Sometimes it’s a challenge coming up with a title, but for book two in my Moonlight Valley series, Recusing His Heart seemed fitting.
The overall series was created because I love the idea of best friends living in a small town and working toward their dreams. Each book features a woman from the circle of friends who is on a journey to find love and nurture their friendship. I wanted to make this an important part of the series. Celebrating each other and being there for each other wholeheartedly was my goal. 
You can tell a lot about someone by who they spend time with, so creating characters who have goals and motivation to follow their dreams sheds light on their personalities. Therefore, I created a group of friends whom I decided needed their own stories to find love. The second book, Rescuing His Heart, Sara Quinn is a journalist working for the town’s newspaper, covering news from the town fair to minor accidents. It’s repetitive and boring. She’s ready for a change. She’s also ready to date again. The trouble is, she can’t find love, so she tries a dating app. Just when she’s making plans to travel to meet a guy she’s been connecting with, her boss needs her to be in charge while he deals with an urgent family matter. Just when life seems unfair, it gets challenging when she witnesses a plane crash. Her photojournalism skills kick in, and she runs toward the crash to help while also photographing the scene. 
As the pilot recovers in the hospital, Sara learns he’s Major Colton Brooks. She researches who he is and digs up his past, then publishes a story that exposes his emotional wounds, which he’s still healing from. As Sara prepares for a trip of a lifetime, Colton prepares to heal in a town with a future he thought was impossible.
While I enjoy writing romance books, I love including friendships because they’re a part of our lives. Some of us have friends we can lean on and may have known each other forever. There are friends who are just there for the social, like a good neighbour. Whoever they are, they're a part of our circle, and it’s an important part of our lives.
With each book I write, I want it to be more than a love story. I want it to be about family and friends, connecting lives, because ultimately, it’s what makes us who we are.

Happy Reading!
​Charlene

​​Summer.
A popular time to escape whether it's a staycation or weekend getaway. It’s no wonder summer is pegged as the perfect time to read. Beach read, anyone?
New places to visit, familiar hideaways or a favourite escape, whichever it is, I use my surroundings as an inspiration for future books. There’s truth in writing about something you know. 

When my kids were young, flying was undesirable, so my hubby and I would drive to the Okanagan and spend time in Osoyoos and Oliver. Located in British Columbia, close to the US border, it’s a desert in the summer months, offering beautiful lakes, mountain terrain, award-winning wineries, distilleries, breweries and fruit orchards is more than expected in a small-town. The quaint towns became our go-to, a familiar and homey place to visit.  
 
With all the fun rolled up into one exciting place, these towns have mastered big dreams for all it produces. It’s a place I love for its memories and setting. It’s what inspired me to write my Moonlight Valley series. 
 
One summer, while exploring Oliver, known as ‘Canada’s Wine Capital,’ I toured and did wine tasting along the main road. The stunning views of rolling hills, the acres of grape vines, peach and apple orchards, mountains, and Osoyoos Lake… is paradise. It has all the qualities of a small-town dream. My mind wandered about how these wineries came into existence, and as I learned, some had been in families for generations. What a great place to be inspired!

Emily Hill, my heroine in, Playing For Love, is a proud winemaker wanting to carry out her passion and commitment of her family’s business, Cottage Hill’s Winery. However, when hit with financial troubles, she fears somebody might remove her family’s name if she can’t find the money to save it. She can’t fathom a future without her business, and when her old crush brings home the Stanley Cup to celebrate his win, she’s not just fighting for her career; she’s fighting the feelings that surface again when she sees Mason again. Keeping her financial troubles private, Emily resists help from the only man who has always had her heart. 
 
I hope you enjoy Moonlight Valley.  
What’s your favourite small town to visit?
Let me know in the comments.
 
Cheers!
 
Charlene