A house is a home when...

...it's a Fairway to Heaven?
What does a house or a home mean to characters in a book? I decided to go outside my four walls and ask my neighbours - authors of contemporary and historical fiction.

What makes a house a home in Fairway to Heaven?

 Fairway to Heaven by contemporary romance author, Lily Malone. 
A reunion romance set in a small town by the beach (with a touch of golf).

Great sensual read, full of gentle but very real drama ~ Amazon.com

The who and the why

Author: Lily Malone. I write contemporary romance in an Aussie setting. Usually with wine, but in the case of Fairway To Heaven I guess it was more with a golf club, and on a beach. (Who am I kidding. There is still wine, and sparkling.)

The Book: Fairway To Heaven. Out TODAY! (8th April 2015)

Character: Brayden Culhane. He's Jenn's hero, and he doesn't play golf. (Jenn is the female protagonist.)

Character bio: Brayden is Jenn's first and most awesome teenage crush - you all know the type. The one you notice in school and stalk from a distance (pretending not to stalk because that's so uncool). He's the one who got her heart fluttering, her pulse leaping, that awful kicking sense in her stomach whenever he walked her home. And he is the one who got away.

The House: The 'house' in Fairway to Heaven is more of a shack. It's actually the last shack standing on the beachfront of Busselton - a tourist haven in south west Western Australia for those who don't know. Busselton (incidentally) is the home of the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. The 'shack' in Fairway is a real place. I took a photograph of it when I was researching Fairway To Heaven for the setting. All around it are much more modern 'palaces' but stuck smack bang in the middle is this little old falling down beach house. In the book, it is Brayden Culhane's family beach house, and Jenn goes there with her toddler son, Sebby, to get her life back together after discovering her boyfriend, father of Seb, is having an affair.

What makes a house a home for Brayden: A nice comfortable couch. A nice big yard (he remembers great games of holiday cricket in the backyard). It's not too fancy, he doesn't need granite benchtops or stainless steel everything. If it has a deck, all the better, because he loves to stretch out those very long legs.

The book

It’s going to take more than summer loving to heal old wounds, but a remote beach, old friendships and a bit of sunshine might just spark a second chance at love.

When Jennifer Gates drives to Sea Breeze Golf Club to kick off date-night with her boyfriend, the last thing she expects is to find Golf Pro Jack giving one of his lady students a private—and very personal—lesson in bunker-play.

Lucky for Jenn, her best friend gives her the keys to the Culhane family’s beach shack on the white-pepper shores of Western Australia’s Geographe Bay. Jenn hopes a weekend on the coast with her young son will give her the space she needs to rebuild her confidence after Jack’s betrayal.

But she’s not the only person seeking sanctuary by the sea. Brayden Culhane is there too, and Jenn can’t look at Brayden without remembering the tequila-flavoured kiss they shared on the shack steps years ago.

As long-buried feelings are rekindled, and a friendship is renewed, Jenn knows it is more than lazy summer days bringing her mojo back. Romantic sunsets, ice-cold beers and the odd round of golf can only go so far, because this time trusting Brayden with her heart won’t be enough. Jenn has to learn to trust her body, too.

Find out more about Lily Malone and where to buy the book on her blog: LILY MALONE, contemporary romance with an Australian flavour

More A house is a home when... coming soon.

Jennie

The Turnaround Treasure Shop, book #4 in Jennie's Swallow's Fall series will be released May 2015

Photo credits: Escape Publishing. Pixabay.com