Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!

The hunt BEGINS on 10/21 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren.com.Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 10/24 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the Rafflecopter form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!

If you’re new around here, my name is Melissa Tagg and I write small-town contemporary romances. Officially I’m a “USA Today bestselling, Christy Award-winning author” but a much funnier title I saw someone use to describe me recently is “The Queen of Meet-Cutes.” And you know what? I will happily accept that label because writing the moment when a hero and heroine first meet is one of my absolute favorite parts of storytelling! In addition to being a writer, I’m also a marketing and communications coordinator for an awesome nonprofit in Iowa and proud aunt to the cutest nieces and nephews ever.

My newest release, Autumn by the Sea, just released a few weeks ago and it’s the beginning of a brand new three-book series set in Maine.

Abandoned as a toddler, Sydney Rose has spent years wondering who she really is, homesick for a life she’s never lived. When a private investigator crashes into her world, she finds herself heading to a tiny seaside town in Maine to meet a woman named Maggie, who’s searching for the granddaughter she lost decades ago.

If not for Maggie, Neil MacKean might still be back in Scotland, bereft and alone. Instead, he has a full life in Muir Harbor with an adopted family he loves and a blueberry farm to run. But the farm is struggling and strange occurrences have him concerned.

Worried for Maggie, Neil is suspicious of the city girl who shows up at the farm. But there’s something about Sydney that tugs on him. Together, they’re pulled into a mystery complete with a centuries-old legend, unexpected danger . . . and a love as deep and wild as the sea.

One of the really fun pieces of writing this novel was learning all about blueberry farming! Being from Iowa, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what farming life is like…but through researching, I realized blueberry farming is a world all its own!

Blueberries for Beginners . . . and my favorite blueberry recipe

Okay, I’m not actually going to tell you ALL about blueberry farming because let’s be honest, though I might have done my research, there’s sooooo much I don’t know. But I can tell you this: There’s a big difference between the cultivated blueberries you probably buy when you visit the grocery store and actual wild blueberries!

My favorite blueberry lemon scones!
Get the recipe here.

The blueberries that grow on Neil’s farm in Autumn by the Sea are low-bush, wild berries . . . they only grow to about ankle-height and they can grow on rocky soil as easily as flat ground. And though many farmers are now able to machine harvest their barrens, a good deal of the low-bush berries that on craggier ground are actually raked by hand. The best thing about wild blueberries? They taste better! They’re smaller and brighter in color.

A lot of what we buy in the store are high-bush cultivated berries that have been planted in nice, tidy rows. Many big farms in Maine grow these and hey, they’re great too. But if you want a burst of flavor—or just a little grin of satisfaction at knowing your eating something wild and very possibly hand-picked—look for wild berries . . . and maybe give ’em a try in this oh-so-scumptious recipe for Blueberry Lemon Scones.

Here’s the Stop #9 Basics:

If you’re interested, you can order Autumn by the Sea on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or any of these other stores.

Clue to Write Down: a fire

Link to Stop #10, the Next Stop on the Loop: Creston Mapes’ site!

But wait! Before you go, I’m offering three e-books of Autumn by the Sea to three entrants (or choose one of my other books). There are several entry options in the Rafflecopter form below. (USA only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway