Exclusive Interview with Ryan Quinn, the Hero of The Memory of You
1) Greetings Ryan! Thanks for joining us today. We know you have a lot going on–you’re a single father and public defender and you just had a big move back to your hometown. Can you tell us a bit about your day-to-day life?
Thanks for having me. At the moment, my day-to-day life is a bit chaotic now that I’ve temporarily moved in with my folks while my divorce is finalized. I’ve started a new job and am trying to get my young daughter to embrace a new school and make new friends. Meanwhile, my meddling mother went and hired my high school sweetheart, Steffi, to remodel her house, so now I have to see Steffi every day, too. Emmy, my daughter, is taking to her, which is a risk because Steffi can’t be trusted to keep her commitments anymore than Emmy’s mom can. But I do love being home on Long Island Sound, and I look forward to getting back out on my old sailboat.
2) Emmy sounds great, but it seems like your divorce has been really hard on her. What has been her reaction to all of the change?
Pretty typical. Like a lot of kids, she’s hoping her parents will reconcile. She misses her mom, which makes me feel like a failure. My wife, Val, cheated, but on some level, I know I had a role in our failed marriage. I absolutely hate that Emmy is paying the highest price for our mistakes.
3) Your daughter has recently made a very important connection–one with Steffi Lockwood. You have quite the past with Steffi, care to share?
Steffi was my first love. I graduated before her and we ended up at different colleges, but we stayed together until her sophomore year. Then, out of the blue, she ghosted me. That broke me and drove me straight into Val’s open arms, then an accidental pregnancy pushed us to get married right after graduation. Yeah, I’ve made a couple of big mistakes in my life. I’m determined not to make any more. With a daughter to protect from more pain, it’s time to lead with my head instead of my heart.
4) In a way, you can say that Steffi, and what happened when you were teens, changed the whole trajectory of your life!
Steffi, or more accurately, my response to disappointment, definitely had an impact on my life. On the upside, part of my professional ambition came from a juvenile desire to become a big success and make her sorry she dumped me. And I can’t fully regret Val because I got Emmy out of that relationship, and she’s worth any heartache and missteps caused by Steffi and Val put together.
5) Even after a decade of healing, you are still pretty raw from your breakup. Has this time given you any insight into what happened?
I haven’t been sitting and stewing over Steffi for a decade, but running into her so unexpectedly sure ripped open my scars. Looking back, maybe I stifled Steffi a bit when we were young. I didn’t always listen to her dreams for herself. Didn’t pay attention to some of the things she needed, or how her having lost her mom and being raised by her dad and brothers didn’t give her anyone to really talk to about certain things. She was young. She says she has regrets. Guess in that way, we’ve still got something in common.
6) Now that you have unexpectedly reconnected with Steffi do you wish for a ‘do over’? What might this look like for you? For your daughter?
Nothing surprised me more than the fact that, under all my resentment, I could still feel that old surge of heat when I first saw her again. She’s still the same capable, tough, no-nonsense person she always was, and that smile—man, I’m weak in the face of it. But I’ve got to think of Emmy. I can’t jump into something that could fall apart and cause my daughter another disappointment. I’d need to know, with certainty, that Steffi was capable of real commitment and total honesty this time around. But if it worked out, I think Emmy would be happy. So far, Steffi has good values and has shown surprisingly maternal instincts when it comes to Emmy. Right now, all I can say is that I’m not completely unhappy that Steffi and I both ended up coming back home.
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THE MEMORY OF YOU by Jamie Beck
Stefanie Lockwood can repair anything, except her
heart—that’s still recovering.
Steffi Lockwood has survived more than most. Now left with
puzzling memory lapses following an assault, she returns to
her coastal Connecticut hometown to rebuild her life the
best way she knows how: with her hands. But starting a
remodeling business with one longtime friend puts her in the
middle of a rift with another. Worse, being hired by her
ex-boyfriend’s mother forces her to confront old regrets.
Public defender Ryan Quinn wasn’t shocked when his wife left
him, but he was floored when she abandoned their daughter.
With his finances up in the air, the newly single dad
returns to his childhood home in Sanctuary Sound. The last
person he expects, or wants, to see working on his family
house is Steffi Lockwood—his first love who shattered his heart.
Although Steffi and Ryan are different people now, dormant
feelings rekindle. But when Ryan’s concern for Steffi’s
mental health prompts him to dig into her past for answers,
will what he learns bring them together or tear them apart
for good?
Romance Contemporary [Montlake Romance, On Sale: October 30, 2018, Trade Size / e-Book, ISBN: 9781503903418 / ]
Buy THE MEMORY OF YOU: Amazon.com | Kindle
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About Jamie Beck
National bestselling author Jamie Beck’s realistic and heartwarming stories have sold more than one million copies. She’s a 2017 Booksellers’ Best Award finalist, and critics at Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist have respectively called her work “smart,” “uplifting,” and “entertaining.” In addition to writing, she enjoys dancing around the kitchen while cooking, and hitting the slopes in Vermont and Utah. Above all, she is a grateful wife and mother to a very patient, supportive family.
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