Featured Author and Debut Novel ~

Welcoming Dawn Crandall back to Journeys To Joy with The Hesitant Heiress ~






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  {Where Did the Idea for The Hesitant Heiress Come From?}
  I have something fun I want to share with you and readers, Joy! I found the photo album I made for what I considered “Amaryllis Brigham” back in 2010/2011 before I went to ACFW and signed with my agent; back when I was writing it just for me. Writing this book was basically my favorite hobby, and I wanted to be able to look at my people and places whenever I wanted! So I made this photo album for myself!

I used “old time” photographs back then, because that was how I envisioned my characters... and these were absolutely PERFECT! But as you can see (if you’ve read the book), some of my names were different back then. What was once Landreth Manor eventually became Hilldreth Manor... and also Amaryllis’s friend Meredyth used to be named Annabelle​,​ and Nicholette’s last name used to be DeLagrange instead of Faircourt. This was all way before Pinterest, of course. I found these photos in books about Victorian fashion, magazines, good old Google image searches... and some (the ruins), I took myself when I visited the location.

I think there are about a million different things that inspired me to write this story about this time, and about Amaryllis Brigham. One of those things was my finding a photograph of this house in a magazine my junior year of college (which was a long time ago!). I’ve had a love affair with Victorian houses my entire life--and when I saw this house, I knew I NEEDED to write its story... and for some reason, I named it Truesdale (which is in the book).  

Most of all, when it came right down to it, I wanted to write a novel reminiscent of old classical romantic suspense novels like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier—but I also wanted to tie in a very relevant spiritual thread. The heroine of The Hesitant Heiress, Amaryllis Brigham, thinks she knows what she wants, as well as how she will achieve it. But as circumstances beyond her control keep her from her goals, she finds that accomplishing her dreams of founding a music academy in Seattle are only secondary to finding the peace she desperately needs pertaining to the events leading to her mother's death eleven years before.

{More About The Hesitant Heiress}

After being unjustly expelled from the Boston Conservatory of Music, Amaryllis Brigham sees her dreams of founding a music academy disappearing before her very eyes. Now the only way to achieve her goal comes with high stakes for someone set on avoiding men as much as possible: marry within the year to inherit her grandmother’s fortune. Amaryllis reluctantly takes part in her aunt’s society, intent on getting to the west coast on her own… and without a husband.

Despite her own misgivings, she soon finds herself falling in love with the most unlikely of men, Nathan Everstone, whose father not only had a part in her expulsion, but whose ominous presence has haunted her dreams for a decade since her mother’s tragic death. Nathan turns out to be much more than he seems and everything she never knew she wanted. But just as everything Amaryllis has recently hoped for comes to fruition, it all falls apart when she finds that the real culprit who has been managing her life isn’t who she thought at all.

CHECK OUT WHAT DAWN HAS INCLUDED FOR YOU:

Click the following  link  ~ 

This will take you to the Whitaker House webpage where you can read the entire first chapter for free!!! YAY!​

 http://whpub.whitakerhouse.com/dawncrandall/heiress.html

ALSO:
Coming in November - THE BOUND HEART. . . .

{The Bound Heart}       ~Book Two~

One accidental kiss. That was all it took to throw Meredyth Summercourt’s world upside-down. Determined to marry the ever-elusive Vance Everstone, she simply doesn't have the time or the desire to fall for her friend Lawry Hampton. However, with Vance out of the country and Lawry constantly at her side, Meredyth can’t help but wonder if what’s holding her to Vance is nothing more than a desire to redeem herself from their unfortunate past.

When Vance comes home to stake his claim on Meredyth, will she be strong enough to break free from the tangled web she’s convinced she deserves? Or will she find the strength to accept that God’s plan for her life could include redemption... and quite possibly the love of her best-friend?

{More About Dawn Crandall}

A graduate of Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education, and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble, Dawn Crandall didn’t begin writing until 2010 when her husband found out about her long-buried dream of writing a book. Without a doubt about someday becoming traditionally published, he encouraged her to quit working in order to focus on writing The Hesitant Heiress. It didn’t take her long to realize that writing books was what she was made to do. Dawn is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary.

Apart from writing books, Dawn is also a first-time mom to a precious little boy (born March 2014) and also serves with her husband in a pre-marriage mentor program at their local church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dawn is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, secretary for the Indiana ACFW Chapter (Hoosier Ink), and associate member of the Great Lakes ACFW Chapter.

The Everstone Chronicles is Dawn’s first series with Whitaker House. All three books composing the series were semifinalists in ACFW’s prestigious Genesis Writing Contest, the third book going on to become a finalist in 2013.

CONNECT WITH DAWN
Blog: www.dawncrandall.blogspot.com
Facebook: facebook.com/DawnCrandallWritesFirst 
Book Review Blog: APassionforPages.blogspot.com 
GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/dawn_crandall
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/dawnwritesfirst
Email: dawncrandallwritesfirst@gmail.com
Twitter: @dawnwritesfirst
Amazon: www.amazon.com/Dawn-Crandall

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