The Memory Keeper
Author: Jenny Hale
Publisher: Harpeth Road Press
Release Date: print/ebook: January 22, 2021; Audiobook: February 18, 2021
Series: Standalone
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Snippet:
Hannah’s phone pinged with a text, and she remembered the work messages she needed to check. But her attention went instead to the text floating on her screen: I thought it was a snowstorm, but nope. Hell’s done froze over. I hear you’re coming home.
She tipped her head back with a quiet laugh at the comment. Ethan.
Liam glanced over at her before returning to the road.
Another text came through. Your feet still know how to walk in boots? Or did you forget with all those high heels you been wearing?
She chewed on a smile, a memory floating to the surface like feathers on the summer wind.
“What the hell are those?” an eighteen-year-old Ethan had asked when he’d come into her childhood bedroom. He stared at her from under the well-worn curve of his baseball cap’s brim, his hands jammed into the pockets of his tattered Levi’s, bunching up the bottom of his T-shirt.
Hannah did a twirl in front of her full-length mirror in her frayed jeans shorts and a tank top, her old shorties cowgirl boots, named because they stopped at her ankles, kicked over to the side while she stood in the black pair of three-inch high heels she’d gotten for New York. She wobbled slightly.
“Why you wanna wear somethin’ you can hardly stand in?” he’d asked, his face wrinkled in confusion, but she could see the underlying disapproval in his gaze.
“I need to look like a professional,” she’d explained, twisting her wind-blown hair, and holding it into an updo with her fingers.
“Professional what?” he asked, scooping up her boots. “Round here, all the professionals wear these.” He held his hand out to her, the boots dangling from his two fingers. “How you gonna ride a horse in those things?”
She turned to him with a grin. “I won’t be ridin’ rodeos anymore where I’m goin’.”
“I’m sorry,” he said flippantly, clearly apologizing for the fact that New York City didn’t have rodeos like they did in Tennessee.
Hannah had ridden horses in the local festivals since she’d turned thirteen. Every third Friday night of the month she’d spent kicking up dust in the ring as the banners flew and the music played, the rush of wind when the horse ran at full speed in the processional blowing her cowgirl hat and forcing her to hang on to it with one hand while she grasped the reins with the other. She knew the first Friday she didn’t go would feel strange, but she had to do this.
“I can’t ride rodeos forever,” she’d said.
The gravity in his face right then was burned into her memory. “Why not?” he’d asked. And she didn’t have an answer for him.
About the Book:
Hannah Townsend’s life is just as she’s always wanted it to be. She has the perfect job at a New York magazine, a small but elegant apartment in the upper west side, and an incredibly successful beau named Miles Monahan. This year, for her thirty-fifth birthday, she’s leaving the icy city sludge for sunshine! She’s got tickets for two to Barbados, and she’s all packed and meeting Miles at the airport for a week of cocktails, sandy beaches, and the music of steel drums.
But her life is turned upside down in the span of that one morning. Hannah is rocked by the news that her beloved grandmother is very sick, and Hannah needs to come home to her small Tennessee town right away to be with her family and help run her gran’s dilapidated flower shop. It also means she has to face Ethan Wright, the best friend she’d left behind so many years ago. If that isn’t enough to deal with, she discovers her boyfriend is seeing someone else.
With flights grounded and rental cars in great demand due to the winter snowstorm, she’s stranded at the airport. On her birthday, instead of waking up in a stylish beachfront hotel in Miles’s arms like she thought, she finds herself packed like sardines into a car, with two passengers, on a ride-share from LaGuardia Airport to her hometown of Franklin, Tennessee.
When everything seems to be going wrong, it’s the kindness of a handsome businessman from Hannah’s past named Liam McGuire that might just save her. But a new development that threatens Gran’s shop and secrets surrounding Liam could alter both their lives forever.
A heartwarming, sweet romance that will have you laughing, crying, and best of all, hugging those around you a little tighter. If you loved the Christmas movies based on Jenny’s books and are looking for more feel-good, small town romance, look no further!
About the Author:
Jenny Hale is a USA Today, Amazon, and international bestselling author of romantic contemporary fiction. Her books have sold worldwide, have been translated into multiple languages, and adapted for television. Her novels Coming Home for Christmas and Movie Guide Epiphany Award winner Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses are Hallmark Channel original movies. She was included in Oprah Magazine’s “19 Dreamy Summer Romances to Whisk You Away” and both Southern Living’s “30 Christmas Novels to Start Reading Now” as well as “Beach Reads Perfect for Summer 2020.” Her stories are chock-full of feel-good romance and overflowing with warm settings, great friends, and family. Jenny is at work on her next novel, delighted to be bringing even more heartwarming stories to her readers. When she isn’t writing or heading up her romantic fiction imprint Harpeth Road, she can be found running around her hometown of Nashville with her husband, two boys, and their labradoodle, taking pictures—her favorite pastime.
Jenny Hale – jenny@itsjennyhale.com
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