Throughout most of BAREFOOT BY THE SEA, hero Ian is forced to hide who he really is and why he’s in Barefoot Bay. And that gave me another story twist I love to explore: the build-up to the inevitable revelation of a character’s true identity and just how devastating that is for everyone (including the reader!). I had a blast being in Ian’s head when he fought off his demons and past to fall hard into Tessa’s arms and life. And I ached and grew with Tessa as the truth became crystal clear and shattered her fragile heart.

The best part, for me, was folding that marriage of convenience into a story about a woman who wants a child of her own but has to give up that hope to help, and ultimately lose, a man who needs her in order to be reunited with his own children. If she marries him, he gets what he needs… but he can’t give her the one thing she wants most. Will Tessa surrender her lifelong dream to help a man who lost his? She can if she loves him enough, right? Maybe.

Ironically, when the actual marriage of convenience finally took place on the page, that ceremony felt more real than any of the many weddings I’ve ever written. I hope readers agree. And speaking of weddings, stay tuned for more of them in Barefoot Bay when the Barefoot Brides trilogy launches next year! Nothing like an opportunity to kick off your shoes and fall in love, which is never convenient but always fun!

Happy reading!

From the desk of Kristen Ashley

Dear Reader,

As it happens when I start a book and the action plays out in my head, characters pop up out of nowhere.

See, I don’t plot, or outline. An idea will come to me and Wham! My brain just flows with it. Or a character will come to me and all the pieces of his or her puzzle start tumbling quickly into place and the story moves from there. Either way, this all plays in my mind’s eye like a movie and I sit at my keyboard doing my darnedest to get it all down as it goes along.

In my Dream Man series, I started it with Mystery Man because Hawk and Gwen came to me and I was desperate to get their story out. I’m not even sure that I expected it to be a series. I just needed to tell their story.

Very quickly I was introduced to Kane “Tack” Allen and Detective Mitch Lawson. When I met them through Gwen, I knew instantly—with all the hotness that was them—that they both needed their own book. So this one idea I had of Hawk and Gwen finding their happily ever after became a series.