Episode 19

Below, you'll find the full transcript of today’s episode, in case you prefer to read or want to reference something we talked about.

Return to the Outer Banks in this heartwarming dual-timeline story of hope, courage, and the grace to begin anew.

Filled with faith and second chances, The Island Bakeshop is a clean contemporary romance that will keep you turning pages late into the night.

After her father suffers a heart attack, Harper Dailey leaves behind her thriving career at an upscale Savannah bakery to help save her family’s beloved Sunshine Bakery in Avon, North Carolina. As she tries to rebuild her life, her past comes crashing back—her ex-boyfriend who arrives with shocking news: he now owns the bakery building and may refuse to renew their lease.

For Beckett Mills, Avon is a quiet refuge after his eight years of active service in the Navy. Focused on running his fishing charter business and keeping others at a distance, Beckett never expects to get involved in anyone else’s problems—until the fateful day he enters Sunshine Bakery and sees a beautiful Harper being harassed by her ex-boyfriend. Breaking his promise to himself, he steps in to save the day.

Neither Harper nor Beckett is looking for love, but as the pasts they are running from collide and their paths continue to cross, they begin to wonder if God brought them together for a reason. Can Beckett let go of the troubles that haunt him and welcome Harper into his life? Will Harper realize she can face any challenge with God?and maybe Beckett?by her side?

This book is perfect for readers who love:

• Clean and inspirational romance
• Faith-filled contemporary fiction
• Small-town beach settings
• Second-chance love stories
• The Island Bookshop by Roseanna M. White
• Authors such as Denise Hunter and Courtney Walsh

Escape to the sun-drenched shores of the Outer Banks and immerse yourself in another exciting and inspiring tale from Roseanna M. White.

Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. You can learn more about her and check out her full book list at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.

Danielle Grandinetti: Welcome to a Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. Cozy up with your favorite beverage as we chat about sweet romance, thrilling suspense, and fascinating history. Perhaps you'll find your next read in one of these stories.

On this episode of A Spot of Story, I'm chatting with Roseanna M. White about her book, The Island Bakeshop [affiliate]. Roseanna White is a best-selling, Christy Award-winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself.

Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. You can learn more about her and check out her full books at roseannamwhite.com.

Roseanna, welcome.

Roseanna M. White: Thank you. So good to be here.

Danielle Grandinetti: I'm excited to have you on my podcast. This podcast really unites readers over a love of story, so I love to start with a question about reading. What is your current read?

Roseanna M. White: I've got some nonfiction going. I was reading one called Assignment Rescue by Varian Fry [affiliate] for research purposes. It's his autobiography about how he rescued artists from France in 1940, so that one is cool.

In the fiction world, I'm reading one for endorsement that is not out yet. It's called Firewing by Amanda Wright [affiliate], and it is a fantasy. So that's my current fiction read, and I've got Morgan L. Busse's third book in her Nordic series trilogy [affiliate] waiting on my Kindle in pre-release form, so that's next up.

Danielle Grandinetti: Ooh, fun. Her books are on my to-be-read list for when I have a chance to read something out of genre, because I've heard amazing things about her books.

Roseanna M. White: They're very good. And I just finished reading The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron [affiliate] too. So, you know, a little bit of everything here.

Danielle Grandinetti: You have to read widely. Moving on to The Island Bakeshop, why don't you tell us just a little bit about it, and then I'll ask a few more questions.

Roseanna M. White: Okay, so last year I had one out called The Island Bookshop, and this is a sequel, though it is a standalone. You can read it on its own. It's set in Avon, North Carolina. The main body of the book is contemporary, but we do have a historical thread as well. So that's always super fun, a little dual time going on.

In the contemporary line, we are following Harper Daly, who is inheriting a bakery in Avon. Her parents have run it all her life, and her grandparents ran it before that. She had been in Savannah running an upscale bakery, and then has to come home to help out because her dad had a heart attack and just needs to slow down. He's okay, but needs to slow down, so she's back in her hometown. She is not terribly sorry about it because she had an ex-fiance in Savannah that she's quite glad to get away from.

On the other hand, we have Beckett Mills, who runs a fishing charter. He is a retired Navy veteran, and no one knows a lot about his past. He's very mum about it, other than the fact that he was in the Navy. No one knows anything about his family, and he likes it that way. He's just very closed off, and he has a good reason. He likes Harper a little too much, but tells himself, "No, you have to stay away from her for her own good."

But he walks into the bakery, and she's being harassed by this total jerk who is clearly her ex-boyfriend. So what's a heroic Navy guy to do but go up and pretend to be her boyfriend to scare him off? He thinks it'll just help out for the moment, and then they learn that this guy has actually bought the building the bakery is housed in and will be there all summer, so they're kind of stuck with this lie he just told. It's a fake dating trope, which their book-loving friends very quickly shout out, "Fake dating trope!"

Then we get one of my favorite lines in the book, which is him going, "No, it's not fake. We're not lying. No troping, okay?" So great fun. I love poking fun at the genres that I write in a little bit here and there.

Danielle Grandinetti: Okay, that sounds like a ton of fun. I usually don't like the fake dating trope that's planned out, but those that accidentally happen because somebody is stepping in to save the other one, and then it just snowballs, are just perfect.

Roseanna M. White: Yeah, right? It's all about finding the fun way to do something and to balance it. And they're very upfront with their friends and family about it. Everyone knows that they are just going to start seeing each other to keep her safe.

But it made for tons of fun. They just have so much witty banter and a very fun relationship. Harper is poking fun at him the whole time too, going, "Oh, well, in this fake relationship, do I get fake anniversary presents? If I get fake anniversary presents, I want this."

Danielle Grandinetti: Okay, that's brilliant. Well, so what does a day in the life of one of your characters look like?

Roseanna M. White: Oh my goodness. Harper runs a bakery, which means her hours are insane. I had in my head, oh, she gets up early, no big deal, you do some prep before bed. Well, when I actually talked to a baker in Hatteras Island on location, she told me her day starts at 10:00 PM.

She actually wrote out this wonderful email with her schedule down to the minute, and it was crazy. Everything tastes so much more delicious now when I know how much work they put into it. She gets up in the middle of the night and starts her day. The schedule of what goes into the oven while other things are rising, prepping, and managing ten different timers going off at once is intense. By the time the doors open, you've already put in six or seven hours, and then you do the customer portion. You might get some sleep in the afternoon if you're lucky. In the summer, it is absolutely insane. It's quieter the rest of the year because it's a vacation spot, so they're catering to tourists and making most of their money three months out of the year.

Becks is still intense, but not quite that crazy. As a charter fisherman, he is definitely up before dawn. Usually, they head out at 5:30 or 6:00 AM from the bay and stay out on the water for the day. He does two different kinds of fishing charters: a half-day in the sound or near ocean, or a full-day deep-sea charter. But that is also weather-dependent. If there are big, bad storms, you don't go out, so for fishermen, everything is a little iffy. That, again, is mostly during the summer and quieter during the winter.

Danielle Grandinetti: We'll talk about research in a minute, but first, what was your favorite scene to write and why?

Roseanna M. White: Oh, my favorite scene. Okay, there's a sailboat scene. I don't know much about sailing, so I was making it all up and doing research on how to get a sailboat away from a marina. They're out on the sound, and though they are not out very long, it is just very innocently sensual—sensual meaning all of your senses are being used. It is a very romantic scene where he's teaching her how to sail and showing her what it's like to feel the boat move. It also gets interrupted by something that ends up revealing one of his secrets, though it is nothing bad. You have to love the reveal scenes.

Danielle Grandinetti: Speaking of researching, what is some unique research you needed to write this story?

Roseanna M. White: There was certainly learning how to run a bakery. I've always been an avid home baker, and that is enough—I do not need to ever be a professional baker, I have decided! I was very blessed that the owner of a bakery down there took the time to talk to me.

There was also some fun research in the historical line about hurricanes, specifically one hurricane in 1836. It was a hurricane that completely reshaped the Outer Banks. The islands as we know them today were very different before that; it actually cut through the islands and created inlets that had not been there. Looking back from our perspective, it actually allowed shipping to open up because vessels didn't have to go all the way around the island chain to get to the mainland anymore. It increased how economically sound the Outer Banks could be, but it was a horrific hurricane. Reading the firsthand accounts about how the waters piled up and the wind blew the sound almost dry in some places was crazy. Anytime water is not where water should be, it's scary. Of course, I had to put a hurricane that reshaped the islands in there.

Danielle Grandinetti: Absolutely. So what was a bit of research that you wish you could have included that didn't make it in?

Roseanna M. White: I didn't do a ton of Beck doing his job on the fishing boat. I did some research on what kind of boat he would have and where it would have been built, but I didn't really have the time to have him out on the water with a charter. It was always just at the marina or the docks. If it were a longer book, it would've been fun to have a scene where he's actually out being Captain Mills, but there was just no time.

Danielle Grandinetti: You need a side quest little short story so we can see it anyway! What was the inspiration behind this story?

Roseanna M. White: It's funny, when I sent my publisher, Guideposts, the idea for book one, I called it The Island Bookshop, and it was all about sisters who run a bookshop. It combined my favorite things: books and the beach. They loved it, and then they said, "Awesome. And then next you need The Island Bakeshop, and then you need The Island Bike Shop."

They handed me the title, and obviously, that dictated what was going to be in it. I incorporated Harper and the bakery into book one to set it up, and then I really just thought it would be fun to take somebody who is literally running a place called Sunshine Bakery and put her with the island grump. We've got grumpy-sunshine, we've got fake dating, and they make a really fun combination.

Danielle Grandinetti: That's awesome. I love that. This sounds like a great book to read. What encouragement do you hope readers will take away from your story?

Roseanna M. White: I hit the same themes over and over again in my stories, but in this one, Beck is dealing with issues where he is afraid of himself, his history, and his own genetic makeup because of what other people in his family have done. One of the themes is to know that you're enough. Even when you have a predisposition to something, or when someone in your family has gone off the rails—including things like mental or physical health—those things don't have to define you. They are part of you, but that doesn't have to be limiting. You can learn to trust God to help you be better, and you don't have to settle for the lie that your weaknesses are greater than God's strength.

Danielle Grandinetti: That's really beautiful. Thank you so much for joining me today and talking about The Island Bakeshop [affiliate]. Where can readers find you and your book online?

Roseanna M. White: You can find the book pretty much everywhere. The e-book is even in Kindle Unlimited, and the paperback is available wherever books are sold. You can get signed copies from me on my website, rosannamwhite.com. You can find me on all social media platforms under Roseanna M. White as well. I was very lucky to secure that handle everywhere!

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, and I will link to it all on the show notes page so it will be easily found. Thank you once again for joining us, Roseanna, and listeners for giving us a listen.

Roseanna M. White: Thanks so much for having me.

Danielle Grandinetti: Thank you for listening to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. We hope you enjoyed today's conversation. Let us know by leaving a comment below, and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Discover more information about today's book by visiting A Spot of Story online at daniellegrandinetti.com/podcast.

Happy reading.

To make this story accessible to everyone, an AI-assisted transcript is provided above. It has been edited for clarity to ensure it captures the heart of our conversation.

The best way to stay connected is through my weekly email, Fireside News. You’ll receive cozy updates, behind-the-scenes book notes, and a complimentary historical romance novelette when you subscribe.

Until next time, may your reading bring both light and encouragement.

Happy reading!
~ Danielle.