[Plugin: Featured Page Widget] Custom excerpt and image placement

I have custom excerpts for all of my posts, but this plugin ignores them and generates its own excerpt. I could use the featured-text option, but that seems redundant to me (not to mention extra work) when I already have the desired text right there in the custom excerpt field for the post.

Another issue is the image placement. Instead of being above the title, I would like the image to be nested in the excerpt text, with the text wrapping around it.

If these two things could be resolved, this would be exactly the plugin I spent a long time looking for.

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/featured-page-widget/