Article and Interview by Elise Cooper
Find Your Way Home by Jackie Ashenden is an adversary to lovers’ story with a lot of adventure. Readers get to imagine the beautiful New Zealand setting with the blueness of the lakes, the white capped mountain peaks, the weather changes, and the small-town atmosphere.
The plot has Isabella Montgomery, Bethany Grant, and Indigo Jameson hoping to open shop to help revitalize a remote town. Brightwater Valley, New Zealand, put out a call to its sister city of Deep River, Alaska, hoping to entice people to build homes and businesses in Brightwater to invigorate this ghost town.
Isabella (Izzy) decided to join the group after losing her job and being ditched by her fiancée. She wants to start over and embrace the adventurous spirit of the town unlike her former town of Houston, Texas. Chase Kelly is the defacto Mayor of the town. He is trying to raise a teenage daughter Gus by himself and make the town economically livable again. But he and Izzy seem to constantly butt heads as they try to find ways to bring in tourists.
Chase is a micro-organizer, managing everything, has a need for control and is very bossy yet is very caring and will do anything for those he loves. He tries to convince himself that he is not attracted to Izzy as he overanalyzes his feelings. Izzy on the other hand is determined to just follow her own lead and try not to please others. Chase and Izzy dance around each other and struggle to deal with ghosts in their past. But when they get together sparks fly as they realize they have more in common, including exes who never really cared about them.
This is a story of love and loss, acceptance, and new beginnings. The character banter is perfect as they snipe at each other until they realize they have a connection and are learning how to trust again.
Elise Cooper: What about the setting?
Jackie Ashenden: This the first in a series set in New Zealand. I wanted to do something connected to my Alaska series, :Deep River.” Since New Zealand is ripe with small towns it made it easy to write a small town into the series. There is a small town in the South Island, an ex-mining town that I based the story on. The South Island has a lot of outdoor activities like bungee jumping and hiking, so the heroes must be outdoorsmen. I brought in some of my Deep River characters and connected them up.
EC: How would you describe Izzy?
JA: She is Zeke’s sister from the Deep River series. She is strong-willed, stubborn, does not like to rely on others, and is very protective as well as kind. Because of being a Southern girl, she is a planner and determined with some rage over what happened to her.
EC: How would you describe Chase Kelly?
JA: He is Izzy’s male counterpart with a similar personality. He knows what he wants, an organizer as well as arrogant, rugged, serious, a brooder, very charismatic. He is an ex-SAS paratrooper. Chase will do anything for the people he loves and the town.
EC: How about the relationship between Chase and Kelly?
JA: At first, they butted heads, getting under each other’s skin. They are fighting the physical attraction as well as each other. Both realize they must work together so they decide not to antagonize each other. As they slowly get to know each other they allow their feelings to show.
EC: Seems each character has father issues?
JA: The book That Deep River Feeling has Izzy’s brother, Zeke Montgomery, as the hero. Their father is the antagonist. Izzy was the peace maker between her father and brother. Her parents told her she had to be good, or they would disinherit her. Chase’s father went to the pub, after his wife died, and never left it. He has abandonment issues, having to be on his own and raising his little brother.
EC: Their exes are the direct opposite of Izzy and Chase?
JA: Both are weary of having a new relationship. They have certain assumptions and begin to realize those assumptions are wrong. Izzy sees in Chase someone who is protective, giving and caring whereas her ex was selfish, self-centered, and wanted only a trophy wife. Olivia, Chase’s ex always wanted her way and made him always justify himself, while Izzy listened to Chase’s feelings and took them into account. This is why I put in this quote to show how Izzy and Chase realized they accepted each other for who they are. The quote, “Love is acceptance. It doesn’t require you to do anything or be anything. It just requires that you be yourself.” New Zealanders are straight up people.
EC: What about your next book?
JA: The next book in the series, All Roads Lead to You, and comes out in November. Chase’s brother Finn is the hero, and the heroine is Beth. Finn is grumpy and Beth is an optimist, seeing the silver lining everywhere. She is determined to make him her friend and he is determined to not have her befriend him.
EC: THANK YOU!!
