When Love Inspires: Brandy's story

When Love Inspires: Brandy's story

Back in Colorado, during my book launch party for The Last Summer, one of the ladies there said to me something to the effect of "You must have such a romantic life to write romance!"

I choked back a laugh, cleared my throat, and set the record straight. Maybe it’s a misconception that romance writers are living lives of roses and passionate getaways and love notes left for you on your pillow. I’ve been married for nearly 16 years—and while there are those things I just mentioned at times (well, maybe love texts and emojis rather than notes!)—my days are probably similar to everyone else’s in my stage of life.

My “book boyfriend” is always going to be Outlander’s Jamie Fraser. My husband Jeff likes to remind me that Jamie’s a fictional character, created by a woman, and that’s why women love him. Because he’s all the things women want. (I have rebuttal arguments but we won’t go into that!) I think we see a lot of this in romance, right? Billionaire boyfriends falling in love with the housekeeper (or the nanny! Always the nanny for some reason!). Extraordinary athletes coming home and falling in love with the girl next door. Princes falling for commoners. I read these stories too! Happily Ever After comes and you sigh with happiness, because you just know that the couple will always be crazy about each other, never have financial squabbles, and never go through anything that might take them to marriage counseling.

Then there’s real life.

I love Valentine’s Day, but not because of expensive dinners or outrageous flower arrangements. Because romance is in the little things. And love extends to family and friends, not just couples. I write romance because there’s something real and special about finding your person, even if he’s not a Scottish highlander who’s perfect (cough!). And that’s for everyone, whether they’ve found that person yet or not. 

In my new book After the Rain, the main character is a girl going through depression. The truth is that a relationship doesn’t solve that. Many of us have been there. I’ve been there. In the right relationship, your partner comes alongside you in the dark times, and you go on the journey together. And finding that person is, to me, worth writing about!

~*~

Author Bio: 

Brandy Bruce is a mom, a wife, a book editor, an author, and someone who really loves dessert. 

She’s the author of the award-winning novel The Last Summer, Looks Like Love, and The Romano Family Collection. 

Brandy, her husband, and their children make their home in Virginia.

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Blurb for Brandy's book: 

After the Rain is a picture of what it looks like to desperately need change, to want to rediscover yourself, and to feel so stuck that maybe you can’t move with help. 

Debra Hart is moving on. Maybe. Hopefully. One day.

As a radio show host, Debra spends her mornings as Miss Lonely Heart on air, empathizing with all the broken hearts in the Denver metro area. She spends her evenings watching old musicals and trying not to think about the guy who broke up with her and subsequently fell in love with one of her best friends. Alone in a new city, Debra questions where she belongs and who she is now.

When she stumbles into the indie music scene, Debra meets singer Ben Price. Rock star appeal, with a day job as a worship pastor, Ben is everything Debra wants to avoid. But he’s determined to be her friend, and it so happens she could really use one. Because try as she might, nothing seems to erase the anger and betrayal she feels.

It’s time for a new dream. But how does she start over when she doesn’t even know what she wants anymore?

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Connect with Brandy:
Amazon Author Page - https://amzn.to/2Mk5K5r
Blog - https://brandybruce.blogspot.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/BrandyBruce
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/alittlebitofbrandy/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/authorBrandyBruce/
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/brandybruce/

Website - https://www.authorbrandybruce.com

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Enter this book giveaway contest for your chance to WIN a copy of this book by filling out the entry form on the Rafflecopter widget below: 

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Book Spotlight: The Last Summer, a romance story by Brandy Bruce

Meet Brandy Bruce. She is an author and editor of books, wife to a man named Jeff, and mom to their three adorable children. She loves dessert, especially cheesecake. 

Brandy's been our guest before but today, she's here to share an excerpt from her newest novel, The Last Summer! It's a great story. Read my review of her book then enjoy the story excerpt! :)

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Book: The Last Summer

Author: Brandy Bruce

Reviewed by: Alexis A. Goring

Author Brandy Bruce shares her Contemporary Romance fictional story about a circle of friends who support each other like family and hold each other’s hearts.

The Last Summer is the title of her story and it’s a winner! Readers will find the supportive friendship of these main characters to be something that most people desire in real-life.

The story focuses on Sara Witherspoon and her longtime crush Luke. The author does a great job of keeping the focus while also giving the reader time with each of the friends in Sara and Luke’s circle. She does an amazing job of keeping the secondary characters’ subplots in line with the overall plot without confusing the reader, which can happen when an author has more than four main characters. There are seven friends in this story.

The reader is invited to go with Sara and her friends to their lake house summer getaway, engage in the wedding planning, and eat meals with the characters and their families. It is a delightful experience that makes the reader feel like they are in the story with the characters.

This story is about a summer that changes everything. One of their friends is getting married. Another already married announces that she is pregnant. Sara discovers a secret that her parents kept from her, and she struggles to deal with the heartbreak of watching her best friend Luke date Debra.

A handsome pilot from North Carolina enters the story and begins to woo Sara’s heart and for a while, it works. But then there’s Luke who she’s loved from day one, which makes Sara more distressed and confused.

As the story progresses, the plot thickens and this close circle of seven friends finds their bond being tested as they’re faced with a common struggle: Does growing older and making life changes mean that they will grow apart?

The Last Summer is an engaging story filled with likable characters, memorable moments, situations that are true to real life, and a lot of heart.

*The author provided Alexis A. Goring with an ARC of her book in exchange for an honest review.

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Excerpt from Chapter Two of The Last Summer by Brandy Bruce:

Addison slid on her sunglasses. “Can you believe this heat?”

I dug through my purse for my own sunglasses. “After a lifetime spent in Texas, unfortunately, yes, I can believe it. Where ARE my sunglasses? Grrr! And I just realized I forgot sunscreen. Someone better have some.” I shook my purse.

Addison tsk-tsked. “How many Diet DPs have you had this morning?”

My addiction: Diet Dr Pepper. The gang liked to tease me about it. As if drinking Dr Pepper in Texas was a novelty. Sure, I might drink more soda than most—but we all have our vices. Thankfully, I’ve managed to keep my unnatural-for-anyone-older-than-ten-years-old appreciation for cherry Fruit Roll-Ups a secret to this point.  

“What about Yoda?” Addison asked.

“She’ll be fine. She’ll have complete run of the place for two days and she’ll love that. I’ll come home to so much fur everywhere that you’d think I lived with a gorilla.” I found my sunglasses and calmed down, then sweet-talked Addison into pulling through a McDonald’s drive-through so I could get a large Diet DP. It was Addison’s fault really. She’d brought it up and then I realized I’d forgotten to bring one for the road.

Summer in Texas was brutal. And even in early June . . . well, you learned to get used to it. The temperature on the car dial read 95 degrees. We chit-chatted as we drove through the city; once we passed the Houston city limits, I turned down the radio.

“So tell me how things are with Glen,” I told Addison, speaking of her boyfriend of the past nine months. She’d met the African-American youth pastor from a nearby Bible church at a leadership conference.

“Good. I adore him,” Addison said.

 “Well, what’s not to adore?” I said, thinking of Addison’s attractive, outgoing, crazy-smart but kind-of-obsessed-with-bike-riding boyfriend, and Addison smiled.

“So true.”

“Are you doing that bike marathon with him this summer?” I asked and worked hard to keep my lips in a line to keep from laughing at the immediate frown on Addison’s face.

“Hmm. I don’t know. Probably. It’s kind of a long marathon and I’m not really . . . but, yeah, I mean, if I buy a new bike seat . . .” her thoughts trailed off.

“Are you in love with Glenn?” I asked.

“Without a doubt. I’m one hundred percent in love with that man,” she sighed a happy sigh, all thoughts of bike-riding having vanished.

“How do you know?” I wondered.

“When it’s love, Sara, you know.” She gave me a sideways glance and her demeanor shifted again.

“How’s Luke doing?”

It wasn’t strange that she asked me. Everyone in our group knew that Luke and I were close.

“You know, he called me earlier, sounding a little distracted, saying we need to talk. Probably a work issue. Other than that, I think he’s fine. He has a lot of pressure on him at his job. That promotion last year has been a mixed blessing. More money, way more responsibility. Still, he’s so capable,” I felt like I was rambling. The conversation with him earlier kept flashing back.

“Like you,” Addison said, turning on her blinker and switching lanes.

“What?” I asked, my mind on that phone call.

“Capable like you,” Addison said again. “It’s like you two are the same person, Sara. You know that. We all know that. You finish each other’s sentences. It’s almost creepy how similar you and Luke are.”

“It’s not creepy!” I protested. But she was right. My friendship with Luke had started slow; conversations that ran long after hanging out with friends, running errands together because we always seem to take the same approach about shopping, about getting things done. Our taste in restaurants, entertainment, our views on spirituality—everything clicked. Eventually we just started spending more and more time together because our friendship was so easy.

Easy.

Easy for him.

“Do you think it’s hard for girls and guys to be friends?” I asked Addison. From her side profile, I watched her nod.

 “Yes. But it’s possible. Look at the seven of us. Our friendship is . . . “

“Unique,” I answered after a moment.

“Right,” she agreed, checking her blind spot before switching lanes again. “You and Jason are friends, and I was afraid you wouldn’t be after you two broke up.”

“I was afraid of that, too. I’m incredibly thankful we’ve managed to stay friends, great friends. And Luke—well, Luke and I are BFFs and he isn’t even a girl.”

Addison chuckled.

“He’s your match, I guess,” she said. I didn’t answer. The words swirled in my head. For some reason, they didn’t land, they just kept swirling.

“Could you tell from the beginning?” I asked. “Was that why you wanted me in the group, Addison? Because Luke and I were so much alike?”
            Addison turned off the freeway. She shook her head without looking at me.

“Oh no, Sara. It was because of how Jason looked at you from the moment you walked in the room that day. I thought you were Jason’s match.” 

~*~
Author Bio: Brandy Bruce is a mom, a wife, a book editor, an author, and someone who really loves dessert. She’s the author of the novels Looks Like Love, The Romano Family Collection, and The Last Summer (June 2017 release). Brandy, her husband, and their children make their home in Colorado.

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Buy Brandy's book on Amazon

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Connect with Brandy:
Website - https://brandybruce.blogspot.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/BrandyBruce
Instagram - @ALittleBitofBrandy
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/authorBrandyBruce/
Amazon Author Page - http://amzn.to/2rxoINc

Words of Faith: Why Brandy Bruce chooses to TRUST God

Trusting in God 

A Words of Faith story by Brandy Bruce

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” 

~Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)

It’s become kind of a trend for people to choose a word of the year in January. This might be taking the place of a resolution for some, or just something that goes alongside your resolutions. Last year, I chose the word brave. It seemed like a good one. For one thing, I knew I’d be having a baby in March, and I’m terrified of childbirth. For another reason, I knew that after my baby was born, I was going to leave the place I’d been working for the past decade. Three kids and an editing job felt like too much for me. I knew I needed some breathing room. But change can be scary. Life changes, having babies, raising kids, following dreams—all of those are good things, but sometimes they take a little courage.

This year, the moment I started thinking I needed to choose a word, trust was whispered to my heart. I know without a doubt that God is teaching me to trust him. I’ll be honest with you, trusting God doesn’t come easy for me. The second half of Proverbs 3:5, “lean not unto your own understanding” is difficult. When it comes to trust, I like to reason things out. God tells us to trust him, but he doesn’t necessarily promise to give us what we want or what we think we need. That’s too open-ended for me! Still, that’s the way it goes.

There comes a time when we have to choose trust over logic. Trust over reason. Trust even over understanding. I can tell you that my faith journey involves more of these moments than I’m comfortable with. However, every time I dig deep and say, “Okay, Father, I don’t understand what You’re doing here, but I’m trusting in You,” my relationship with God gets a little tighter. It’s a little more real.

When I read that verse above, I can’t help feeling that God had people like me in mind. He knew that I’d need the directive to trust him, not my own reasoning. Some things about this life don’t make sense to me. The level of evil. The injustice everywhere.

Trust.

Despite everything you see. Despite everything you can’t see. Trust.

There’s a bigger picture. There’s a plan. There’s more to the story.

As I mentioned before, I’m basically terrified of childbirth. Yet I’ve had three beautiful children. Each time I’ve had to trust the doctor helping me. Trust that she knows what she’s doing. Trust that she can see me through the hardest moments. And trust that she wants what’s best for me (and baby). It’s always scary. It’s always painful. But the end is always worth it! I’d go through every minute all over again to get these three babies of mine.

The faith journey is similar in the sense that God knows what he’s doing. He’ll see us through those hard moments. He wants good things for us.

So he calls us to trust him and we keep trying.

What’s your word for this year?

~*~
Author bio:. 

Brandy Bruce has worked in book publishing for more than ten years. 

She's an editor and an author and a woman who really loves dessert. 

Brandy lives in Colorado with her husband and three children.

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Connect with Brandy:
Blog - http://brandybruce.blogspot.com
Author page - https://www.facebook.com/authorBrandyBruce
Twitter handle - @BrandyBruce 

Love is in the Air: Be God's

"Be Mine" and "You Belong to Me" are popular phrases spoken by people we know and sung by famous musicians in every language around the world. These words and song lyrics convey a universal message known to humankind: We all want to be loved. Such sentiments fill our minds with romantic notions. Such words sweetly spoken (or sung) to us capture our hearts and inspire our minds with the idea of falling in love with a special someone and spending forever together.

Did you know that you as a human are already loved? You're not just loved by people you know and can see, you are loved and deeply known by the invisible, Almighty God who wants you to know and love Him too. Yes, you heard me right. The Creator of the Universe (God) wants to be yours! It's true. Read Ephesians 1:4 for proof. God loves you with all of His divine heart and He asks you to be His not just on Valentine's Day but every single day of your life. Best of all, a relationship with God lasts forever as in eternity!

Today, my dear writer friend Brandy Bruce is here to encourage you to "Be God's". 

I hope you are encouraged and inspired by her devotional. 

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Be God’s
A devotional written by Brandy Bruce

When I was in high school, I was a huge Rich Mullins fan. Songs like "Awesome God", "Sometimes by Step" and "Hold Me, Jesus" inspired me and strengthened my faith. I still remember how utterly sad I was to hear of his tragic death. Just a college student at the time myself, I knew the world had lost something special when Rich Mullins past away. A couple of years later I went to a concert by his band, the Ragamuffins. They were selling T-shirts with a phrase on them that Rich loved: Be God’s.

The phrase has stuck with me ever since. Be God’s.

What does it mean? To be honest, I’m still learning that. But along my winding faith journey, I think I’ve learned what it doesn’t mean.

Let me back up a bit. The truth is that my faith journey has had its ups and downs. Periods of intense doubt. Mountain top highs. Deep valley lows. Moments where I’ve felt close to God. Moments where I’ve been unsure. Not everyone can relate, I know.

Some can.

I’ve struggled with faith. I still do sometimes, but I’ve reached a point where I cling to faith even when I’m not sure. I choose faith even when riddled with unbelief. I choose Jesus, over and over again. I’m not saying it always comes easy. It’s a choice made with my heart and my mind and my soul.

During one specific season of my life, I found myself feeling hopeless, feeling broken. Maybe you’ve been there.

In the midst of doubt and brokenness, I only had the spiritual strength to whisper, “I still believe.”

And it was enough.

That’s when I learned what it means to be God’s . . . and what it doesn’t. My faith doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. Yours doesn’t have to resemble mine—your faith journey is your own. Like mine is my own. I’ve looked at other women in my life and beyond, and thought to myself: I can’t be like her. My faith is so wobbly, God could never use me like he uses her. She probably never goes through periods of doubt. She probably reads her Bible every single morning. She probably never skips church. She would never read that book or watch that movie. She’s probably an amazing wife and mother, and her husband adores her. She probably walks and talks and breathes spirituality. I’m nothing like her. The terrible part is that I don’t even want to be! It looks exhausting.

Have you had thoughts like that?

In the middle of that season of doubt, I found Jesus still there. It occurred to me that because He’s enough, I don’t have to worry about whether I am. When thoughts like the ones above swirl through my mind, He’s that voice telling me that I don’t have to be like anyone else. He loves me just as I am. My relationship with Him is unique, like any real relationship. It’s our own love story, you know. I’m just me. I’m a work in progress, and I’m loved by God through every step of the refining process. I was loved before I chose to be God’s. He loved me then. He loves me now.

He loves you too.

I have no idea what happened to that T-shirt I bought that day. It was white, with black letters scrawled across in Rich’s handwriting. I wore it until the edges frayed and the white wasn’t quite so bright. Be God’s.

Not “be perfect” or “be like her” or “be better” or even “be strong.” Just be God’s. It’s enough.

When I first started to write Second Chance Café, I didn’t know that Isabella’s faith journey would start to look like mine. As her character began to take shape, I recognized her questions, those doubts and fears, as my own. Her story is close to my heart. It’s a picture of a woman struggling to hold on to a faith that feels cold. She’s frustrated by life’s disappointments. She’s wondering who she is. She needs God to show up in a real way.

She has to learn, as I did, that it’s enough just to be His. He’ll hold on tight enough for the both of them. It’s true for all of us. Our faith journeys are our own. They’re going to look different and that’s okay. Different is beautiful. Just be God’s. It’s the best place to start.

I hope you’ll check out Isabella’s story in Second Chance Café and let me know what you think!

~*~
Author bio: 

Brandy Bruce has worked in book publishing for more than ten years. 

She's an editor and an author and a woman who really loves dessert. 

Brandy lives in Colorado with her husband and three children. 

You can find her online at brandybruce.blogspot.com.

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Blurb for Brandy's book, Second Chance Café:

Isabella Romano has given up on love. Between her demanding work as a nurse and her father's poor health, Isabella has no time for distractions. So when a handsome firefighter practically falls at her feet, she keeps him at arm's length. But Ethan Carter is determined to win her over.

Orphaned at a young age, Ethan longs for a family of his own--and he's sure Isabella is his match. But when he opens a cafe near his firehouse, Isabella is less than thrilled. She knows firsthand the strain of being a restaurant owner, and wants no part of that life. Can Ethan convince the busy nurse they can overcome any obstacle and have their happily ever after together?

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Buy Brandy’s book:
Amazon.com - http://amzn.to/1R3D2Cx
Barnes& Noble - http://bit.ly/1GT3YPO
Christianbook.com - http://bit.ly/1cbfkEG

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Connect with Brandy:
Blog - http://brandybruce.blogspot.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/authorBrandyBruce

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/brandybruce/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/brandybruce

True Love Stories: An Unlikely Romance

"For the First Time," a sweet song Jane performs when she realizes she's in love with the wild and wonderful man named Tarzan, is what comes to mind when I think of today's true love story.

Tarzan, the musical, opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York on May 10, 2006. However, about four years prior to this play premiering on Broadway, God was moving behind the scenes to orchestrate a theatre-worthy real-life romance that was as swoon worthy as it was unlikely.

"An Unlikely Romance" is the true love story of Brandy and Jeff Bruce. It's a beautiful testimony of what can happen when you let God write your love story. Brandy and Jeff will celebrate their 12-year wedding anniversary tomorrow! So after you read their story, be sure to congratulate Mr. & Mrs. Bruce in your comments. 

Enjoy!

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An Unlikely Romance
Brandy Bruce’s true love story

We met in the alley between our jobs.

Not the most romantic beginning, I know, but there it is. Jeff worked at a furniture store in downtown Conroe, Texas and I had just started working at a title company. Every evening at five o’clock I drove down the alley, past the furniture store. After a couple of weeks, I started to notice one of the delivery guys outside around five o’clock every day, inconspicuously sweeping the dirt.

Now if Jeff were telling this story, he’d probably pause here to include my dad.

For the first couple of weeks, Jeff thought I was dating my dad. It’s true. My dad was a patrolman for Conroe P.D. and the police station was right by the title company. So he’d stop by to see me, sometimes bringing flowers (specifically on my birthday) or donuts (my dad is awesome like that). So Jeff saw this 6’3” guy in uniform (carrying a gun) visiting me. What was he to do? Well, he could always have his boss call the director of the title company to see if his new employee was dating that cop who kept stopping by. Because that wouldn’t be strange at all, right? Yep, that’s what he did. Next thing I know, Jeff is stopping me in the alley after work and asking if I’d like to have lunch sometime.

We found out that we had mutual friends at this point, which you would think would be helpful in getting to know each other. But you’d be wrong. My friend Colleen was dating Jeff’s BFF Larry. At first Colleen told me she didn’t really think Jeff would be a good person for me to date. THEN she changed her story and said that Jeff would be a great person for me to date! I finally decided that a lunch date was pretty harmless. So I told Jeff I’d meet him for lunch.

Jeff is a pretty quiet guy. But not on that first date. Over chicken tenders and honey mustard sauce, I listened to this guy tell me his life story. I realized that our backgrounds were fairly different. I’d grown up in a very strong Christian home. Church, faith and a loving, peaceful family had made up my childhood experience. Jeff’s parents divorced when he was fourteen and he’d experienced a lot of things that I hadn’t. I just listened as he told me that he had made some major changes in his life recently and was now going to church with his friend Larry. (Also the church I attended! It’s a big church.)

I appreciated his openness and his honesty so much and I was shocked by how much I enjoyed our conversation. Then I had to leave the restaurant to make it to my orthodontist appointment on time (did I mention that I was just a young thing of 19 and Jeff was 22?). On the way to my appointment, I couldn’t stop smiling. I really liked this guy. So we kept dating. He met my family. I met his dad and his sister Jamie. Christmas came and Jeff ended up spending the holiday with my family. Everyone liked him, and I was crazy about him. I was leaving for college in Virginia in January, so we said we’d keep in touch during that semester apart. My dad drove me from Texas to Lynchburg, Virginia. I remember that we had breakfast together the morning before my dad had to leave for Texas. He asked me how serious I was about Jeff. I looked straight at my dad and said, “I’m going to marry him.” My dad looked back at me, nodded, and said, “Really? Well, all right.”

I knew in my heart that I would marry Jeff. I didn’t know when, but I knew it would happen. God had drawn Jeff to Himself before He brought me into his life and then God brought us together. I was there the day Jeff was baptized at our church. Honestly, God wrote our love story.

We talked on the phone every single day while I was in Virginia. But after that semester apart, Jeff decided to move to Virginia so we could be closer. He drove up to Lynchburg and found a job and an apartment with some roommates. And I realized how much he loved me, that he’d change his whole life to be with me. We were engaged a year after our first date and married three years later (right after I graduated). 

We’ll celebrate our 12-year wedding anniversary on February 8th. Our journey together has been exactly that—a journey. And God has been with us every step of the way. He’s still writing our love story.

~*~
Author Bio: 

Brandy Bruce was scribbling stories in spiral notebooks by the age of 12. Her love for books never left her. She graduated from Liberty University, married the one person she could never get enough of, then started working as a book editor for a publishing house. Brandy and her husband, Jeff, live in Colorado with their two children.

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Recipe for Love book blurb: Overworked chef Jeremy has ordered up the perfect vacation: a fly-fishing getaway and some much-needed alone time. But when he arrives in the Colorado mountain town, he's immediately captivated by the lovely proprietor of the bed-and-breakfast, not to mention her young son. 

Alison Taylor still mourns her first husband even as she fights to keep their shared dream of a B and B alive. But there's no denying that she and her big-city guest have all the right ingredients for something special. Will this star-crossed pair realize that second chances can happen…if only they'll let them?

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Buy Brandy’s book Recipe for Love:

Amazon.com - http://amzn.to/16Jmhdn

BarnesandNoble.com - http://bit.ly/1C3WlDF

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Connect with Brandy:

Blog- http://brandybruce.blogspot.com/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/brandybruce