About the Book

Book: Tracy: A Sweet, Quirky, Romantic Masterpiece (Book 6 of the Weather Girls Wedding Shoppe and Venue series. It can be read as a stand-alone.)

Author: Jennifer Lynn Cary

Genre: Sweet, Wholesome Romance (Retro)

Release date: October, 2024

Her heart can’t take more breakage…

…He’s been wounded enough

Yet they’re becoming best friends without ever having met.

Tracy Callahan has learned that relationships aren’t for her. The struggling glass artist puts up barriers to keep romantic entanglements from causing more pain. However, her feelings are growing for her roommate’s brother, despite having never seen him in person.

How can just his voice on the phone hold that much attraction?

Danny Mitchell left a large part of himself in Viet Nam and is learning how to navigate life back here in the states. It’s better to just avoid the public. As long as he doesn’t have to see anyone in person, he can pretend he’s his old self, and the caller on the other end of the phone won’t know the difference.

But Tracy is breaking through, resurrecting feelings he thought were dead and gone.

They might find a way to make a telephone relationship work. Unless meddling loved ones get involved.

When that happens, can Tracy and Danny’s friendship survive meeting face-to-face?

Or could there be something more than friendship in store for them? Maybe a God-designed masterpiece built from their broken parts?

Return to 1973 Kokomo, Indiana where the legend of the cardinal in the sycamore can still prove true love.

You will enjoy this sweet, quirky tale of hidden worth, because sometimes what we need is right in front of us.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Historical Christian Romance author, Jennifer Lynn Cary, likes to say you can take the girl out of Indiana, but you can’t take the Hoosier out of the girl. Now transplanted to the Arizona desert, this direct descendant of Davy Crockett and her husband of forty plus years enjoy time with family where she shares tales of her small-town heritage and family legacies with their grandchildren. She is the author of The Crockett Chronicles series, The Relentless series, and The Weather Girlstrilogy as well as the stand-alone novel, Cheryl’s Going Home, her novella Tales of the Hob Nob Annex Café, and her split-time novels The Traveling Prayer Shawl and The Forgotten Gratitude Journal. Her current spin-off series, The Weather Girls Wedding Shoppe and Venue, contains standalones with a common thread.

More from Jennifer

Have you ever met characters in a story that stayed with you, even when they weren’t the main characters? That’s what happened to me after I wrote Runaround Sue. Sue’s brother and her roommate seemed to hit it off so well, and I loved those characters.

It only made sense to give Tracy and Danny their own story.

However, I will confess that I had planned to make a character named Tracy because of the song, “Tracy” by the Cufflinks. It’s such a happy, bouncy tune and I thought that fit Sue’s roommate.

I do need to add that I relied on a childhood friend for some Danny’s antics. At one point I was told that something he did wasn’t possible. The problem was, I knew it was because my friend, Maureen McKay did that very thing. Maureen had a personality like Tracy’s and determination like Danny’s.

A few years ago I was back in Kokomo for a special wedding anniversary party. I noticed a guy sitting at a table and went to talk with him. At that time, I was combing faces for someone I’d known back when I went to school there. He had that look, but as we talked, it was obvious we didn’t know each other.

A little later I told my cousin about that, and she said that he was ahead of us in school, but he had a younger sister who would’ve been about my age. I knew immediately why he’d looked familiar. He was Maureen’s big brother.

I searched him and his mother out quickly and let them know I remembered Maureen. I mentioned a few of our escapades. Then I told them that my husband and I had lost a son, and that the kindest thing anyone could say was that they remembered our Ian. So, for that reason, I wanted them to know I remember Maureen.

And that’s why Tracy is dedicated to the memory of my friend Maureen McKay.

My Impressions

“I know if I keep looking back, all I’ll see is regret for the loss. But if I focus on what’s ahead, I’ll find purpose.”

I must admit, I read Tracy by Jennifer Lynn Cary for all the references I hoped to find to the 70s, but it is the fear, the love, and the faith lessons of the novel that will stick with me.

I did have a swell time as I found each 70s allusion, whether a reference to the cost of a long-distance phone call, a transistor radio, the Carpenters on the radio, and the shag rug that would need raking!! How fun to revisit the past!

Well, some of it. I was not old enough to have friends being drafted, but the dread of the draft and war themselves, the metal POW bracelets even girls my age wore, the memories of hearing of war protestors in the cities… all come back clearly with Cary’s book. Once again, I recall the adult talk and growing into adulthood to witness the abominable treatment of our young men we sent over to serve to keep us free, then the rejection when they returned maimed in body or mind, or turned to drugs or alcohol to deal with the terrors caused by Nam.

It’s this world that Danny inhabits. Having returned injured from the war, he feels less than complete. He does understand and believe God has him still here for a purpose. “And I realized something. If I was still here, my mission wasn’t complete. I’m here for a purpose. And until I finish it, God’s going to keep me here.” So he starts a group for other vets. And he’s not afraid to enter a relationship with Tracy by phone, because she can’t see how his disability makes him inferior ( in his eyes). But a physical meeting is out of the question!

Tracy, a glass artist, has always come up second-best in life. So, no more relationships for her. When her roommate and her fiancé force a meeting between Tracy and Danny, Tracy and Danny are furious and on edge. Can they get past their fears and insecurities to trust God and each other? There are some real bumps along the way!

I highly recommend Tracy both for a trip to the past and a lesson for the future in how we treat our servicemen and how we can trust God to overcome our fears.

I received a copy of the book from Celebrate Lit. I also bought my own copy. No positive review was required, and all opinions are my own.

Notable Quotables:

“How I feel and what is true can be two different things.”“So what, or Who are you gonna believe, dude? Feelings that lie to you, or the One who gave his life for you?”

“Between honesty and hope, there seemed to be an ever-widening gap.”

“Since when are you worthless? Look, dude, you are the same person on the inside. You’re just missing some outside parts. That has impact, yes, on who you are, but how it affects is totally up to you.”

“There are different terrors. The only thing that’s the same is how inhuman a human can become. The methods are always changing while evil tries to improve on itself.”