My heroine of This Love of Mine, Meg Halloran, is not a risk taker. She’s a dutiful daughter and a hardworking bridal shop owner struggling to get her business off the ground, and she’s overwhelmed in many ways.

She’s fantasized about Ben Rushford, an ER doctor, for too many years, and she finally decides to kick the habit. And it’s at that point that fate has other ideas.

Initially, Meg is the kind of woman who gets tongue-tied in front of Ben. She thinks she’s not the kind of woman he prefers and she couldn’t be more wrong. Ben is keeping a secret that impacts both of their lives and which has kept him away from her for years.

The thing I love about Meg’s evolution is that she gets thrown into a crazy situation and she gives it her all—even though it takes her way, way out of her comfort zone. She goes from barely being able to converse with Ben to being his dignified, articulate date in front of his potential future employers. She gets up and dances—something that makes her very, very nervous. She goes to a camp for diabetic children with Ben armed with Deep Woods Off and finds herself scaling a muddy obstacle course in a competition.

Her motto may as well be this one…

But Meg is no pushover. She learns through the course of the book to value her own self worth. She finds she’s the only one who can push through the great barriers Ben has erected around himself and get to the bottom of the heartbreaking secret he carries. The courage it takes to be honest comes at a great risk, one she is very uncomfortable with taking. But she takes that risk for love.

Ben, too, puts up a happy-go-lucky front for everyone although his inner self is a lot different. He is an upstanding, hardworking, good, good guy, (and hot), but he hasn’t been able to reach out to Meg for years. I love this story because both of these characters free each other in totally different ways. Love, forgiveness, acceptance, and the total honesty that breaks down barriers and frees a person to be the person he or she was meant to be–their best self. (And yes, this is why I love romance!)

Hope you enjoy the trouble Meg and Ben get into…and have a few laughs along the way.

Happy Fall!

Miranda

This Love of Mine is available starting October 6th. (See my book page for retailers.)