Character Spotlight ~ Rene Gutteridge and Cheryl McKay's Jessie Stone

Today the spotlight shines on.......................Jessie Stone


Never the Bride is a novelization by Rene Gutteridge, based on the screenplay by Cheryl McKay, and it is a match made in heaven! This is a fabulous book that will make a terrific movie, sure to make you laugh, cry, think and look up! I am delighted that Cheryl has been able to share more about Jessie and her God experience at Relz Reviewz.

Over to you, Cheryl:~

Brief physical description of your main characters

Jessie Esther Stone, 34, is a brunette. In fact, if she ever considered going blonde—because all the men in her life seem to gravitate toward them and not her—she’d look ridiculous.

God. Unlike most stories that personify God as fatherly and older (like George Burns or Morgan Freeman), the One who shows up to offer to write Jessie’s love story is quite handsome and her age.

Photo by David Edmonson

Actor/famous person

Jessie ~ She looks like me. J

God ~ When I was writing the script, I was imagining someone like Eduardo Verastegui (from Bella) playing God.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Jessie is a romantic; she believes in true love. She tries her best to not give up hope. She stands by her beliefs. She stepped up to take care of her younger sister when her parents died. She’s responsible and trustworthy. She is extraordinarily creative, especially when it comes to how a man should propose to a woman. She sets up creative proposals for men to use to propose to their women. Being a control freak is definitely one of her weaknesses. Sometimes, she doesn’t have the best self-esteem either and needs to be reminded that her worth does not come from the opinions of men and whether or not they like her.

Naturally, God doesn’t have any weaknesses. There are times in Jessie’s life when she’s believed otherwise (like the fact that God never works as fast as she wants him to.) But God is warm, funny, has a wonderful sense of humor and is the One person who can love Jessie unconditionally.

Quirk (if any)

Jessie is meticulously organized and clean. For example, she can’t stand water droplets on the sink. She’s even OCD about that. If anything is out of place, she must put it away. It’s part of her need to control her environment. It’s one of the few things she can try to control. She also has this obsession with dark chocolate M&Ms. Her allergy to chocolate doesn’t stop her from indulging despite the red splotches she must live with upon indulging.

Your inspiration for the character

I must admit the character of Jessie was inspired by me as a Christian single in my 30’s. It’s inspired by various heartbreaks and years of waiting on God’s best. The friendship Jessie shares with God is inspired by my relationship with God. I consider him to be my Best Friend, my Husband, my Father and a Matchmaker. All of these identities for God are personified through God’s relationship with Jessie in this story.

Background to the story

So many women today feel like if they are single something is wrong with them. They sit in a place of pain because of being unchosen, unseen and unknown. I know many people will relate to Jessie because they either currently feel this way or have felt this way in the past before they found love. I also wanted to write this story to show that the decision to love someone is a decision that’s important enough for God to get involved if we’ll just invite him into the process (as in surrender control, “the pen” we use when we try to write our own love stories.)

I wrote the screenplay in hopes of having this story be told on film. It will first be released as a book, novelized by the wonderful Rene Gutteridge.

Cheryl ~ I adored this book so thanks for sharing some more insight into Jessie and why you wrote the book. I do hope it is not the last McKay/Gutteridge collaboration!


On Monday, I will be spotlighting Rebeca Seitz's Sinclair sisters ~ Tandy, Kendra, Joy and Meg ~ from her Sisters, Ink series, to celebrate the final instalment, Perfect Piece. It is going to be fabulous :)

Relz Reviewz Extras

Review of Never the Bride
Visit Cheryl's website and Rene's website
Enter Aussie/NZ giveaway of Never the Bride
Enter US giveaway of Never the Bride at My Buckling Bookshelf
Interview with Rene Gutteridge and US giveaway at So Many Books...
Buy Never the Bride at Amazon or Koorong