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

Devotionals for the Heart: Seasons

The Land and The Promise
A devotional by Patrick E. Craig

"And He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey." ~Deuteronomy 26:9 (KJV)

There is something about an agricultural town that is unique and wonderful, for with the deep link to the land comes a settled-ness and a sense of permanence found nowhere else. All the bright days of youth in such a place are held in the mystery of God’s eternal circle of life and death, winter and spring, summer and fall. The cycles of the seasons dictate the deepest feelings in the heart of one who dwells there, with days marked, not by events, but by smells and colors and sounds and all the other sensory signals.

The temperature of a morning’s rising can tell you everything about the day ahead, be it the coolness of a daybreak in spring, the heat of the long, languid days of summer, the crisp bite of a fall day, or the chill of winter that pushes you with icy fingers back under the welcoming warmth of the lovely down quilt. The lilting chirp of a robin outside an open window, or the haunting call of the Canadian geese heading south can manifest the procession of days more surely than any calendar. The solemn silence of a winter night, with feet softly crunching on the fallen snow as you make your way toward the light in the window ahead, or the grinding of the machinery and the smell of the thick harvest dust; it is these things that mark the passage of time and bind one surely to the beloved land and the life so graciously granted by the Master of the Vineyard.

My home in Idaho is such a place. It is especially beautiful in the fall. The leaves of the trees turn bright red and fall to the ground and children pile the leaves into forts. Mornings come armed with the warning bite of winter yet to come and the air itself is alive with the promise of families gathered at festive tables and the wonder of frosty nights that delight the heart with cathedrals of starry splendor. Soon the soft snow will blanket all living things in the quiet death of winter.

But those of us who live on the land are not afraid of death, for we have our God and his promises, we have the land and the fruit of the harvest each year, and we have the children, our inheritance, and, at the same time, a down payment on the continuance of our lives. And above everything, we have the simplicity of our way. And it is enough.

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Author Bio:

Patrick E. Craig is a lifelong writer and musician who left a successful songwriting and performance career in the music industry to follow Christ in 1984. 

In 2011 he signed a three-book deal with Harvest House Publishers to publish his Apple Creek Dreams series. His current series is The Paradise Chronicles. The first book in the series, The Amish Heiress, a romantic suspense novel, was published by Patrick's company, P&J Publishing, in August of 2015 and remained on the Amazon Top 100 best sellers list in three categories for seven months.

The second book in the series, The Amish Princess, a historical romance novel, was released in December of 2016 and was on Amazon's Hot New Releases for over a month. Harlequin recently purchased the print rights for both books for their Walmart Amish series. Patrick also just released Cracking The Indie Egg—A Recipe For Publishing Your Own Book and it is available in most major digital bookstores.

Patrick and his wife Judy, make their home in Idaho. They have two married children and five grandchildren. Patrick is represented by the Steve Laube Agency.

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Connect with Patrick:
Website - www.patrickecraig.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PatrickECraig
Twitter - https://twitter.com/PatrickECraig
Amazon Author page - http://tinyurl.com/n6sfagg

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