Shannon here: Kathleen D. Bailey shares her inspiration for her upcoming Contemporary Fiction title, Hilltop Wedding, plus a romantic excerpt and a chance to win a print copy along with 3 other books. Comment or answer the question in any blog post dated Oct 5th – 31st. Deadline: Nov 7th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Kathleen:
Hi, my name is Kathy Bailey and I write inspirational historical fiction and contemporary fiction. I love writing about Christmas! There’s something special about coming together at our Savior’s birth, and celebrating that glorious event together. But it isn’t always easy to get there. It isn’t for Stephanie and J.P., the heroine and hero of my latest release, Hilltop Wedding.
Excerpt from Hilltop Wedding by Kathleen D. Bailey:
Her gloved hand felt small in his as they glided across the expanse. They worked together perfectly, like he’d always known they would be, legs moving in unison, like a pair of scissors. She looked happy tonight, her cheeks rosy from the chill, her blue eyes wide with the adventure of playing hooky on a weeknight. Stephanie always brought her A game. He hoped Michael realized what he was getting.
Why hadn’t J. P. done this before with her?
Same reason they hadn’t done a lot of things.
If only he’d spoken for her years before. No, he couldn’t have borne a rejection. Any place in her life was better than nothing.
They had tonight.
His leg was starting to hurt from the piece of shrapnel from Kandahar the doctors hadn’t been able to get out. The leftover wound bothered him sometimes in the cold. He wasn’t about to quit, not with Stephanie holding his hand and gliding over the ice with him. If only …
She wobbled again, and he caught her, pulling her close till she regained purchase. He held on to her a little too long.
***
Stephanie took the curve and stumbled. She felt J. P.’s strong arms around her, hanging on till her wobbly legs straightened again. She looked up and tried a light tone. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight. I never met a winter sport I didn’t like. Maybe I’m just rusty…”
His eyes were black, stripped of all color in the semi-darkness as he looked down at her. Her babbling sputtered out. He gazed at her with his whole soul in his face, none of the control he put on for other people, none of the walls a poor and lonely boy had built just to survive. He was J. P., his face naked and open on a skating rink in December.
Her lips parted in spite of themselves. When he bent to kiss her, Stephanie met him halfway, the toes of her skates digging into the ice as she reached up.
His lips sought hers with a fury and a pent-up passion. Michael had never kissed her like this. She wasn’t sure she wanted him to. Michael was in the proper box—a Christian suitor, a sturdily dependable future husband, a pillar of some future community, if not this one.
J. P. was something else and always had been.
For one moonlit night, she wanted more of him. Or all of them.
Michael had kissed her before—had to, over five years—and made no secret of the fact that he wanted more. Michael was a good enough kisser. She’d never been kissed like this, kisses that gave her a feeling of belonging from her head to her toes.
***
J. P. held Stephanie close as he claimed a second kiss. She felt right in his arms. He’d always known she would. One of her gloves had fallen off, and her bare, cold hand caressed his cheek. She kissed him until her legs weakened, and she got down off her toes. She still held on to his arms.
“What was that?” she murmured.
“What do you want it to be?”
“You kissed me, J. P.”
“You kissed me back.” So much was uncertain about this situation. Best to stick to the facts.
She leaned against him and he wrapped his arms around the trembling figure. She was a mountain girl, and he knew better than to think the trembling came from cold.
They needed to talk. Best not to do it on skates. He took her hand. “Let’s go sit at the bonfire.”
He built up the fire, while Stephanie sat like a little girl with her hands in her lap. He curved his tall form onto the log bench on the other side of the fire. The distance between them crackled like the flames. She was even more beautiful now, her face glowing in the firelight.
What had he done?
Something that could never be undone.
Kathleen again:
J.P. Beaulieu has loved Stephanie Gregson since he was six and she was four. Through his abuse by his father, her unplanned teen pregnancy, his deployment to Afghanistan and his battle with alcohol. Stephanie denies her feelings for him, until one special Christmas brings them together.
I love writing Christmas romances! Every emotion is magnified over Christmas. If you’re lonely, you’re lonelier in December. Why else do so many churches hold “Blue Christmas” services? If you’re ecstatic over a new relationship, that joy is doubled and tripled if it happens at Christmas. One of my fiction publishers puts out a collection of Christmas novellas each year under the umbrella of “Christmas Extravaganza.” Why? Because at this time of the year, of all times, we need to believe in happy endings.
“Hilltop Wedding” is the third and last (I think) in the Hilltop Christmas trilogy, published by Elk Lake Publishing Inc. The other two books, “Hilltop Reunion” and the original “Hilltop Christmas,” explored the same theme, of a couple finding each other over the Christmas season. But wait, there’s more! The joy of finding each other mirrors the joy of being found by Christ. It’s no accident that he uses marriage, and romantic love, and the seeking of love as metaphors in his Holy Word.
Because being found by Him is the ultimate romance of all.
Reader Question: What is your favorite thing about Christmas?
October 2026 Book Bundle
Lighting Up Christmas by Amy R. Anguish, Contemporary Romance Novella Collection, print
Hilltop Wedding by Kathleen D. Bailey, Contemporary Fiction, print
Northern Redemption by Laurie Wood, Romantic Suspense, e-book
To Chase the Stars by Tara Johnson, Historical Romance, print
About Kathleen: Kathleen Bailey is a journalist and novelist with 40 years’ experience in the nonfiction, newspaper and inspirational fields. Born in 1951, she was a child in the 50s, a teen in the 60s, a young adult in the 70s and a young mom in the 80s. It’s been a turbulent, colorful time to grow up, and she’s enjoyed every minute of it and written about most of it.
She attended a mixture of public and parochial schools and graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a bachelor’s in English Literature in 1974. She spent 40 years writing for newspapers, covering 13 small New Hampshire towns for three different papers. She’s published seven inspirational fiction books with both Pelican/White Rose and Elk Lake Publishing and she’s the co-author of four nonfiction local history books with Arcadia Publishing. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband the Rev. David Bailey. They have one grown daughter. Learn more and connect:
https://kathleendbailey.weebly.com/
About the book – Hilltop Wedding:
All Stephanie Gregson wants to do is get through Christmas. She’s juggling a teenage daughter, a full-time job, a respectable fiancé, and a best friend who suddenly wants more. She’s also up to her eyes in the Hilltop Christmas Festival, an annual event bringing visitors from three states to the tiny Northern town.
All J.P. Beaulieu wants is to put Christmas behind him – and every other holiday, while he’s at it. Stuck in Hilltop with a dead-end job, a depressed mother and his memories, he has little to celebrate except his friendship with Stephanie and her daughter Hayley. He has always loved Steph and wonders if he should let her know before Michael Bennett sweeps her away.
But before they can even consider coming together, Stephanie and J.P. will be involved in the fight of their lives. She clings to her Lord for deliverance, and J.P. must cling to a God he barely knows, in an icy mountaintop rescue.
Hilltop Wedding releases later this fall.
Worried you won’t win the drawing? Interested in Kathleen’s other titles? Need extra books for gifts?
Get your copy/copies now!
Come back Oct 16th for Shannon’s Book Bargains Roundup!
Well good morning, and thank you to Shannon for hosting me. I love romance, Christmas and — wait for it — Christmas romances. I’m excited about Stephanie and J.P.’s story, the last in the Hilltop trilogy, coming out at the end of October. The books are based around the annual Hilltop Christmas Festival, where marriages are restored, errant children come home, and the Lord works in mysterious ways over a cup of cocoa. Welcome to Hilltop, the Town That Heals.
Good Morning Kathy,
You are so right about Christmas and emotions emphasized. Everything looks more magical and spirits are high, as long as you have connections in your lives. I have been blessed to always have family around me at Christmastime, and I have often wondered about those who do not. All I do know is that with Jesus in our lives, we are never alone. The Hilltop series is an intriguing and spellbinding read, filled with love, fear, highs and lows, and ending with the magic always around us—especially at Christmas.