About the Book

Book: The Engineered Engagement

Author: Erica Vetsch

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: July 8, 2025

A hidden genius, an ambitious shipbuilder, and a daring deception—can she prove her worth without losing her heart?

Eli Kennebrae plans to revolutionize cargo transportation on the Great Lakes. But his grandfather’s meddling obligates him to an arranged engagement. Though Josie Zahn is kindhearted and strikes his interest, Eli needs an engineer for his ship, not a fiancée.

Josie has admired Eli for years, but to him, she’s just “one of the Zahn girls.” Worse, society expects her to marry, not pursue her passion for mathematics and engineering. If she could only get Eli’s attention, she could help him achieve his goals.

Then “Professor Josephson,” a brilliant mathematical mind, provides the analyses to make Eli’s ship design a reality. As Eli finds unexpected kinship in the professor’s work, he remains unaware of the truth—Josie is the genius behind the numbers. When deception and ambition collide, will Eli see Josie for who she truly is before it’s too late?

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Best-selling, award-winning author of The Debutante’s Code, first in the Thorndike & Swann Regency Mystery Series, Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum.

More from Erica

One of the most frequently asked questions an author gets is “Where do your ideas come from?” The truth is…all over! But for me, the main place that story ideas start is in a museum. I see an artifact or object or hear a story as I wander a museum, and I begin to wonder about the people who used the object or survived the events that led to their story being in a museum.

The Engineered Engagement was inspired by a tour of the Great Lakes cargo ship the Meteor. The Meteor is a whaleback and is on display in Superior, WI, just across the harbor from Duluth, MN where the story is set.

I first toured the Meteor when I was eleven years old…awhile ago now. But many years later my husband and I took our kids to tour this amazing piece of engineering. The design, which is characterized by low rounded hulls, decks, and deckhouses looks decidedly odd and different from other ships. This design minimized the wind and water resistance encountered in more traditional hull shapes. The creator/design engineer of the whaleback was a Scotsman named Alexander McDougall who was a ship master and seaman on the Great Lakes.

The first whaleback hit the lakes in 1887, and over the next 11 years, 43 more joined her. One of the largest whalebacks was the steamer named the Frank Rockefeller. This ship was later renamed the SS Meteor. The Meteor hauled iron ore and sand for much of her career, and she is the only whaleback that remains.

As I toured the ship, learning nautical terms and all but feeling the rolling of the deck beneath my feet, I couldn’t help but admire Alexander McDougall for ignoring the critics, the snide remarks, and the jeers that always accompany a design pioneer and creating anyway. Looking for a better way to make something or do a task should be admired. He was tenacious, and I wanted to imbue my characters, Eli Kennebrae and Josie Zahn, with that same tenacity.

The Engineered Engagement involves ship building and hydrodynamics. Now, I know nothing about either of these disciplines, but I did glean some information, hopefully enough to make my characters, Eli and Josie, sound like they do. Ah, the joys of writing fiction! And while Eli and Josie are loaded with brains and tenacity, I also wanted them to have real emotions, to care about each other. One of the joys of writing fiction is getting to live through the eyes/hearts of your characters and feel what they feel. The Engineered Engagement was a joy to write.

If you are interested in Great Lakes shipping, I highly recommend the Duluth Canal Camera, https://www.duluthharborcam.com/p/canal-park-cams.html

And if you are interested in learning more about the SS Meteor, I recommend this site: https://superiorpublicmuseums.org/ss-meteor/

Interview with Erica

Hi, Gina,

Thank you so much for hosting The Engineered Engagement on your blog! I’m so happy to be back.

I often get questions about the writing process, so I thought I would focus on those types of questions here today.

How long does it take you to write a book? That completely depends upon how much time I have to write it. 😊 My writing schedule is set by my current contract. I tend to use as much time as the publisher will allow, so if I have a year to write a book, I take a year. If I have six months, I take six months. I tend to write 1000-1500 words a day on average. The Engineered Engagement took me about three months to write.

What is your real-life work schedule like when writing?  I write Monday-Thursday afternoons when on a normal schedule. I try not to write on the weekends as that is time with my husband. And on Fridays I teach a Bible study in the morning and I sew with my sister-in-law in the afternoons. When deadlines get closer, I adjust the schedule, but for most of the year, M-TH is my writing time. Writing isn’t my only job. I’m also a bookkeeper for a lumber company, so I balance those duties and my writing.

Have you experienced writer’s block, and how do you handle it? I haven’t experience writer’s block so much as I have struggled with writer’s doubt. Whether it is an attack of imposter syndrome or questioning whether I am up to the task of writing a particularly crucial scene, writer’s doubt can set me back. Sometimes I have to let a scene marinate for a bit before I can write it, but mostly, with a deadline looming and people at my publishing house counting on me, I power through. I can always edit later, but I can’t edit a blank page.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books? One of the greatest blessings I’ve experienced through writing is the amazing friends I have made in the writing community. Fellow writers, editors, agents, and readers alike. While we can always talk about writing, books, etc. I have also made friends who pray for me, who encourage me, who share the ups and downs of not just writing but all of life. Blessed indeed!

Any current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about? I’m currently finishing book three in a Regency mystery series, An Accusing at the Old Bailey. It involves a murder trial in the Criminal Courts building known as the Old Bailey. After that, I’m writing a novella collection called Seasons of Serendipity, with novellas set in the four seasons on Regency estates I’ve created in some of my other stories.

Thank you so much for hosting me on your blog again, Gina! I really appreciate how you encourage authors by sharing your online space!

Erica

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, August 20

Worthy2Read, August 20

Melissa’s Bookshelf, August 21

Texas Book-aholic, August 21

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 22

Devoted To Hope, August 22

Artistic Nobody, August 23 (Guest Review from Marilyn)

Simple Harvest Reads, August 23 (Guest Review from Mindy)

For Him and My Family, August 24

Books You Can Feel Good About, August 24

Inkwell Inspirations, August 25

Pens Pages & Pulses, August 25

Stories By Gina, August 26 (Author Interview)

Mary Hake, August 26

She Lives To Read, August 27

Inklings and notions, August 27

Bizwings Book Blog, August 28

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, August 28

Little Homeschool on the Prairie, August 29

Locks, Hooks and Books, August 29

An Author’s Take, August 30

Books Less Travelled, August 30

Book Looks by Lisa, August 31

Blossoms and Blessings, August 31

Holly’s Book Corner, September 1

Pause for Tales, September 1

Devoted Steps, September 2

Life on Chickadee Lane, September 2

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Erica is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54282