I wrote this story because it was the next in this series. I decided to pit a free-spirit with a hard-core planner. They were fun to play off each other. When writing this Mackinac Island series, I wanted to show different aspects of the island. This one featured the Grand Hotel. I fell in love with Mackinac Island and the Grand Hotel while watching Somewhere In Time. I love that movie.
The head scratcher with that movie is the watch. Who bought the watch? The heroine got the watch from the hero when he traveled back in time. When he got sucked back to his time, the watch got left behind. Then years later, when the heroine was an old lady, she gave the watch that he had left in past, but not yet in his current timeline. So she got it from him, and he got it from her, but no one actually bought it.
Hmm?
The initial building of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island was built in three short months and opened on July 10, 1887. Since then, many additions have been made to the hotel. The lumber for constructing the hotel was brought over during the winter and slid across on the ice bridge.
When the hotel opened, the rates were $3-$5 per night. The price skyrocketed to $6 per day per person in 1919.
In 1947, another movie was filmed, in part, at the Grand Hotel called This Time For Keeps, starring Jimmy Durante and Esther Williams. The Grand Hotel pool was built for Esther Williams for that movie.
The Grand Hotel’s front porch is the longest in the world at 660 feet.
Fun note about the cover for this book. I took the picture of the Grand Hotel that was used. Where the lilac bush is was a tree. I said I’d love it if they could put in lilacs instead of the green tree. And they did! Of course, they did some other doctoring, but I love the result.
Once all four books in this series had come out through the book club they were written for, Barbour combined the the first three into one volume. LAKESIDE, THE ISLAND, & THE GRAND HOTEL are included in MICHIGAN WEDDINGS: Contemporary Romance: Michigan's Mackinac Island offers a safe harbor for wounded hearts seeking retreat. Lorelei returns to the island carrying a secret that has stolen her joy, but an old acquaintance is waiting to try to restore it. Haley's job on the island hides her from family conflict and the fear of being used by others until a handsome customer arrives asking for her help. Aimee seeks family treasure and adventure at the Grand Hotel, but one of the assistant manager's adherences to routine threatens her goals. Will God's guidance lead these women down the path of forgiveness and romance?
Next month, book 4 in this series, HERITAGE.
COMING SOON
THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT ~ A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series.Washington State, 1893
When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother.
Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT is now available for pre-order at only $2.99--the low price for pre-orders...later it will go up. A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This book releases in ebook on July 1, and will be out in paperback by mid-June.
“Holly & Ivy,”my #HistoricalRomance novella in A BOUQUET OF BRIDES COLLECTION, takes place in 1890, in Washington State. It’s about a young woman who accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a Christmas mail-order bride and is helped by a gallant stranger. #BouquetOfBrides
A doctor or an Amish wife? She can choose to be only one…Kathleen Yoder comes home after fourteen years in the Englisher world. Practicing medicine means sacrifice—no Amish man will want a doctor for a wife. Widowed Noah Lambright offers a cottage as her new clinic, seeing how much Kathleen’s skills can help their community. But as their friendship deepens, could love and family become more than a forbidden dream?
#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance
MARY DAVIS is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January, Courting Her Amish Heart in March, The Widow’s Plight in July, Courting Her Secret Heart September, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.
Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:
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