Carly Phillips

I decided to challenge myself in the writing of this book. To that end, I feel that I dug emotionally deeper into the hearts and minds of my main characters, Tyler Benson (Ty) and Lacey Kinkaid (born Lilly Dumont). I also decided to explore the concept of what makes a family and in this case, family is born not of blood, but of childhood experience and a bond that couldn¹t be broken. CROSS MY HEART also has more romantic suspense than many of my other books. Be sure to let me know what you think!

1. Cross My Heart is a story about going home and reconnecting with the past. Lacey Kincaid left her hometown as a teenager raised by well-to-do parents and returned to Hawken’s Cove as an adult who had endured considerable hardships to build a new life for herself. How had Lacey changed during those years? What had she learned about herself? If you moved away from your hometown and later returned, what emotions did you experience? How had you changed since you left?
2. Lacey isn’t the only one has changed. So has her childhood sweetheart, Tyler Benson. What kinds of changes did she notice in Ty when she first saw him after all those years? What changes did she notice later, after she had spent more time with him?
3. Have you ever reconnected with a high school sweetheart? How many years had passed in the interim? Was the spark still there? How had the two of you changed since you last saw one another?
4. Lacey says that she can tell a lot by a man by the way he reacts to a dog. What did Tyler’s reaction to Digger tell her about her old boyfriend? What did Digger’s reaction to Tyler tell you about him? If you have ever used a pet as a barometer of a person’s character, share the experiences.
5. Lacey, Tyler and Hunter were more than friends in the months before Lacey left home; they were the same as family. Have you ever had a friendship like this? Did time and differences of opinion test the friendship? If so, how, and has the friendship endured to this day?
6. Understandably, Lacey still harbored ill feelings for her Uncle Marc when she came home. What did she learn about her uncle after she returned that altered her opinion of him? Do you think she will ever be able to trust him completely? What did Lacey’s change of attitude toward her uncle tell you about Lacey’s character? What price did her uncle pay for the mistakes he made when she was young? Have you ever known someone who has turned his or her life around and earned your trust?
7. As a result of Lacey’s “escape” when she was a teenager, Hunter, in particular, endured hardships. What price did he pay for his silence, and what did you think of his decision to keep Lacey’s whereabouts a secret?
8. Hunter’s girlfriend, Molly, is torn between the man she knows Lacey’s uncle to be and the kind of person she learns he was when Tyler, Hunter and Lacey were young. What did she ultimately decide about the uncle? How did he measure up in comparison to her mother?
9. Cross My Heart is also about second chances. Which characters in the story had second chances, and how did they handle those opportunities?
10. The overall theme of Cross My Heart is home is not a building, or a town but a place in one’s heart. How did the author demonstrate this theme in her story?

Under The Boardwalk (click to view)	Cross My Heart (click to view)	The Heartbreaker (click to view)	Hot Number (click to view)	Summer Lovin’ (click to view)