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.

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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.

Author Interview with Hope

Q: What was the inspiration behind this novel?

Hope: For Picture Imperfect, we wanted to do a number of things. First of all, we wanted to show what a contemporary starving artist looks like. We are still around, and sadly, many of us are trying to break into the Christian sphere of art. We also wanted to show what twenty-somethings look like now…since even that has changed in the last decade or so. Being twenty-somethings ourselves, we felt it was a unique entry into the genre, since many people who write this genre are not the same age as the characters. We also wanted to show artists trusting in God with their callings, with open hands.

Q: How long did it take you to write this novel?

Hope: Three months. We wrote half of it in one month, took a break for a month, and wrote the other half the month following. We had a strict schedule for the whole series. I believe we had a year and a half to write four books in this series alone. Not to mention, we had several deadlines for other books. I, Hope, have written literally 18 books in three years, all under deadline.

Q: Do any of the novel’s characters hold a special place in your heart?

Hope: Yes they do! We have eight characters who get their stories throughout the series. We love all of our main characters for different reasons. They have their flaws, but you just want to hug them.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from this novel?

Hope: It’s funny that the word “hope” is in the question, because that’s exactly what we want readers to take away. Hope. That no matter how dark situations get, that there’s Someone working behind the scenes.

Q: Would you share something about yourself that most readers wouldn’t know?

Hope: Most readers don’t know that Alyssa and I met in college at a writing program. We decided to be silly and write a silly short story together for class. We had so much fun with that that we decided to coauthor a book. Little did we know that we’d end up coauthoring seven together.

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