Meet a former police officer and a nurse in

Victoria Bylin’s

contemporary romance

The Two of Us

Bethany House

*****

The Story

After two broken engagements, nurse practitioner Mia Robinson is done with dating. From now on, she only trusts herself and God, and she’s focused on her eighteen-year-old sister, Lucy, and caring for patients. Just as she applies to work for an international aid organization, a phone call from Lucy, who’s pregnant and running off to marry her twenty-one-year-old boyfriend, throws a wrench into all of Mia’s plans.

Jake Tanner may have recovered from the physical injuries he sustained on the job as a police officer, but his heart has yet to heal from losing his former partner in the tragedy. He’s poured himself into starting a camp for the sons of fallen officers and mentoring Sam, the adult son of his deceased partner, who’s asked him to be his best man at his wedding. 

Mia is expecting a mess when she arrives to sort out the situation with Lucy, but she wasn’t expecting Jake. And Jake, who can’t help envying Sam and Lucy, doubts he’ll ever experience their happiness for himself. But maybe Jake’s courage and Mia’s caring spirit are just what they need to bring them a lifetime of healing and a forever kind of love. . . .

Introducing Jake & Mia

Brief physical description

Jake Tanner:  Jake Tanner is tall and lean, with dark hair and intense green eyes. When he walks into a room, the world feels a little safer. Picture him in Wranglers and a plaid shirt, and he’s a working man running a business. Put him in a suit and tie, and he’s the best man at a friend’s wedding. Add hearing aids and his service dog, and you’ll know he was wounded in the line of duty as a Denver police officer.

Mia Robinson:  Mia reminds Jake of a sparrow. From a distance, her shoulder length hair appears to be plain old brown. But up close, it’s rich with subtle shades of chocolate and sienna. Her eyes, clear and blue, remind Jake of the pool at the base of Echo Falls. Mia is five-foot-six, an average weight, and has worked hard to earn the lab coat she wears as a nurse practitioner.

Resembles… 

Sullivan Stapleton as Jake Tanner

Rel: Great to see another Australian feature, Victoria, and it’s not a Hemsworth 😉     

Nina Dobrev as Mia Robinson

Strengths and weaknesses

Jake:  Jake is almost too good to be true. He’s loyal, patient, generous, funny, deeply caring, and dedicated to his cause. But of course he’s not perfect. Because of his injury, he feels dead inside—until he meets Mia. He may be just a tad bit overprotective . . . or a lot, depending on the circumstances.

Mia:  Mia’s strengths and weakness are the opposite sides of the same coin. She’s very responsible—a good thing. But she struggles to let go of problems she can’t fix. On the surface, she’s calm and in control, but deep down, she’s a vulnerable child. Trust doesn’t come easily to her.

Quirk (if any)

Jake:  A bit of a scoundrel, Jake pretends his hearing aids aren’t working so he can play a joke on Mia.

Mia:  Don’t tell anyone, but Mia has a closet addiction to Skittles.

Your inspiration for the character

Jake:  The opening lines for The Two of Us go like this:  “Mia Robinson couldn’t take her eyes off the man in a cowboy hat working a claw machine game, the kind where a child—or a boyfriend or father—put in a dollar and tried to grab a toy in thirty seconds or less.”

The picture of that cowboy has been in my head since my family and I drove cross-country from Los Angeles to Washington DC. It was late when we stopped at a motel in Oklahoma and decided to grab dinner at a rundown coffee shop. A real-life cowboy swaggered to the claw machine game, cleaned  out the toys, and passed out stuffed animals to all the kids in the restaurant. I’ve wanted to put that cowboy in a book for a long time and finally found the perfect fit in Jake Tanner.

Mia:  Mia is a firstborn oldest daughter. So am I. We tend to carry the world on our shoulders. When trouble arises, we feel compelled to jump in and clean up the mess. But what happens when we’re the ones who need help? With Mia, I wanted to show both strength and vulnerability. She’s a “lab coat by day, Teddy Bear jammies by night” kind of person.

Background to the story 

Our culture sends out all sorts messages about love, sex, romance and marriage. In writing The Two of Us, my goal was to put flesh and blood on those messages and the questions they raise: Is there such a thing as waiting too long to consider marriage? How does a woman balance career choices with “heart” choices? What are the costs of waiting—both obvious and hidden? Mia would like to know!

And then we have impulsive Lucy, pregnant and married at 18. What will her life be like? What are the costs and benefits of getting married so young? The Two Of Us is an attempt to put the Christian view of love, romance and marriage in the context of our modern world choices and opportunities. No spoilers, but in the end, both women find their answers.

Thanks Vickie!

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Buy at Amazon: The Two of Us or Koorong

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