by
BETHANY TURNER
Genre: Christian Romance / Humor
Publisher: Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group
Date of Publication: May 21, 2019
Number of Pages: 352
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After four years with her boyfriend, Cadie McCaffrey is thinking of ending things. Convinced Will doesn’t love her in the “forever” way she loves him, Cadie believes it’s time for her to let him go before life passes her by. When a misunderstanding leads to a mistake, leaving her hurt, disappointed, and full of regret, she finally sends him packing.
But for Will, the end of their relationship is only the beginning of his quest to figure out how to be the man Cadie wanted him to be. With the dubious guidance of his former pro-athlete work friends and tactics drawn from Cadie’s favorite romantic comedies, Will attempts to win her back. It’s a foolproof plan. What could possibly go wrong?
But for Will, the end of their relationship is only the beginning of his quest to figure out how to be the man Cadie wanted him to be. With the dubious guidance of his former pro-athlete work friends and tactics drawn from Cadie’s favorite romantic comedies, Will attempts to win her back. It’s a foolproof plan. What could possibly go wrong?
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PRAISE FOR WOOING CADIE McCAFFREY:
“Rising star Bethany Turner’s Wooing Cadie McCaffrey highlights the author’s oh-so-readable voice and engaging characters. One of the many things I love about Turner is the way she tackles tough subjects with candor yet writes with the right amount of discretion. Romantics everywhere will sigh happily at the perfect ending. Highly recommended!” -- Colleen Coble, USA Today bestselling author of The House at Saltwater Point and the Rock Harbor series
"Bethany Turner has done it again! Filled with wit and loaded with pop culture references, Wooing Cadie McCaffrey is sure to be an instant favorite among fans of Christian romance. I’ve found my new go-to author for rom-com with heart.” -- Carla Laureano, RITA award–winning author of The Saturday Night Supper Club and Brunch at Bittersweet Café
Introduction from Bethany: This scene, cut from Wooing Cadie McCaffrey, is actually just a small section of an entire chapter that was cut. The book moves around in time a bit, beginning with the day Cadie and Will meet, and then jumping ahead four years to a point where Cadie and Will are on the verge of breaking up. The romance is pretty much gone, their relationship seems to be less of a priority, and Cadie has come to believe Will will never love her in the “forever” way she loves him. But throughout the rest of the story, we are given clues and insight into what went wrong, and whether or not Cadie and Will can ever find their way back to each other.
This cut scene is from a flashback to happier times. The events of the day—a McCaffrey family wedding, at which Will meets Cadie’s annoying cousin Victoria, who likes everyone to think she has the most wonderful, romantic life imaginable and is supposedly engaged to a rich Frenchman named Aimè—still come into play in the story, and a few lines even made the cut, but ultimately we didn’t need this chapter. In fact, by not laying it all out for the reader, we were able to use aspects of this day as a subtle shared memory for both Cadie and Will. It works so much better that way! But I was still sad to see this scene go. Primarily because I love every moment that we get to spend with Cadie and Will as a couple—happy, in love, and blissfully unaware that they’ll ever be considering life apart.
Scene cut from Wooing Cadie McCaffrey:
“Should I feel bad?” he finally asked with a chuckle.
“No!” I laughed. “Well, I don’t know. Maybe…”
“I don’t.” He turned his head towards me and leaned in to say, “How have you put up with her for so long? She’s intolerable.”
“Well, I work so hard all the time. It’s really sad that I have to miss so many family things…”
He planted a quick kiss on my cheek and then exhaled as he settled into the uncomfortable wooden pew. “I didn’t even push that hard. I was prepared to start peeling away the layers until I caught her in some lie or other. I didn’t expect her to completely freak out like that, so quickly, just because she doesn’t have a ring. I certainly hit on something there.”
“That was good,” I assured him in a whisper as the organ began playing “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and the entire congregation stood in one synchronized movement. “Even I believed you had given the entire topic of rings and proposals some serious thought.” I caught myself before my mind began running away with me, and I instead forced myself to stay focused on the way he’d one-upped the pathological liar I shared some DNA with.
From behind me, as we faced the aisle and waited for the bridal party to oh-so-slowly make their way to the pulpit, he wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder.
“Do you know how many romance movies you’ve made me watch?” he asked. “I’ll tell you how many. All of them. And I’ve paid attention. There is rarely ever a ring when a man proposes in those movies. Do you realize that?”
“I guess I’ve never really thought about it.” I shrugged and leaned my head against his. “Also, you really think you’ve seen all of them? You’ve watched ten. Fifteen, max.”
“There are more?” he asked and I giggled. “Well, anyway, the man just never seems to see it coming. That’s absurd. Don’t you think that’s absurd? Maybe the woman doesn’t see it coming, but how does the man not see it coming? I don’t think that’s how it happens in real life.”
“You don’t think so?” I asked with a smile. I wasn’t sure if it was being at a wedding, or if it was being surrounded by my family and realizing how comparatively normal I was, but we were skating dangerously close to an actual marriage conversation. I was determined to say as little as I possibly could so I didn’t mess it up.
“I don’t,” he continued to whisper. “I mean, you wouldn’t really want any of that movie stuff to happen in real life, would you? Do women really dream of John Cusack with a boombox, or Patrick Swayze carrying a watermelon?”
“Jennifer Grey carried the watermelon,” I corrected him. “But…yeah. Maybe sometimes. I mean, not all the time, certainly. No girl, with the possible exception of Victoria, really wants a fantasy world to play out in their life.”
Even as I said those words—through tight lips meant to disguise the fact that we were chatting our way through the bridesmaids’ processional—I realized I had no idea if they were true or not. I wasn’t sure what other girls wanted. But I had watched all the movies, and though I knew I couldn’t live my life like Baby Houseman on vacation in the Catskills, I couldn’t deny that once in a great while I wanted a guy to tell my dad that no one puts me in the corner, and then we’d dance and I’d finally do the lift. Metaphorically, of course.
“In the movies, those things are usually an attempt to save the relationship, aren’t they? You never see the happy couples making grand gestures.”
“True,” I whispered. I smiled and sighed before adding, “So I guess just save all the gestures for someday. When the romance is gone. And then you can plan something spectacular and give Aimè Meunière a run for his money.” I gently squeezed his arms, which were still wrapped around me.
He chuckled softly by my ear and then he straightened up and his arms left my waist, and I worried the spell of romantic conversation had been broken. But a second later he was brushing my hair aside, placing it over my shoulder, and planting a quick, soft kiss on the back of my neck.
“Amy does set an impossible standard, I’m sure,” he said, and I giggled in response—first in adoring response to his words, and then in adoring response to his breath against my skin. That reaction traveled down my neck and all the way to my suddenly weak knees. “Be that as it may, if anyone deserves spectacular before the romance is gone, it’s you. So I’ll take that challenge very seriously.”
Note to self: I owed Victoria a thank you card.
Bethany Turner is the award-winning author of The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck, which was a Christy Award finalist. When she’s not writing (and even when she is), she serves as the director of administration for Rock Springs Church in Southwest Colorado. She lives with her husband and their two sons in Colorado, where she writes for a new generation of readers who crave fiction that tackles the thorny issues of life with humor and insight.
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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
Grand Prize: Copies of Wooing Cadie McCaffrey and The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck + stationery set
2nd Prize: Copy of Wooing Cadie McCaffrey + bookish coffee mug
3rd Prize: Copy of Wooing Cadie McCaffrey + $10 Amazon Gift Card
May 21-May 31, 2019
(U.S. Only)
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