The Inspiration Behind Blown Away

Nearly two decades after my husband and I had to cancel our honeymoon to Niagara Falls because of a family emergency, we finally took that trip we never got to have.

Not to Niagara—but to Miami and the Florida Keys.

By then, life looked very different. We had three girls, responsibilities, routines… a whole life built in the space where that honeymoon was supposed to be. Leaving them behind while my father-in-law stayed with them felt surreal in its own way—like we were stepping back into something we’d missed, but as completely different people.

And then there was the water.

I still remember standing there, watching the colors shift—greens and blues layered together in a way that didn’t feel real. It was one of those rare moments where everything slows down just enough for you to take it in.

That trip stayed with me.

Not just because of how beautiful it was—but because of what it represented. A second chance at something we thought we’d lost. A reminder that life doesn’t always give you things when you expect them… but sometimes, it gives them back in a different form.

That’s where this story began.

I started wondering what would happen if something unexpected—something disruptive, even frightening—forced two people into the same space at exactly the right moment.

In Blown Away, Orchid’s birthday trip doesn’t go as planned. A hurricane strands her in Miami, leading her into the home of a cheerful stranger, Pixie, and her guarded brother, Parker.

What begins as tension—two people thrown together by circumstance—slowly shifts into something deeper.

Both of them are carrying grief. Orchid is trying to move forward after losing her fiancé and her parents. Parker is still guarded from a painful divorce. Neither of them is looking for love.

And yet… it finds them anyway.

As the storm keeps them together, their connection grows into something real—something neither of them expected, and neither is fully prepared for.

But when the skies clear and Orchid returns to Dallas, the question becomes harder:

Was it just the storm…or was it something worth holding onto?

Blown Away is, at its heart, a story about unexpected timing. About second chances. About the kind of love that doesn’t arrive when it’s convenient—but when you’re finally ready to risk it.

If that resonates with you, you can find Blown Away on Amazon.