Porch Swing Girl
(TRADEWINDS, #1)
by Taylor Bennett
What if friendship cost you everything?
Dumped at her grandmother’s house in Hawaii after a family tragedy, sixteen-year-old Olive Galloway is desperate to return to Boston before her dad loses all common sense and sells the family house. But plane tickets cost money.
With the help of a quirky guy named Brander, and a mysterious girl named Jazz, Olive lands a summer job and launches a scheme to buy a plane ticket home by the end of the summer. They talk her into hanging out at their church youth group, but Olive can’t help remembering how God didn’t answer her prayers the last time it was really important. Why should He help now? It’s up to her to make it home.
When Jazz reveals a painful secret, Olive’s plans are challenged. Jazz needs money—lots of it. Olive and Brander are determined to help their friend but, when their fundraising efforts are thwarted, Olive is caught in the middle. Helping Jazz means giving up her ticket home. And time is running out.
Sand Castle Dreams
(TRADEWINDS, #2)
by Taylor Bennett
Sometimes we have to face our greatest fears in order to become whole again.
Returning to Maui after one of the most challenging summers of her life, sixteen-year-old Olive Galloway is ready for things to return to normal—or, at least, a new normal. But even though she and her sister are back on the island they love, nothing is the same since they left for Boston a few months ago. Olive’s friend Jazz is hiding a secret—possibly something even worse than the cancer diagnosis she received earlier in the year. Can Olive ever stop running from memories of all they’ve lost?
When their friend Brander suggests Jazz attends the church’s teen support group, Olive thinks it’s a great idea—until Jazz insists that Olive join her. While the group is the perfect place for Olive to share her struggles, she wants nothing to do with it. Instead, grief threatens to roll over her like the ocean waves, and tiny fibs turn into looming secrets. When a scruffy puppy and one viral video send another storm rolling into Olive’s life, she ends up face-to-face with her biggest fear. And the only way to make it out of the tempest is to go straight through.
Mele Kalikimaka: A Novella
(TRADEWINDS, #3)
by Taylor Bennett
Mele Kalikimaka might be the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day, but Olive Galloway is feeling less than festive. After all, this is the first year she’s celebrated the holiday without her mom. Even the ringing of silver bells sounds a little blue.
When an attempt to make the season bright ends in hurt feelings and a shattered heirloom, Olive’s hopes for a happy holiday are dashed. A surprise visit from a less-than-jolly fellow in red only adds to the turmoil. Olive is convinced that nothing can possibly bring peace to her corner of the earth. As presents pile up beneath the tree and Christmas Day draws near, Olive realizes it will take a Christmas miracle to help her family rediscover the true magic of the holiday season.
Barefoot Memories
(TRADEWINDS, #4)
by Taylor Bennett
What if the biggest decision of your life wasn’t yours to make?
With the New Year upon her, Olive Galloway is determined to put the past behind her and uncover the new future waiting for her in her island home. However, her best friend Jazz seems dangerously close to giving up on her alcoholic mom—as well as her own dreams. Together with an unlikely ally, Olive helps Jazz regain her confidence and enter a high-stakes race, but there’s still trouble on the horizon. Their friend Brander is due to come home from a whirlwind music tour on the mainland, but he’s holding tight to a secret that could change their friendship forever.
Offered the chance to fulfill all of her wildest dreams with a single word, Olive realizes that she could be headed back to the mainland sooner than she’d imagined. Caught up in a whirl of possibility, Olive struggles to decide between returning home to fulfill her childhood wish or building a new life in Hawaii. The choice could change her life forever.
Promise Me Aloha
(TRADEWINDS, #5)
by Taylor Bennett
How can two people come together when everything else is falling apart?
Olive Galloway always knew that Brander Delacroix wasn’t going to date until he found the girl he wanted to marry, and she’s still marveling over the fact that he decided to date her. But he did, which means it isn’t much of a surprise when he drops down on one knee in the sand the year after Olive graduates from college. What does come as a surprise is the sudden realization that she’ll no longer be Olive Galloway living at home with Grams and Macie. She’ll be Olive Delacroix, building a new life in Hawaii with one of her very best friends.
With that understanding, however, comes a tidal wave of pressure. Between bothersome dealings with soon-to-be in-laws, a mountain of over-the-top wedding preparations, and a trio of explosive family secrets, Olive begins to wonder if she’ll be able to make it down the aisle with all of her hair intact. She’s thankful for Jazz, her best friend, who is ready and willing to support her through it all, but she can’t help wondering why Jazz hasn’t found a happily ever after of her own.
As the wedding day draws near and one final devastating secret comes to light, Olive’s perfect world comes dangerously close to spinning off its axis. It will take plenty of faith and prayer (and no small amount of shave ice) to set things right before the wedding bells begin to ring and she promises Brander her aloha…forever.
