Heart and Sole: A Story of Second Chances

Who doesn’t want a chance for a do-over? In anything—maybe you think about The One Who Got Away. Or maybe you wish you’d picked a different career. Or came from a different family (although, sorry, can’t help you with that one :).

My heroine of Heart and Sole, Maddie Kingston, is a desperate woman who’s made some mistakes. It took her five years to get through college because she kept changing her major. Her father begged her to get a business degree so she could help out in the family shoe company but she majored in graphic design instead. Her parents loaned her money for a start-up that went belly-up instead. And she darn near married a sweet talkin’ cowboy who was wrong for her in every way. Oh, and not to forget…a year ago she slept with That Guy from her past that she Just Can’t Forget…only to learn that he’s about to decimate her family’s company. Oops.

But she has Heart. Oh, a lot of it. And she’s got the courage to put everything on the line to save the family business for her ailing father even though she has zero experience. She’s the sibling that quits the only secure job she’s ever had to go back home to help. And she uses every last penny of her savings, plus her sister’s honeymoon money, to bid on the one man she hates in a charity bachelor auction because he’s the only one who can help her save the business. Only two problems…he’s about to take it over. And she doesn’t really hate him.

A huge and mysterious family feud that’s gone on for a generation has kept these two star-crossed lovers apart. Their loyalties may be divided, but the sizzling hot chemistry that flares between them doesn’t really give a flying about that.

I loved writing this story because it’s hopeful. Because in our lives, like Maddie’s, things often don’t work out quite the way we expect. Families squabble, and we make bad choices sometimes that cost us a lot of emotional pain.

Maddie finds the courage to venture way out of her comfort zone and dare to dream big, dare to take huge risks that will lead to her fulfilling her own dreams in ways she can’t even imagine. Add to the mix one heart-of-gold (but misguided) (and wounded, of course he’s got to be wounded!) billionaire who gets dragged back to their podunk little town who can’t help but fall for her despite his loyalty to his own grandfather and you’ve got Heart and Sole. Life may be complicated but things can work out…especially with a few laughs along the way.