Wednesday, August 9, 2023

About the Book

Book: Picture Imperfect

Authors: Alyssa Roat and Hope Bolinger

Genre: Christian Sweet Contemporary Romance

Release Date: November 5, 2021

Can a struggling career woman and a procrastinating artist save a beloved nonprofit?

Aspiring novelist Caroline Penn expected a promotion, not a picture book assignment. But when her employer, the non-profit Helping Hope, runs into financial trouble, this book might be the solution. With the company struggling to stay afloat, she and the illustrator will need to collaborate on a strict deadline—no problem for a workaholic like Caroline, right?

Andy Jackson, a “starving” artist, pays the bills by taking on graphic design gigs, but his perfectionism gets in the way. If only he could focus on a project for once, perhaps he could achieve his dream to make art for children for a living.

When the two are thrust together to create a book, Caroline can’t seem to write for children, and Andy can’t meet a deadline to save his life. As time ticks down to release day, the two must face their pasts and insecurities. If they can avoid strangling one another for long enough, they may just bring to the table what the other is missing.

If not, the fate of their careers—and a beloved nonprofit—hangs in the balance.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Authors

Hope Bolinger is the managing and acquisitions editor at End Game Press and the author of 25+ books. When she isn’t accidentally writing a book in seven days, she likes to model, do theater, and hike around northeast Ohio. Find out more about her at Hopebolinger.com

Alyssa Roat is a multi-published author and has worked in a wide variety of roles within the publishing industry as an agent, editor, writer, and publicist. When not reading and writing, she likes to swordfight, rock climb, throw axes, and generally engage in tomfoolery with her silly cats. Her name is a pun, so you can find more about her at alyssawrote.com.

More from the Authors

Alyssa and I never thought we’d write a sweet romance book together. Sure, we’d done a superhero romance during the summer of 2018, but we didn’t think we had the prowess or mastery of description to make a jump into the genre.

Long story short, we were perfectionists. We wanted everything to be just right. We knew that our publisher was in need of filling a hole that some romance authors had left behind.

So we tried.

We really struggled with the first draft of Picture Imperfect. We felt shaky about it at first.

But then we learned along with our characters. That there is beauty in imperfection. That there is hope for all of us.

We decided to let go and embrace the book for what it was. Messy, but still beautiful in its own way.

Looking back, as the final book for the series releases this week, I am so happy that we jumped into the world of Picture Imperfect. We learned a great deal from these characters, and it’s bittersweet to say goodbye to the world of Roseville.

If you’re looking to see a story of redemption, hope, and embracing life’s hiccups, I hope you absolutely fall in love with Picture Imperfect.

It was funny because we both took on characters that we felt reflected our coauthor. When I (Hope) wrote Andy, I saw many aspect of Alyssa in him. And when she penned Caroline, we saw many glimpses of “Hope” as well.

There was something so beautiful and emphatic about jumping into the shoes of characters who felt different from us. We could understand other creative processes and embrace people for all their intricacies.

Thank you for joining us on this journey, and hope that you love Andy and Caroline as much as we did when we first wrote them.

Sincerely,

Hope and Alyssa <3

MY REVIEW

I am always intrigued when two authors collaborate on a book. You can tell that these authors poured their heart into the story and allowed the characters to become easy to identify with. I loved how you can sense the issue both characters have. They each have this need to prove themselves, to be perfect and never accept failure. Oh but what a beautiful illustration of how we may feel imperfect yet God loves us just the way we are.

I was excited to see Caroline and Andy work together on a children’s book. We see how difficult it can be to come up with a great story while trying to please others. Caroline is struggling with giving her boss the story he wants vs the story she knows God has given her. Andy is a great encourager and they begin to bounce ideas off each other.

We do witness a little background on both of them that help readers understand the battles they each face. One has no relationship with their mother. The rejection rubs deep and has affected them deeply. The other has disappointed their mom and can’t forgive themselves. They each feel less than perfect and try to fix each other. I did laugh at this because I think we all have done that. It seems easier to try to fix someone else, so we don’t have to face what needs healing in our own life.

I enjoyed the message of the book and how the characters grew and became more self confident . We all have flaws, experience insecurity and feel lost at times. But the good news is that there is always hope. Follow God and his plan for your life and all those doubts will turn into confidence, joy and above hope for a future.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.