I tell people when I meet them that when I married my husband, I got roots. I moved a lot as a child, living in small country towns to suburbs of big cities, and my favorite place by far is in the country, surrounded by nature, feeling that sense of belonging. My husband and I live in his great-grandparent's house in the country, next door to his mother, who still lives in the house where she grew up and raised my husband. There is nothing I love more than sharing my love for Jesus with readers through fictional situations that could really happen.
Families stick together. That’s what they do. It’s no secret that Holly has a crush on Mitch, her older brother’s best friend. A church mission trip offers the chance to add adventure to summer vacation, and the added bonus to finally date the young man of her dreams. Early into the mission, a senseless tragedy rocks Holly’s carefully laid plans. Now she faces a future that’s bleaker than she ever could have imagined.
When God gives Holly the opportunity for a new adventure outside her comfort zone, she has to choose—stay close to her family or trust that her Heavenly Father’s plans will lead to new friends, a new purpose, and, perhaps, a new love.
When I first began reading Christian fiction, my husband posed a question to me. To my surprise, when wandering the library that week, the exact scenario was the plot for this book! I got the book, read it cover to cover and fell in love with this author’s storytelling. The way she explores the characters' emotions put me right in the story. I went on to read the second book immediately and waited (albeit, not very patiently LOL) for the third in the series, pre-ordering it as soon as possible. Deborah Raney has become one of my favorite authors. She is one of the first Christian authors I ever read and she made me fall in love with the whole genre.
Her Second Husband Healed the Sorrow of a Tragic Loss. Her First Has Just Returned from the Dead. Which Man Has the Right to Claim Daria’s Heart?
After two years of serving as a missionary in a remote area of South America, Daria Camfield has returned to the States to mourn her husband, reportedly killed while providing medical aid to a neighboring Colombian village.
One family discovers how God can redeem any tragedy.
At first, Daria finds comfort only in the daughter born to her after Nate’s tragic death. As she begins to heal, she also finds a listening ear…
Paper Dolls takes place in the fictitious town of Habakkuk, where everyone knows everyone else. Besides feeling as though I’m part of this sisterhood of women, I love how the author’s focus of this book is to allow me to get to know all of the women equally. Most books will start out with one main character, then the next in the series shares about another, and so forth. Kara Hunt steps outside the box and introduces all the women equally in the first book, making me want to read about each one of them more in-depth in the subsequent books. This series is full of humor, romance, suspense, mystery, and a lot of sisterhood love.
Karen Kingsbury was the second author who made me fall in love with Christian fiction. I read the redemption series all at once and fell in love with how this author drew me into each book and into the lives of the characters. Ashley quickly became my favorite of the Baxter children, and (only God) would she and I experience some of the same events in life at the same time. I was able to grieve and heal and feel the emotions that I needed to release from my own life and the pain I was experiencing through the pages of the books. I still, to this day, read anything that Karen Kingsbury writes because her writing feels so divinely inspired.
Book 1 in the bestselling 5-book Christian fiction series that has sold nearly 2 million copies!
A story of redemption and love at all costs, from Karen Kingsbury, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of “heart-tugging and emotional” (Romantic Times) life-changing fiction, co-authored with Gary Smalley.
Redemption is the first book in the original Baxter Family Series, which has gone on to captivate tens of millions of readers and is currently being made into an original television series, produced by Roma Downey and Will Packer.
A Shocking Betrayal Kari Baxter Jacobs is furious, hurt, and confused. Her husband, Tim,…
Sharon Srock introduces us to Garfield, a small town in Oklahoma. Callie is the first woman we meet, along with her friends who have a Bible study with a different variety of cheesecake every week. While Srock may not be as well-known as Karen Kingsbury, she writes such emotion in her pages that I cannot put the books down once I pick them up. This author is amazing as she has created twenty books (and counting) from this one small town, with the characters intertwining with each other’s lives. Each with their own storylines (nothing cookie cutter about her) and each their own voice. Truly remarkable and definitely a favorite of mine.
A baby is dead and Callie Stillman blames herself. Haunted by memories of a tiny coffin, Callie can't understand how God could expect her to put her heart on the line a second time. But the evasive little girl in her Sunday school class is so obviously in trouble that Callie finds her resolve cracking.
They can’t trust anyone
Iris and Samantha Evans are living on borrowed time. Deserted, orphaned, betrayed, and deceived, they need rescuing in the worst way.
This pick was a hard one, to decide which series of this author was my favorite. I picked this one because I absolutely love Jess. She is written in such a realistic and beautiful way. I couldn’t help but see some of myself in her. While this is the third book in this series (I highly recommend you read all three, in order) it was probably the one that stuck with me the longest. Brenda Anderson writes realistic, emotionally filled pages, drawing the reader in as though we belong. The storylines are all different and genuine and the characters all have their own personalities and quirks. There isn’t a book from this author that I don’t love and I highly recommend them all.
When flowers and chocolate collide, romance is sure to bloom.
Family has always been the one constant in Jess Beaumont’s messy life, so when her parents separate, she puts “Operation: Planting Hope” into action. All she has to do is recreate the circumstances that helped her parents fall in love. Unfortunately, that includes the daunting task of restoring the family cabin’s gardens. When the handsome candy store owner shows up to help, she’s certain she has all the elements required for her parents’ love to bloom again. After all, flowers and chocolate are the perfect ingredients for romance.
I grew up in Green Bay and my dad was the official scorer for the Packers, so I was immersed in pro football history even as a child. During my careers as a newspaper feature writer and editor and as an advertising copywriter, I also became a sports historian. My magnum opus was “The Encyclopedia of North American Sports History,” 650,000 words. But my favorite by far is my biography of Johnny Blood. I was 12 or 13 when I decided I wanted to write it, 33 when I began working on it, 38 when I finished it, and 78 when it was finally published.
From Kirkus Reviews: "This debut short-story collection paints the wistful life of a newspaper journalist as seen through his sexual and romantic encounters...
Throughout, Hickok writes in an assured style, pulling readers along. The narrow sexual focus results in a distorted picture, yet other aspects of Art's life emerge at the edges—his intelligence, his career as a journalist, and even the sincerity with which he gives in to his male urges and construes sex as love...
Subdued yet alluring; a pensive reflection on the male psyche."
Love, Sex, and Other Calamities: 15 Stories and a Poem by Ralph Hickok
A man arrives in a new city, hoping to start a new life, but he’s still haunted by memories of past loves… A 12-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl have a brief romantic encounter when their families are vacationing in neighboring lakeside cottages… Two teenagers enjoy sexual experimentation when she babysits for her little brother while her parents are out drinking… A high school boy has a crush on an older woman who identifies with Molly Bloom… A college freshman falls in love with a high school freshman and is amazed at the depths of her passion… A guy wins…
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