From Grief to Grace: Finding Love Again

THE SUMMER OF YOU AND ME

Denise Hunter has written five beach books so far. Her latest, The Summer of You and Me, is a stand-alone novel filled with drama, a little mystery, and some romance. The book was inspired by a real-life experience when Denise went to her birthplace. “While visiting my small hometown, I ran into a virtual twin of an old friend, but he and his family had left town years ago…the wheels started turning, and before long I had the inspiration for my next novel,” she shares.  She chose Carolina Beach, NC as the setting for the book. She says, “One look at the boardwalk carnival, and I knew I’d found Maggie’s and Josh’s (main characters) hometown.”  

A synopsis:

Maggie Reynolds is finally ready for love again--until the past shows up in the form of someone who may or may not be the late husband she thought she'd lost. Five years after her husband's death, Maggie is finally ready to let go of him and the dreams she had for their future. A summer at Seabrook, where she and Ethan first became childhood sweethearts, seems the perfect time and place to find closure. Plus, she gets to spend time with his family, the Reynoldses, whom she loves like her own. Unbeknownst to Maggie, her brother-in-law, Josh Reynolds, has been in love with her since they first met all those years ago. But his brother ultimately won Maggie's heart, and Josh's unrequited love has ruined all his relationships. If Maggie is ready to move on, then Josh is ready to lay it all on the line and come clean about his true feelings for her. But his plans soon get put on hold when, shortly after Maggie returns to Seabrook, she runs into a man who could pass for Ethan's twin. But he disappears into the amusement-park crowd before she can confront him. The event rattles Maggie stirs up impossible questions and sends Josh and her on a quest to discover the man's identity. But their search ends up raising more questions than answers--and soon Maggie isn't sure she wants those answers after all.
 
GETTING STARTED

Denise was raised in a Christian home in Ohio.  “I was practically raised in the church nursery!” she says. Her family attended church regularly.  When she was five, Denise’s mom led her to the Lord by her bedside.  Denise met her husband at church when she was 17. They eventually got married and moved to Indiana.  They immediately found a local church and got involved. 

In 1996 her grandfather died.  She remembers her grandfather as a man who would do whatever God called him to do.  “He was a man who lived his life without regrets,” Denise says.  As she sat next to her grandfather’s bedside, she knew he wasn’t going to be on this earth much longer.  Denise thought about how she had always wanted to start a novel.  In college, she felt the urge to write but had two young boys at the time.  “I knew it wasn’t the right season.  I was too busy.  I decided to put it on the back burner,” she says.  After her grandfather died, Denise felt the Lord whispered in her ear that it was time to take writing off the back burner.  “A couple weeks after my grandfather died, I started writing.”  With two young kids in the house, Denise had no free time, so she wrote while her kids took naps. “That’s all I could do.  I offered what little time I had,” she says.  Her first novel was published two years later

(Stranger’s Bride). “I continued to devote that nap time to my writing.  I think about the fishes and the loaves in the Bible and how God took that little offering and made the provision abundant.  It was more than enough.  That’s what I feel like God’s done with my career,” she says.

Denise has continued writing and is now an internationally published bestselling author of more than 40 novels, three of which have been made into Hallmark movies - The Convenient Groom, A December Bride, and The Goodbye Bride.  She has been featured in Woman’s Day and Southern Living, and is a recipient of the following awards: The Holt Medallion Award, The Carol Award, The Reader’s Choice Award, The Foreword Book of the Year Award, and was a RITA finalist.    

Denise and her husband live in Indiana where they are currently enjoying an empty nest. Her husband says he inspires all of her romantic stories, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too!
 

To learn more about Denise Hunter or purchase her latest books click the LINK!  

CREDITS

Best-selling romance author, latest, The Summer of You and Me, (Thomas Nelson, 2025); Written more than 40 books, three have been adapted into original Hallmark Channel movies – The Convenient Groom, A December Bride, and The Goodbye Bride; has been featured in Southern Living and Woman's World; married to Kevin, three grown boys and four grandchildren