Guest Post, Excerpt & Giveaway ~ THE NANTUCKET BEACHFRONT INN (Sconset Beach, #1) by Ainsley Keaton

The Nantucket Beachfront Inn (Sconset Beach, #1)
by: Ainsley Keaton
Series: Sconset Beach
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Release Date: March 1, 2022
Publisher: Sunrise Books
Amazon | Paperback | Goodreads

She's 54, broken-hearted, and starting over....

High-powered New York attorney Ava Flynn finds herself without a job or a future. Unemployable at her age, and broken-hearted by a husband who left her in the lurch, she desperately needs a Plan B. Her prayers are answered when a wealthy benefactor wills her a large house in the 'Sconset Beach area of Nantucket. She heads out to the picturesque New England island with her two best friends, Luna and Mila, going along for the ride.

One catch...her estranged daughter also lives there. Charlotte Killeen, Ava's daughter, is battling a crisis of her own. Her new husband, Matthew, wants a divorce, even though the couple have a newborn baby. Charlotte needs her mother more than ever, but the two have never seen eye to eye. Her marriage on the rocks and with few prospects for income, Charlotte is near the end of her rope. Then a life-threatening illness brings into focus what's important after all.

Ava's other daughter, Samantha, also lives on Nantucket Island, with her best friend and roommate, Grayson. Samantha suffers from a lack of direction in her life, and longs to meet a rich prince charming who will sweep her off her feet. When she meets the man of her dreams, she's leaving behind the one man who loves her unconditionally - Grayson.

Jackson, Ava's son, is an aspiring actor in Hollywood. Everything has always come easy to him, that is until Willow, Matthew's cousin, shows up. Free-spirited Willow is just the kind of girl to break Jackson's heart, which is difficult to do, as Jackson is always the heartbreaker.

And speaking of Willow...she's a feminist island witch and artist. She and Jackson have been through many, many lifetimes together. Yet, Willow wants nothing to do with Jackson in this lifetime. She has no desire to give up even an ounce of her power, not even for her soul mate. Willow also is hiding a devastating secret from Jackson. A secret that is guaranteed to upend his life for good.

Mila, Ava's best friend, is battling a devastating illness, information that she hasn't shared with Ava and Luna. She never wants to be a burden, so she just doesn't ask for help. But she's going to need all the support she can get. She finds this support in a very surprising place, and, in doing so, gets closer to her own destiny.

Ava busies herself with fixing up her beautiful new beach home, so that she can open up a bed and breakfast. Contractor Deacon Cromwell, whom Ava hires to do the renovation, is the man who might thaw Ava's cold heart, if only she'll let him. However, he's almost 20 years her junior and, Ava believes, out of her league. Can Ava overcome her insecurities and allow herself to love again?

In this feel-good beach read with a touch of magick, Ava and her friends and family will become your best friends. Come and share their joys and heartbreaks, their tragedies and triumphs. For fans of Susan Mallery, Jude Devereaux Nantucket Bride series and Elin Hilderbrand!

One writing vice that haunts me and the cure

One thing that you need to know about me is that I grew up on soap operas. My mother was so addicted to General Hospital, One Life to Live, All My Children and whatever soap happened to be on before All My Children – there were a lot of them – that I learned story-telling from the soaps from an early age. It’s in my DNA.

And that can be a blessing, because soaps were popular for many years and for good reason – they were compelling stories. The soaps are fast-paced, features a ton of characters, and outlandish plot points are the norm.

It can also be a curse. I’ve realized that my books are soapy, which means that the stories meander all of the place, unrealistic plot points are the norm in my books and there are a ton of characters who might not be as fleshed out as they could be. In fact, my second book that I’ve ever written, called Deeper Illusions, which is a sequel to my first book, Beautiful Illusions, was a soap-a-rama book where a character hits his head and accidentally sleeps with his best friend because he thought that she was his wife (he was in an altered state from lack of sleep for many days and hitting his head), his friend gets pregnant and says that it’s his, which causes his wife to divorce him, even though she’s pregnant with his child, but that child might belong to a man who raped her. And this is just one of the plot points. I loved that book, I still love it, because it’s never boring. And it has a 90% read-through rate to the next book in the series, so readers seemed to love it, too.

But I realize that readers have an issue with this kind of writing. It’s one of the consistent negative feedbacks I’ve gotten - unrealistic stories, too many characters, too choppy of a story. And I’ve taken this feedback to heart and I’m going back through my latest book to see what plot points might be unrealistic, I’ve cut out some characters to make the story flow better and I’m intentionally reining in the crazy. I still think that the soapy book has a place, but probably not in women’s fiction, where women are looking for something they can relate to and relax with, and are looking for characters they can befriend.

And, going forward, taking out the soap in my writing is going to be something I’ll be intentionally working on.

"You don't need me to do another spell to bring that guy back. What you need is a spell to make you tougher, stronger. More of a badass. Mentally, that is," Willow clarified as she looked at the delicate waifish-like figure of her friend.

"I don't want to be a badass. I just want him back."

"The sex couldn't be that good," Willow said. "No sex is good enough to make you give your power away like this. And why do I think that you guys aren't even having that good of sex?"

Sara's pale face grew crimson. "I don't like to talk about that," she said.

"I knew it. I knew it. The guy's not even that great of a lay, is what you're telling me, or not telling me, yet here you are, desperate to get him back. What kind of hold does he have over you?"

"He…he…he…" Sara couldn't seem to find her words, so Willow found them for her.

"Listen," Willow said. "Here's the thing. You're a hotty, in case you don't know. Here's a mirror." Willow kept a small mirror in her pocket to ward off negative energies. In this case, she didn't want to use it for magickal purposes. She just wanted Sara to see herself.

Sara looked into the mirror. "Oh, God, I look like crap. No wonder Jamie left." Then she shook her head.

"That backfired spectacularly," Willow mumbled to herself. "Let's see, what kind of spell can I do to make you like yourself? Let alone love yourself?"

She was going to have to go to her personal Book of Shadows, where she wrote down all of her spells, incantations and poetry, and find the right spell to work so that Sara could see herself as the world saw her. Sara was objectively beautiful - even without makeup, her skin glowed from within, as did her enormous blue eyes. Somehow, her eyelashes were thick and dark, even though the woman was a natural blonde. Her nose was thin and delicate, her lips full and lush. She also appeared to be naturally slim, although Willow wasn't sure about that. It could be that she just had an eating disorder.

Or, maybe like Willow herself, Sara just couldn't afford to eat. That was always a possibility.

Sara was gorgeous, yet she still clung to the jerkiest jerks in Boston. And, yes, Sara lived in the city, which meant that every time she came to see Willow, she had to shlep her carcass an hour east to Hyannis, catch the ferry, then Uber her way to Willow's cottage. Willow was still astounded that anybody could be that motivated, especially about getting some loser back in one's life.

"I don't care about that," Sara said. "I just want him back."

"You don't care if you love yourself or not?" Willow asked. "Let's go for a walk to the beach, shall we?"

"No," Sara said. "I didn't come here for a nature hike."

"I know, I know. You came here because you lost your regular booty call. Because that's essentially what Jamie was, you know. And, from your reaction earlier, it sounds like he wasn't all that great of a booty call at that."

Willow stood up and started walking towards the beach, making it clear that the topic of whether or not the two women were going to take a walk wasn't up for discussion. If Sara wanted Willow's help, she would do it on Willow's terms, not her own.

Purchase The Nantucket Beachfront Inn from:

Amazon | Paperback | Goodreads

The Sconset Beach Series:

The Nantucket Surprises releases April 1, 2022

The Nantucket Reunion releases May 1, 2022

The Nantucket Wedding releases June 1, 2022

The Nantucket Girls releases August 1, 2022

The Nantucket Sunsets releases September 1, 2022

The Nantucket Winery releases October 1, 2022

The Nantucket Christmas releases November 1, 2022

Ainsley Keaton lives in Southern California with her husband and two fur-babies, Bella and Annie. When she’s not binge-watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Downton Abbey and Succession, she’s reading historical and women’s fiction or scouring the beach for sea glass and sand dollars.

Places to find Ainsley Keaton:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page

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