantly illustrates the ways we can heal after betrayal. Suffused with detail and sentiment, this is a novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever fought for their own happy ending.
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Meet the Author:

JESS SINCLAIR writes women’s and book club fiction with heart and grit. Sinclair’s debut novel, WHAT WE COULD HAVE BEEN, published October 10th, 2023 with Alcove Press, distributed by Penguin Random House. ​Jess Sinclair also writes mystery novels as Tracy Gardner. The author earned the Mary Higgins Clark Edgar Award nomination in 2022 for her RUBY RED HERRING, also a New York Public Library Best 100 of 2021 book.
A Detroit native with one foot in the sand of Florida’s Gulf Coast, Jess Sinclair is the mother of three, the daughter of two teachers, and works as a nurse when not writing. She lives with her husband and a menagerie of spoiled rescue dogs and cats.
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