#Blog Tour #Book Review of Aloha With Love by Lindy Miller with Terence Brody #Clean Romance @Xpresso Book Tours

Aloha With Love
Lindy Miller with Terence Brody
Published by: Rosewind Books
Publication date: July 13th 2021
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Soon to be a motion picture.
From the screenwriter of Rescuing Madison and
A Lesson in Romance on Hallmark

“[A] charming romance. Miller and Brody do a masterful job of pacing and plotting, while creating a hero and heroine readers will easily relate to. This sweet, G-rated contemporary should draw in Hallmark Channel devotees in droves.” ~Publishers Weekly

After a tough week that includes losing a big job opportunity and being dumped by her long-term boyfriend, Jenna Burke receives word that her beloved Aunt May passed away.

Traveling back to her Hawaiian hometown for the reading of the will, Jenna discovers she and her sister have inherited May’s dilapidated Victorian home on desirable beachfront land. The sisters can do whatever they want with the property, but there’s one catch: the house must be renovated before it can be sold, and Jenna has to oversee the work. Their Aunt even stipulated the contractor for the job—Ben Fletcher—who has a gift for making things beautiful again. He also has another skill: driving Jenna crazy.

Jenna vows to sell the property the moment the job is done. But as Aunt May’s broken old house starts to feel like home again, Jenna is torn between the life she’s been chasing in the city, and the one she’d left behind.

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Author Bio:

Lindy Miller is an entrepreneur, award-winning professor, and publishing professional. In 2011, Miller was part of the executive leadership team that founded Radiant Advisors, a data and business intelligence research and advisory firm, where Miller developed and launched the company’s editorial and research divisions, and later its data visualization practice, for clients that included 21st Century Fox Films, Fox Networks, Warner Bros., and Disney. She is the author of numerous papers and two textbooks under the name of Lindy Ryan, The Visual Imperative: Creating a Culture of Visual Discovery (Elsevier) and Visual Data Storytelling with Tableau (Pearson) Miller holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration: Entrepreneurship and Strategy, and a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and a Doctorate in Education, Organizational Leadership.

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Terence Brody is an active captain in the New York Fire Dept, assigned to Ladder 10 in lower Manhattan.

Two of his feature scripts, RESCUING MADISON (Ethan Peck, C. Thomas Howell, Alona Tal) and A LESSON IN ROMANCE (Kristy Swanson, Scott Grimes, directed by Ron Oliver) aired on the Hallmark Channel.

In 2021, his script, ALOHA WITH LOVE, was produced by Oren Kamara/Fade to Black Films, Branscombe Richmond, and Brian Bird of When Calls The Heart. The movie starred Trevor Donovan and Tiffany Smith and was directed by Brian Herzlinger. The novel is co-written with author Lindy Miller (July 2021).

Brody also wrote the screenplay for Miller’s novel Sleigh Bells on Bread Loaf Mountain (2021) and The Christmas Spirit by Alexandrea Weis (Nov 2020).
Brody resides in Long Island, NY with his wife and two children.

​My thoughts:
Aloha with Love is a sweet and heartwarming story of Jenna Burke who left her hometown in Hawaii to pursue a career in architecture in California.

When Jenna's project for an apartment complex she put so much hard work in designing doesn't get an approval from an arrogant potential investor, Jenna is understandably upset. Then, her self-obsessed long-term boyfriend Darren checks out of their relationship which was going nowhere anyway. But all of this pales in comparison with the sad news she gets from home- her beloved Aunt May had a heart attack and passed away. Jenna goes back home for the memorial and stays there to renovate her Aunt's home. Aunt May even stipulated the local contractor she wanted to help Jenna take care of her old house- Ben Fletcher. Ben isn't just handsome, he pays special attention to the beauty and the soul of the old buildings he restores and Jenna cannot help but appreciate it.

Jenna is a sunny, optimistic person, willing to work hard and look at the bright side of things. She needs some time to reflect on her life and what makes her happy. I really liked her Aunt May's saying that sometimes taking a step back is two steps forward. The message is quite simple: open up to the love of people who love you the way you are, not for what they can get from you. The story is told from Jenna's point of view, because this is her journey of self-discovery, but there are also interesting supporting characters e.g. Sara, Jenna's sister and her teenage children. Jenna never realised that while she was a bit of jealous of how close Sara was to their mother, Sara would have loved to spend as much time getting to know their father, something that Jenna who was into DIY did a lot. There's also Jenna's  wonderfully supportive boss/mentor Patti who encourages Jenna to stay true to herself.

The setting is gorgeous and I loved all the local food descriptions, especially Sara's baking creations.
Overall, this was a very quick read that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys Hallmark movies and sweet, clean romance.

Thank you to Giselle from Xpresso Book Tours, the publisher and the authors for the gifted review copy. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.

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