Romantic Reads: Heart Pressed

The Story Behind the story of Heart Pressed by Melissa Wardwell

Heart Pressed is about family and the traditions that bind us to them. Some families are traditional with both parents still together and the siblings are expanding the family, but behind closed doors they are dysfunctional. Then you have those who are the last of their family and long to share the love they experienced with others.

Beth's family is dysfunctional in several ways but it is masked by the lives they lead. Her relationship with her mother leaves Beth feeling like an outsider looking in the mansion windows, longing to be included. The image of young Peter Pan, from the movie Hook, looking in the window of the home of his parents after being a lost boy for a few years comes to mind.

Then, there is Scott who has no family left, no legacy to carry on, and only a cousin (who you meet in the next book) to call family. His family was strong once and he searches for that connection with his friends to fill in the gap.

Now, Amara has also lost her parents but the roots she has in the vineyard help connect her to those who cultivated the land and planted the first vines. Her longing for more people to love draws her to take matters into her own hands.

Finally, Dante has all the family love he can handle but he is ready for his own. Living with his parents and grandparents, he helps them with the day to day running of their vineyard while working as a peacemaker of sorts to build bridges with those who were once friends.

One of the things I have found is that family is what you make it. Whether it is a close network of friends that you fellowship with regularly or the people you a share a genetic bond with, cultivating those relationships is what grounds a person and gives them roots. These are people God has put in our lives to mold us and help us grow. We learn from our grandparents’ stories, our parents discipline and discipleship, and other life lessons in how to be good, productive humans through relationships with our siblings (hopefully). Our lives all weave together in a beautiful tapestry that can only be designed by the Father. 

I hope you will take the time to read this, and the other stories, and see just how pivotal these families are to each other and the future of the Independence Islands.

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Author Bio:

Melissa Wardwell resides in Owosso, Michigan with her husband and three teen-aged children.

She doesn't mind alternating between the world of writing and the reality of being a mother, but she would rather sit with a good book or a good friend and a cup of coffee.

When she isn't penning works of fiction, she is busy reviewing books for her blog, Back Porch Reads. To see more from Melissa Wardwell, visit www.melissawardwell.com

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Book blurb for Heart Pressed:

Crushes are great for grapes, wine, and romance—not so great for hearts. 

The Sweetheart Festival, an Elnora Island institution, has sparked more than a few romances over the years, but who would have thought it would light a fire in two hearts from two of the island’s oldest families. When Amara Martin and Dante Greco meet, sparks fly that may ignite more than romance.

Two wineries, old feuds, generations of traditions.

Seeing the attraction at Amara and Dante’s chance meeting, Beth Stevens and Scott Anderson join forces to do a little matchmaking, not realizing the pressure it would bring to both households and their own hearts. 

The new couple must decide if they will adhere to tradition or break free from expectations and choose love. Pressure on every side threatens a love that hasn’t yet had a chance to ripen—for both Amara and Dante as well as for Beth and Scott.

In this “forbidden love” novel, Heart Pressed continues the Elnora Island romances of the Independence Islands Series featuring five islands, six authors, and a boatload of happily-ever-afters.

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Buy Heart Pressed on Amazon

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Connect with Melissa:
Website: www.melissawardwell.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mwardwellwrites
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mwardwellwrites
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/melissa-wardwell
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10794937.Melissa_Wardwell

Angela Ruth Strong's BOOK birthday and the inside scoop about her stories

Welcome my dear friend Angela Ruth Strong to the blog today!

She's here to share her thoughts on the story behind her "Finding Love" series of books.

This is a special day for Angela because it's the official release date of her latest book in the series, "Finding Love in Eureka, California"! So please wish her a "Happy BOOK birthday" in the comment section after you read her guest post.

God bless you! 

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Four Weddings and a Symbol
A guest post by Angela Ruth Strong

When I first started writing Finding Love in Sun Valley, I didn’t want to preach a sermon on getting saved. I wanted to create characters who were already Christians and who learned to make better decisions for their lives by reading the Bible. With this goal in mind, I basically integrated a Bible study on water into the novel.

Unexpectedly, the book became the first in a series, and with every sequel, I picked another part of nature to study. It took me deeper into the Word so that the sermon was preached to me. In case you haven’t read my books yet, I’ll sum the messages up for you.

Finding Love in Sun Valley—Water. God hovered over the water on the very first day of creation. As water is essential for life, it plays a big part in Bible stories from floods to fishing to healing to baptism. Ultimately, my characters learn to trust God for living water. And they are drawn together by God’s call to “come to the water.”

Finding Love in Big Sky—Stars. Being a Christmas story, the star was an easy choice. The setting is even at Bright Star Ranch, and the movie producer who is developing this book for film, has retitled it Bright Star Christmas. In this one, I shared the idea that God leads us all the same way he led the Wise Men to baby Jesus. The symbolism here is about how precious we are to Him. Like stars in the sky that God calls all by name.

Finding Love in Park City—Mountains. Park City hosted part of the 2002 Olympics above Salt Lake City because of its majestic mountains, so it’s the perfect setting for my characters to overcome the figurative mountains in their lives. It’s also the perfect place for God to “meet” them as He does on so many occasions in the Bible. It’s through CJ’s love of her son that she sees how much God must really love us to sacrifice His own son on a mountain.

Finding Love in Eureka—Trees. Oh man. This one rocked me. I read every verse in the Bible on trees and made a connection I’d never made before. In the beginning, we are cursed and lose access to the Tree of Life. In the end, we are given the Tree of Life once again. All because in the middle, Jesus died on a tree and took our curse upon himself. This connection is especially powerful for my heroine who stops reading the Bible when she gets to the part about children being cursed for the sins of their fathers up to four generations. She doesn’t think this is fair to either her or the adopted siblings in her family tree, but eventually, she seeks understanding. Being set in the Redwood Forest made this lesson of redemption even more real for her.

Though I consider Eureka to be my “least Christian” novel, it has the strongest message for Christ. It humbled me and made me fall in love with my savior all over again. And that’s really why I write Christian romance. To show that a romance can’t be a love story if God is not involved because God is love.

So though I started out not wanting to preach on salvation, every wedding I ever write about will be a symbol of how God is the bridegroom and we are the bride. My characters may live happily-ever-after, but only because we get to live happily FOREVER after. And that’s worth writing about.

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Author Bio: 

Angela lives in Idaho with her hubby and teenagers. 

She also works at an airline and teaches yoga because she'd rather get paid for her hobbies than actually work. 

That doesn't mean writing is easy, but her readers are worth it. She's got a lot more fun stuff headed your way, so check it out at www.angelaruthstrong.com.

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Blurb for Finding Love in Eureka, California: Raised in a family of six adopted siblings, Genevieve Wilson fights to keep her dysfunctional brothers and sisters together, but everyone still seems to leave. 

If she’s not good enough to prevent her birth parents or siblings from abandoning her, then there’s no way she would ever be enough to have a lasting relationship with the successful pilot from work…which is exactly what makes him a safe subject for her daydreams.

Matt Lake is dating the perfect woman and working a great job. Life is easy until he starts to enjoy hanging out with the airline employees more than with his girlfriend—one redhead in particular. He tells himself he’s only intrigued by Gen’s quirkiness, but nobody else makes him smile the way she does.

Can Matt give up the flawless life he’d planned in exchange for the messiness of love? And if so, will Gen risk her heart on reality when it’s never paid off in the past?

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Buy Angela's book on Amazon