What girl doesn’t dream about her wedding? I sure did.
It doesn’t matter if it’s lavish or something small. We think about it. At the center of that wedding, aside from the
man she’s going to marry, is what a girl will wear: the wedding dress.
A year ago, a group of authors and myself met at a
conference and talked about ways to create a series within a series. Each of our books will be connected to one of
our own series, but all of the books in the “collection” would also be part of
a connective series. One of the authors
thought up the idea of having a billionaire will “something” to either the hero
or the heroine in our book and the story could go from there. The name of the collection is The Inheritance
Collection http://www.theinheritanceseries.com.
Each of the authors thought up a story about how they
encountered Harold Hopewell, a billionaire widower who had no children and was
leaving random items to people who had met him and touched him in some
way. As I thought about it, I instantly
knew that I wanted my story to revolve around a vintage wedding dress being
willed to my heroine Hannah Ward in The Wedding Dress, book 7 of my Texas Hearts
series. The wedding dress was the dress
Harold’s wife had worn when they’d gotten married, but that she’d sold very
early on to gift her new husband with money that helped him make his fortune.
Sounds romantic, huh?
I thought so too. But I had to figure
out how Hannah Ward, a young Texas woman and former Army mechanic, became the
benefactor of the dress. Since it was
around the time of wedding season, I’d found a lot of catalogs at the
supermarket and restaurants announcing wedding shows. One in particular talked about vintage
dresses that were available at a consignment shop. So I wondered, what if it
wasn’t a shop but it was an actual auction where the dress was being sold? And what if Harold Hopewell, now elderly and
still mourning the passing of his wife after decades went to the same auction
that a very young Hannah Ward goes to in order to find the perfect dress to
wear when she elopes with her childhood sweetheart, Dane Bancroft? The only problem is, Hannah is practically
broke and Harold is a billionaire who easily outbids her, leaving her
devastated.
Fast forward ten years.
Hannah is now out of the Army and she receives this wedding dress in the
mail from a lawyer who is charged with dispersing items in Harold Hopewell’s
will. In the letter, Harold apologizes
for outbidding her on the dress and says that while it might be too late for
Hannah to wear the dress, he wants her to give it to her daughter in the hopes
that she can be as happy as he was with his wife. The only wrinkle is, Hannah doesn’t have a
daughter because Hannah never ended up marrying Dane. The dress opens up old wounds for Hannah and
Dane and makes them examine why they parted in the first place. Young love
becomes new love that is much deeper and magical in ways they’d never expected.
I love The Wedding Dress because I love reunion and second
chance stories. There’s so much history
there and so many things the hero and heroine need to resolve before they can
move forward. In the end, it’s never
about the perfect dress. That’s just fabric.
It’s about the love that weaves two special people together to want to
spend a lifetime as husband and wife.
The Wedding Dress
Texas Hearts
Book Seven
The Inheritance Collection
Lisa Mondello
Genre: contemporary romance
Publisher: Lisa Mondello
Date of Publication: 5/17/2016
ISBN: 9781940512228
ASIN: B017I5IAGK
Number of pages: 200
Word Count: 40,000
Cover Artist: Purple Girl Design
Book Description:
Ten years ago, Hannah Ward thought she’d found the perfect wedding dress to wear when she and her childhood sweetheart, Dane Bancroft, decided to elope right after graduation.
But instead of walking down the aisle like she dreamed of, she was not only outbid on the wedding dress at the auction by an old billionaire who didn’t need the wedding dress like she did, but she never ended up getting married. Needing to escape Dane after the break-up, she enlisted in the military and left Liberty, Texas behind.
But now she’s back, and not only does she have to face Dane, the deputy sheriff in town, but she’s just been willed the very wedding dress that was supposed to be the beginning of her and Dane’s happy life together.
Can they both get a second chance so she can finally wear the wedding dress of her dreams and marry the only man she’s ever really loved?
Excerpt:
It was just a
box with fabric inside.
Hannah gazed at
the white box that had come with the letter with longing for time that has long
since passed her by. Although she’d
stared at the dress in the auction catalogue for hours before deciding to drive
to San Antonio more than ten years ago, she’d only seen that wedding dress up
close for just a few minutes before it had been snatched away from her by the
higher bidder.
She was a smart
women. She didn’t need the dress. Or the memories that were now tumbling
through her mind. Good and bad, they
were all there together. The wedding
dress had been the start of it all. And
the end.
Sighing, she got
up from the bed and walked over to the box that sat like a tangled blanket at
the foot of the bed after a rough night of sleep. The wide white organza ribbon was tied
tightly around the box to keep it secure and then knotted into a pretty bow on
top. With a quick tug of the organza,
the ribbon untied and fell to each side of the box.
Her heart
pounded as her fingers felt for the edges of the box. She didn’t want to see the dress. Not really.
Why was she doing this? She
should just put it in her car and drive right over to the consignment shop in
the next town and let someone else buy the dress for their wedding. Get rid of it. Get rid of the memory.
She lifted the
top of the box off and placed it carefully on the bed next to the box. Pink and white tissue paper covered the
contents, keeping her from seeing inside.
“Ugh. For an army soldier who has spent the last
eight years in combat boots and fatigues, you’re being a wimp, Hannah.”
She reached for
the tissue paper, then quickly stopped and looked at her hands, turning them
over. Most days her hands were covered
with grease and oil from working on a plane engine. Today her hands were clean. Even her fingernails showed the white
half-moon nails that were clean.
Hannah held her
breath as she pushed aside the tissue paper and had her first glimpse of the
dress. A lump lodged in her throat as
she thought of the day of the auction.
This was supposed to be her wedding dress. If she’d married Dane all those years ago,
she would have worn this dress. Who knew
what their lives would be like now.
Taking a deep
breath, she slipped out of her T-shirt, unbuttoned her cut off shorts and let
them drop to the floor. She carefully
lifted the sleeveless dress out of the box, holding it by the shoulders and let
the fabric drop to the floor. There were
a million buttons in the back and she knew she’d have a hard time fastening
them all. But she had to see what she
looked like in the dress. It took a
while, but when the last button was fastened, she walked across the room to the
mirror and looked at her reflection.
“This never
would have fit me like this ten years ago,” Hannah said, staring at herself in
the standing mirror. But now, it fit
perfect. It was as if she needed to grow
out of the young girl’s body and become the woman she was now in order for it
to fit.
Tears filled her
eyes but she refused to let them fall.
Reaching behind her to undo the first button, she muttered, “It would
have been nice.”
A gust of breeze
came in through the open window. Along
with it, Hannah heard the sound of male voices talking. Jackson had gone out for a ride earlier with
Cole. There were other ranch hands here
now.
Her stomach
dropped. It wasn’t just Cole or Jackson. If she lived a thousand years, Hannah would
always recognize the deep timber of Dane Bancroft’s voice.
Still wearing
the dress, Hannah rushed to the window and pulled back the curtain just enough
to see outside. She groaned.
“You would have
to show up today. Of all days,” Hannah
muttered to herself as her heart pounded in her chest. She gazed down from the window to the dirt
driveway below. Dane Bancroft stood next
to Jackson, talking about something interesting that made them both laugh.
He was as tall
as Jackson, but he wasn’t the straight up and down young man she
remembered. His police uniform did
little to show off the muscles she knew were under his shirt.
Just when she
thought she couldn’t take anymore, Dane lifted his face up in the direction of
the window. Their eyes locked for a
brief moment. It took a few seconds, but
then he smiled, making Hannah’s heart remember what it was like to be close to
him. She actually sighed.
Damn him.
About the Author:
New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling Author, Lisa Mondello, has held many jobs in her life but being a published author is the last job she'll ever have. She's not retiring! She blames the creation of the personal computer for her leap into writing novels. Otherwise, she'd still be penning stories with paper and pen. Her book The Knight and Maggie's Baby is a New York Times Bestseller. Her popular series includes TEXAS HEARTS, DAKOTA HEARTS, Fate with a Helping Hand and the new SUMMER HOUSE series. Writing as LA Mondello, her romantic suspense, MATERIAL WITNESS, book 1 of her Heroes of Providence series made the USA TODAY Bestsellers List and was named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2012. You can find more information about Lisa Mondello at lisamondello.blogspot.com and sign up for her newsletter to receive new release information at http://eepurl.com/xhxO5
Twitter: @LisaMondello
