The biggest compliment a reader can give me is to tell me my book made them cry. Yes, I love a great tear-jerker. I love writing them, and I love reading them. When we feel more deeply, we can live more fully. Books that evoke emotion can help us tune into our authentic selves and confront falsehoods that have held us back from full victory in our lives. Plus, reading is cheaper than therapy! I seek to bring hope, healing, and freedom through fiction. You have to feel to heal, so bring on all the feels.
Itās been years since I first read Crossing Oceans and it has stuck with me, its message so moving, so challenging, so compelling, that I canāt forget it.
I read this book through tears, hating the choice that the character made because I doubted it was the one I would have made in her place. Yet, it was the Christ-like choice. This novel challenged me to be more like Jesus and to receive a love from Him that I didnāt have in and of myself.
Jenny Lucas promised herself that the day she left home, pregnant and alone, she'd never look back. But life has a way of upending even the best-laid plans. Now, nearly six years later, she returns to her sleepy North Carolina town to face the ghosts she left behind. While she still can, she's determined to have a say in who will raise her little girl when she's gone - the father she hasn't spoken to since she left or Isabella's dad, who doesn't yet know he has a daughter.
Only the Beautiful is one of the most important books Iāve ever read.
Iāve read many excellent books, but this one highlights the value of human life in such a profound way. Itās weighty, and definitely not an easy ābeachā read. Yet, for all the emotions that rise to the surface throughout, I was left with a cord of hope. Iām a mother of a couple of children with special needs.
Historically, society has not placed a high value on the lives of children like mine. However, each day I see the light and beauty they bring to the world. I hope every believer will read this book and take the message to heart.
A Best Historical Fiction of Spring Pick by Amazon, PopSugar, AARP, and BookBub!
A heartrending story about a young motherās fight to keep her daughter, and the terrible injustice that tears them apart, by the USA Today bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things and The Last Year of the War.
California, 1938āWhen she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresserās daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvertās spacious house with a secret, howeverāRosie sees colors when sheā¦
Ferry to Cooperation Island
by
Carol Newman Cronin,
James Malloy is a ferry captain--or used to be, until he was unceremoniously fired and replaced by a "girl" named Courtney Farris. Now, instead of piloting Brenton Islandās daily lifeline to the glitzy docks of Newport, Rhode Island, James spends his days beached, bitter, and bored.
This was a hard pick because I could easily have chosen any of Joanne Bischofās other books.
She writes with such excellence and depth of feeling that you bond with the characters and go through their trials alongside them. I chose The Gold in These Hills over her other equally loved books because I read it with tears streaming down my face. The theme of restoration after loss and betrayal resonated with me. Deep despair gives way to soul-stretching hope.
Beautiful, quotable prose stuck with me long after I finished. If you want a novel about second chances that speaks deeply to the heart, give this one a try.
When mail-order bride Juniper's husband vanishes, she writes to him-but fears she's waiting for a ghost in a ghost town. A century later, Johnny Sutherland discovers her letters while restoring her abandoned farmhouse. Can her loving words from the distant past change his present?
1902: Upon arriving in Kenworthy, California, mail-order bride Juniper Cohen is met by the pounding of the gold mine, an untamable landscape, and her greatest surprise of all: the kind and charming man who awaits her. But when the mine proves empty of profit, and when Juniper's husband, John, vanishes, Juniper is left to fend forā¦
Neverending Mercy is a story containing a complicated friendship, growing up, grief, and romance, with a thick thread of redemption woven throughout.
If youāre like me, this novel will challenge you, make you think and feel, and make you cry a bit too. Itās about not just forgiveness, but also reconciliation after betrayal. What does it look like to walk in love after youāve been hurt?
This story explores that with a depth that pulls at the heartstrings.
Embark on a riveting journey into Washington Stateās untamed Olympic Peninsula, where the threads of folklore legends and historical icons are woven into a complex ecological tapestry.
Follow the enigmatic Petr as he fearlessly employs his pirate radio transmitter to broadcast the forgotten and untamed voices that echo through theā¦
Before I Called You Mine truly brought me through the gamut of emotions with a plot that pitted the main characterās two deepest desires against each other: becoming an adoptive mother and true love.
As a mom who has adopted twice, my heart thrummed in time with Laurenās as she pursued her passion of adopting, only to come up against an obstacle she never expected. This journey of the heart was so relatable and heartfelt, I couldnāt help but walk it with the characters. And wow! What characters.
A novel about tough choices and how following Godās path brings the sweetest rewards in the end. This is a lesson Iāve learned repeatedly in my own life. How encouraging for this book to remind me.
Lauren Bailey may be a romantic at heart, but after a decade of matchmaking schemes gone wrong, there's only one match she's committed to now--the one that will make her a mother. Lauren is a dedicated first-grade teacher in Idaho, and her love for children has led her to the path of international adoption. To satisfy her adoption agency's requirements, she gladly agreed to remain single for the foreseeable future; however, just as her long wait comes to an end, Lauren is blindsided by a complication she never saw coming: Joshua Avery.
Natassa seems to have it all ā a devoted husband with a good income, beautiful children, a faithful best friend ā but it only takes one night for her world to crumble, catapulting her into a journey of trauma and healing, old pressures and new friendships. Will she learn to stand her ground or will she always live in someone elseās shadow?
In the 1800s, a mulatto enslaved girl is torn from her mother and left to figure out who she is on her own. Through her time as a house slave in Tennessee and Kentucky, Mercy grapples with her deep ache for her Mama and her understanding of black and white. Which is more important to her? Freedom or loyalty?
In his father's jail, young Albert finds what he's always wanted: a teacher who understands him. But some lessons exact a terrible price. When brilliant murderer Edward Rulloff is imprisoned in Ithaca, he offers Albert an education most boys in 1846 could only dreamā¦
Awakening the handsome prince is supposed to end the fairy tale, not begin it. But the Highvalley witches have rarely done things the way they're supposed to. On the north Pacific island of Eidolonia, hidden from the world by enchantments, Prince Larkin has lain in a magical sleep since 1799ā¦