Character Spotlight ~ Miralee Ferrell's Alexia Travers & Justin Phillips

Today the spotlight shines on...................................Alexia Travers & Justin Phillips


Miralee Ferrell's addition to Summerside Press' new Love Finds You series has garned multiple five star reviews on CBD and Amazon. Don't miss your chance to sneak a look behind the scenes of this historical romance.

Over to you, Miralee:~

Brief physical description

Alexia Travers is tiny boned and slender, with long, wavy brown hair sprinkled with highlights. She doesn't like wearing dresses, but she's very modest when she does. She prefers wearing pants and casual shirts...it needs to be comfortable riding attire.

Justin has short, dark blond hair, dark brown eyes, wears cowboy hats, looks great in jeans, with wide shoulders and slender hips.

Actor/famous person

Jennifer Garner is a down to earth person with tomboy leanings, much like Alexia, and neither are flashy, flamboyant women. I could easily see the two being friends and maybe even taking a horseback ride together.

George Strait (when he was young) with his gorgeous, heart-stopping smile would be the perfect Justin if he had dark blond hair instead of dark brown. Justin has the same sweet spirit that you see in George, and they both look great on a horse!

Strengths and weaknesses

Alexia's strength is her wonderful, independent spirit that constantly drives her to succeed, and her ability to accept people for who they are, without judging. But her independence is also one of her weaknesses, as is so often the case. She has a hard time asking other's for help and balks when other people try to force her to fit into what they deem to be an acceptable mold. She doesn't understand why the women in town can't accept her for who she is, trousers and all...and accept that she might not care to be married even though she's twenty-three years old.

Justin's biggest strength is his love for his four-year-old son Toby, and his passionate desire for a family. His greatest weakness is not being able to forgive himself for what he sees as "the sins of his past". He worked hard to care for his wife, and after her death he blamed himself for not shouldering more of her problems.

Quirk (if any)

None that I can think of.

Your inspiration for the character

My inspiration for Alexia came from two places, with the primary one being my grown daughter, Marnee (Marnee & Swede pictured). She's a very independent, clear thinking young woman who was raised loving and riding horses, and worked one summer as a cowgirl on a ranch. Some of Alex's personality and character traits were my daughter's and some of the idea for Alex grew out of research on women in the old west running their own ranch. The primary one was Kittie Wilkins, an amazing woman who ran a highly successful horse ranch in the late 1800's.

Background to the story

It's 1877 and Alexia Travers is alone in the world. Her father has died unexpectedly, leaving her burdened with a heavily mortgaged horse ranch. Marrying one of the town's all-too-willing bachelors would offer an easy solution, but Alex has no interest in marriage. Instead, she dons men's trousers and rides the range, determined to make the ranch a success on her own.

But despite Alex's best efforts, everything seems to go wrong: ranch hands quit, horses are stolen, and her father's gold goes missing. Alex is at her wit's end when wrangler Justin Phillips arrives in Last Chance with his young son, looking for a job. But there seems to be more to Justin's story than he's willing to share. Will Alex ever be able to trust him? More importantly, will the independent woman finally learn to depend on God?

Thanks Miralee for this great look behind the scenes of your novel! Now I can't wait to delve into the story myself :)


On Monday, come back to check out Amanda Cabot's Sarah Dobbs and Clay Canfield from her debut novel, Paper Roses. We are having a little historical fest at Relz Reviewz!!

Relz Reviewz Extras

Visit Miralee's website and blog

Buy Miralee's books at Amazon or Koorong