Denise Hunter is the internationally published, bestselling author of more than forty books, three of which have been adapted into original Hallmark Channel movies. She has won the Holt Medallion Award, the Reader’s Choice Award, the Carol Award, the Foreword Book of the Year Award, and is a RITA finalist. When Denise isn’t orchestrating love lives on the written page, she enjoys traveling with her family, drinking chai lattes, and playing drums. Denise makes her home in Indiana, where she and her husband raised three boys and are now enjoying an empty nest and three beautiful grandchildren.
In this interview, Denise talks with us about her latest novel, Before We Were Us.
FF: What inspired you to write this book?
It all started with a “what if” question: What if a woman fell in love, then lost her memory of their time together. Would she fall in love with him all over again?
FF: How do you choose your main characters?
I always feel like my characters choose me! Lauren and Jonah evolved naturally as I wrote the story. I usually don’t know what my characters are going to say or do until my fingers start moving across the keyboard.
FF: What kind of research did you do for this story, and what did that look like?
I always travel to the setting of my novels. This allows me to get to know the area and the people who inhabit it so I can bring the setting alive for my readers.
For Before We Were Us, I interviewed the owners of Sunset Lodges in Wolfeboro, NH for a better understanding of how Lauren and Jonah would run Pine Haven Resort. I fell in love with the lakeside property and its towering pines and quiet cabins. It was the perfect setting for a fall novel. Also, since my heroine ends up with amnesia, so I enlisted the help of a writer friend, Ronda Wells, MD, for medical accuracy. Amnesia might be a romance trope, but I still wanted the circumstances to be plausible.
FF: If there was one thing that you wanted readers to take away from this novel, what would that be?
Jonah and Lauren both have a lot to learn about family. Everyone needs to feel they belong somewhere, and Jonah’s family has a way of welcoming everyone into their hearts. I’d love for readers to think about where they belong and who they consider to be their “home.” And also who in their circle might they welcome into their hearts?
Before We Were Us
Denise Hunter
Thomas Nelson
Genres: Romance
Release Date: September 10, 2024
ISBN-10: 0840716680
ISBN-13: 978-0840716682
Book Summary:
She can’t remember. He can’t forget.
When Lauren Wentworth wakes up in the hospital after falling from a ladder, she has more questions than answers. Way more. She knows where she is—the wilds of New Hampshire. But she’s apparently lost the last four months of her life. Is she really contemplating forfeiting her big-city dream job for a position at a rustic resort? And how did her number one nemesis become her adoring boyfriend?
Jonah Landry is crushed to learn Lauren has forgotten their entire summer together. Terrified of losing her for good, he determines to help her remember their deep connection as she finishes her obligation to the resort. But soon it becomes apparent Lauren doesn’t want to remember falling in love with him or rethinking the entire course of her career. She wants to pretend the summer never happened and move on with her life. Without him.
As Lauren falls back into the steady routines of resort work with Jonah, she’s relieved her memories haven’t returned and remains resolute about her big-city future. But as autumn leads into winter, she begins to see glimpses of the Jonah she’s forgotten. Will she be able to resist the steady love of this patient man? Or is her heart destined for its own freefall?
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