Marry Me
By: Kristin Wallace
Blurb
She'd vowed
never to fall in love...
Julia Richardson is no fan of weddings. A lifetime of watching her parents treat relationships like the flavor of the month has taught her that love is for fools. Then she learns her former stepsister is having a crisis with her pregnancy. The crisis has Julia returning to the small Southern town – and the family – she’s been avoiding for years. Before she knows it, Julia’s been pressed into service running her former stepsister’s wedding planning business, Marry Me.
Julia doesn’t know a garter from a garden hose, but now she must navigate couples along the bumpy path down the aisle - despite wardrobe malfunctions, killer bees, and plenty of near disasters. In the midst of it all, Julia makes the most unexpected discovery of all…Love, with Seth Graham, the widowed local minister! Julia’s been running from love and everything spiritual for most of her life. It’s not until she finds the courage to stop running that she finds her own “I Do” moment.
Julia Richardson is no fan of weddings. A lifetime of watching her parents treat relationships like the flavor of the month has taught her that love is for fools. Then she learns her former stepsister is having a crisis with her pregnancy. The crisis has Julia returning to the small Southern town – and the family – she’s been avoiding for years. Before she knows it, Julia’s been pressed into service running her former stepsister’s wedding planning business, Marry Me.
Julia doesn’t know a garter from a garden hose, but now she must navigate couples along the bumpy path down the aisle - despite wardrobe malfunctions, killer bees, and plenty of near disasters. In the midst of it all, Julia makes the most unexpected discovery of all…Love, with Seth Graham, the widowed local minister! Julia’s been running from love and everything spiritual for most of her life. It’s not until she finds the courage to stop running that she finds her own “I Do” moment.
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Author Info
Growing up
Kristin devoured books like bags of Dove Dark Chocolate. Everything from
Nancy Drew & Encyclopedia Brown to C.S. Lewis and the Sweet
Valley High series. Later she discovered romance novels. It’s no surprise
then that Kristin would one day try her hand at writing them. She
writes inspirational romance and women’s fiction filled with love, laughter and
a leap of faith. In May 2013, Kristin sold her first novel, MARRY ME, to
Astraea Press. Publication date to come!
When
she’s not writing her next novel, Kristin works as an
advertising copywriter. She also enjoys singing in her church choir and
playing flute in a community orchestra.
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Excerpt - Opening
The past is like a
revolving door, and if people aren’t careful it’ll come back and whop them in
the backside. Hard.
Like Julia
Richardson’s just did.
“Julia,
we… Sarah needs you. It’s the baby.”
Two sentences, barely audible, as her
former stepsister’s husband fought to get the words out. Those two sentences
had Julia behind the wheel in the dead of night, headed back to the small
Southern town — and the family — she’d successfully avoided for fifteen years.
She looked in the rearview mirror and
spotted an errant, titian-colored curl sticking straight up. With a stifled
groan, she mashed it down. Ah, humidity, such a lovely thing. The farther south
she got, the more it curled. By the time she reached her destination she
expected to look like a dead ringer for a certain redheaded, singing orphan. If
said orphan was a full-figured Amazon with a bad attitude.
By the time Julia drove
past the quaintly painted sign, which proclaimed she was entering Covington
Falls, Georgia — Covington for the
founding family, Falls for the
trickle of water which emptied into Lake Rice, the name of the other founding
family — the sun was blazing. Surprisingly, she knew exactly where to go. Or
maybe not so surprising since it didn’t look like much had changed in fifteen
years. It still looked like a small and dainty cousin of Savannah.
She turned down a
tree-lined lane that could have doubled for a 50s television show and a moment
later pulled into the driveway of Grace’s house. A white, two-story Colonial
number with a wrap-around porch, complete with a swing. Rounding out this
picture of all-American perfection was an honest to goodness white picket
fence. Julia stared at the house, wondering what in the world she was doing
here. She so didn’t belong in a place like this.
Before she could back out
of the driveway, the front door opened, and a woman stepped out onto the porch.
Grace.
Ex-stepmother #2. Mother of Sarah and the reason for the midnight run.
Julia got out of the car
unsure what kind of reception to expect. Before she knew it, Grace flew down
the stairs with arms outstretched.
A familiar scent of
cookies and violets invaded her senses. Exactly the way an angel might smell,
she imagined. When she ‘d been thirteen, and angry at the world, she hadn’t
been able to hug Grace back. Now Julia did. Then didn’t want to let go.
Grace pulled back, taking
Julia’s face in her warm hands. “How I’ve missed you.”
“You have?”
She smiled. “You have no
idea.”
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