Welcome to the Blog Tour for Beach House Rescue by Hope Toler Dougherty, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About the Book
Title: Beach House Rescue
Author: Hope Toler Dougherty
Publisher: Scrivenings Press
Release Date: June 23, 2026
Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance
Two strangers. One beach house. Zero plans to share it.
Tessa Trask expects a quiet summer restoring a friend’s beach house—not waking up to an intruder and defending herself as best she can. Wyatt Henry isn’t a burglar, though. He’s just as surprised to find her there—and just as determined to stay.
Under protest, the two agree to an uneasy truce. Tessa is creative and spontaneous. Wyatt is disciplined and guarded. Keeping their distance should be easy…until a surprise visitor arrives and turns their temporary arrangement into something far more complicated.
As sun-soaked days lead to deeper conversations, irritation softens into a fragile peace and grows into something worth protecting. While Tessa begins to trust God’s leading for her future, Wyatt wrestles with a past that makes trust feel dangerous.
Are their growing feelings worth the risk—or is walking away the only safe choice?
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | BookBub
Excerpt
“I don’t think she’s armed. She’s asleep on my couch.”
Tessa Trask blinked her eyes open, hit by the fog that always accompanied a nap stretching longer than fifteen minutes. What a crazy dream.
A man’s voice. Calm, but firm.
A squatter in a beach house.
Requesting police.
The beginning bloom of a headache seeped behind her forehead. Her eyelids fell back in place, giving her a chance to regroup and take a minute to consider waking up.
The dream continued. The voice continued.
Wait. What?
She pressed her eyelids together.
“Just send someone right away, please, and no sirens. I don’t want to startle her. Just get her out of here.”
Heart galloping from lounging to horror movie gear with the speed of a Kentucky Derby darling, she squeezed the book on top of her chest in a death grip. Her lungs struggled to keep up, whooshing out breaths in short puffs.
Somebody—some man is in this house with me. Think, brain, think.
Lord God, help me.
Also Available
About the Author
Hope Toler Dougherty holds a Master’s degree in English and taught at East Carolina University and York Technical College. Her early novels are Irish Encounter, Mars…With Venus Rising, and Rescued Hearts. Her Forever Series includes Forever Music, “A Hatteras Surprise,” a novella featured in Candy Cane Wishes and Saltwater Dreams, Forever Home, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association (AWSA)’s 2023 Romance Novel of the Year, and Forever Free, first place in the Faith, Love, & Hope Reader’s Choice Award for 2025.
A chronic community volunteer as well as a member of ACFW, NC Writers’ Network, and Neuse River Writers, she shares her belief in God “Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” in her daily life and stories.
She and her husband, Kevin, live in North Carolina and delight in visits with their two daughters and twin sons.
Connect with Hope by visiting hopetolerdougherty.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email newsletter updates.
Author Interview
Q: What inspired you to write Beach House Rescue?
Hope: In August of 2023, an idea kept popping into my mind. So, on my birthday, I began freewriting about a woman who wakes up from an afternoon nap to find an intruder in the beach house her friend loaned her for the summer.
We live about two hours inland from the beaches of North Carolina. Although we don’t do it frequently, we can drive to the beach in the morning, enjoy the beach for the day, then drive home. We like to rent houses and have our children join us when their schedules match. A story set on a beach is a familiar location for me.
Q: How long did it take to write this book?
Hope: I’m a slow writer. My typical goal is 1500 words per day, but I have friends who write much more than that. I mentioned beginning Beach House Rescue in August of 2023. I turned it in to my publisher in October of 2025. During those two years, I launched Forever Free in January of 2024, then focused on marketing that book while I kept up volunteer responsibilities for my public library and church.
Q: What surprised you while researching/writing this novel?
Hope: I was surprised with two characters, Skylee and Ms. Louise. Skylee is a lively teenager who shakes up the story, and Ms. Louise has a strong personality that helps Tessa find her purpose in life. These two characters definitely weren’t in my beginning notes, but I’m so glad they showed up!
Hope: Don't let the familiar diminish the extraordinary.
One of the secondary characters encourages Tessa, the main character, not to let the familiar diminish the extraordinary. It’s a variation of the old adage, familiarity breeds contempt. Tessa discounts her crafting skills as true art which leads to discontentment.
Seeing with new eyes is an important idea for all of us. We sometimes look for the shiny without realizing that every day miracles are happening all around us if we open our eyes to see them. I hope Beach House Rescue will remind readers to use fresh eyes to see extraordinary things in the familiar.
Q: When did you first know you wanted to be an author?
Hope: I’ve known it as long as I can remember, but the thought terrified me. Although I knew the structure of story, I couldn’t figure out how to make an idea work. I contented myself in writing for local newspapers and magazines until an idea of a woman writing in an Irish café popped into my head. That scene became an early scene in my first novel, Irish Encounter.
Q: Would you share something about yourself that most readers wouldn’t know?
Hope: Most readers don’t know that when I was in high school, I drove a school bus to school. Yes, North Carolina allowed teenagers who’d just received their licenses to drive those huge buses with no seatbelts and screaming children. Driving was a lot of responsibility, but it was also a great way to earn money.
Q:. What are you currently reading?
Hope: I’m reading The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. I’m beginning volume 8, the last one of the series…so far. The books, charming, humorous, and poignant, are set in London in the 1880’s with a host of intriguing and unique characters. Because of reading this series, I’ve changed my morning coffee to hot tea a few times!
Q: What is your favorite genre to read?
Hope: Romance! I love happy endings. I also enjoy the meet cute and then watching how the characters grow in their acknowledging one another, then being intrigued with each other, and finally loving each other.
Q: What is your favorite hobby?
Hope: I love to cook and bake. In fact, I sometimes read cookbooks like a novel. I like to buy local cookbooks on vacations. I enjoy trying new recipes and revisiting old favorites, too.
Q: What is your favorite season and why?
Hope: I’m grateful to live in an area which has all four seasons because I enjoy different aspects of each one, but spring and fall are special. I enjoy spring because I love flowers and love to see them pop up again in my yard. I look forward to fall for the cooling temperatures, the back-to-school sales of colored ink pens, index cards, and new notebooks, and for me, fall is baking season!
Tour Giveaway
(3) winners will each receive a signed copy of Beach House Rescue and a $20 Amazon gift card!
Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight August 10, 2026 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on August 17, 2026. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only for print copy. Ebook available instead if winner is outside the US. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
