About the Book

Book: Beach House Rescue

Author: Hope Toler Dougherty

Genre: Christian Romance

Release Date: June 23, 2026

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?

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About the Author

Hope Toler Dougherty holds a Master’s degree in English and taught at East Carolina University and York Technical College. She’s written seven novels and one novella. Forever Free, won the Faith, Love, & Hope Reader’s Choice Award for 2025. Beach House Rescue is her newest release. She and her husband live in North Carolina and delight in visiting their two daughters, twin sons, and new daughter-in-law.

More from Hope

Have you ever heard of Vinegar Pie? This interesting dessert is Tessa Trask’s snack in the first scene of Beach House Rescue.

Vinegar Pie is a real dessert created generations ago when creative cooks didn’t always have fresh ingredients like lemons. Sometimes they were also called “desperation pies.” They’re similar to chess pies in texture and in their use of whatever ingredients the cook could find in the pantry.

The pie became very popular during the Great Depression when money and ingredients were scarce, but Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her mother’s vinegar pie in Little House in the Big Woods.

Even though I grew up in the South, I’d never tasted this pie until I visited my parents after I’d moved to Pittsburgh, PA. A local shop was called Vinegar Pie, and I was intrigued. The store sold southern items and baked goods, among them Vinegar Pie. I tried a slice and enjoyed it!

Don’t worry. The pie doesn’t taste like a pickle. The flavor teases the taste buds with the tang of lemon and offsets the sweetness of the sugar.

Here’s a recipe if you’re intrigued, too.

Vinegar Pie

Ingredients:

4 large eggs
1 ¼ C sugar
2 T vinegar (apple cider or white)
¼ C butter, melted and cooled
1 T all-purpose flour
1 regular pie crust (not deep dish)

Directions:

Bake the crust for 15 minutes at 350. Use beans or baking weights to keep the crust from puffing up.
While the crust bakes, make the filling. Whisk the eggs and sugar until combined.
While continuing to whisk, drizzle in the cooled butter and add the vinegar.
Pour into the crust (after removing the weights) and bake for 30-35 minutes. The filling should just be set. If it’s a little jiggly, but golden brown on top, the filling will firm up as it cools.

Enjoy straight or with some whipped cream or ice cream. Tessa, Wyatt, and Skylee would take theirs with ice cream, for sure!

Interview with the Author

What does success as an author look like to you?

I suppose every author wants to be on a bestseller list or win fancy awards, but I’m grateful when a reader contacts me with a heartfelt line or two about how she connected with a character or if she learned something from the story. My characters pray little prayers throughout their day, and a reader encouraged me by saying their praying practices had reminded her to pray like that. Encouragement like that feels successful to me.

Which part of the book was the most difficult to write?

I’ve never written a teenager before. Her slang was difficult because slang changes so quickly, and I didn’t want the words I chose to be out of date in next year. I didn’t want the dialog to sound like an old person trying to be cool, and I didn’t want to lose my readers by using a word they might not be familiar with. It took a fine balance and much help from two editors to write Sklyee’s speech patterns.

What is your favorite Bible verse or life verse?

I don’t have a life verse. How do people choose just one? Instead, I have several special verses. One favorite verse is Psalm 73:26, “My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” God gave me that verse during a trying time, and it’s one I frequently share with people who need encouragement.

What are you reading right now?

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!

Describe your view as you’re sitting in your writing chair.

My writing view is different this week because we’re at one of our favorite vacation spots, Emerald Isle, North Carolina. I’m sitting at the kitchen table and working for a while. It’s an overcast morning with intermittent showers, but people are walking on the beach, and a few diehards are braving the choppy surf. The waves are crashing on the beach, and I can hear the sounds through the closed windows. I’m hoping this view will spur some creativity this afternoon!