Tag: Contemporary Christian Romance

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #291 | Lavender and Lace by Tara Grace Ericson

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’ve heard lots of good things about Tara Grace Ericson’s books, but I think this is the first I’ve bought, so I’m looking forward to it … especially the opposites-attract You’ve Got Mail part!

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

Lavender's bedroom at Bloom's Farm tripled as an office, film and photography studio, and occasionally--a place to sleep.

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Lavender and Lace

In their online writer chatroom, they are getting serious.
In the real world; He thinks she’s shallow, and she thinks he’s out of touch.
When their worlds collide, will their hearts survive?

Lavender Bloom is a social marketing expert and influential fashion blogger. Always focused on the perfect image, she shows the world a flawless version of herself, except to her family and her nameless online best friend. Her broody new client certainly doesn’t understand her or why she prefers to hide behind her computer.

Reclusive author Emmett Drake spends his days writing his award-winning fantasy saga and his nights chatting online with the woman of his dreams. When he is forced to hire an image consultant to please his publisher, he despises everything the woman stands for, even if he sees hidden depths beneath her polished façade.

Lavender is determined to help Emmett embrace the power of social media, convinced he has the platform to make a difference. Meanwhile, he is determined to uncover the woman hiding behind the carefully scripted marketing lingo. Their struggle to find authenticity in a world centered on likes, comments, and shares will challenge them both to embrace God’s purpose for their lives – together.

Return to Bloom’s Farm in Lavender and Lace and embrace the joy of family, faith, and true love in this nostalgic modern nod to the romantic classic, You’ve Got Mail.

Find Lavender and Lace online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #290 | Love Somebody Like You by Carolyn Miller

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m (re)reading the next book in the Trinity Lakes Romance series, Love Somebody Like You by Carolyn Miller.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

There were ways to make a good first impression, and ways to not. Lexi Franklin sighed as she picked herself up from the muddied ground outside Trinity Life Church.

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

 

About Love Somebody Like You

For Lexi Franklin, returning to Trinity Lakes feels a little like running home with her tail between her legs.

But what’s a girl to do, when her life has been turned upside down on the other side of the world? She needs a place to regain hope and healing – just didn’t count on meeting a cowboy whose own battered heart might need nursing back to health too.

Jackson Reilly has his own set of troubles, between caring for his ranch, his mom, and the black hole of finances. So when a pretty redhead with a sassy tongue offers some distraction – and a potential solution to one of his most pressing concerns – he’s not going to say no.

But as they spend time together, questions soon rise about their future, and whether faith can truly win over fears. Will Jackson be able to save his ranch, and his hopes and heart, before Lexi returns to Australia?

An opposites attract, small town contemporary Christian romance. Book five of the Trinity Lakes Romance series (can be read as a standalone). Visit Trinity Lakes and meet the fun and quirky characters who value family, faith, and happily-ever-after.

Find Love Somebody Like You online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

I was keeping my head above water financially while simultaneously drowning in an abyss of the poor choices it took to make that happen.

Book Review | Indigo Isle by T I Lowe

I requested Indigo Isle for review because I’ve always been fascinated by indigo. How did our ancestors learn to take the leaves of the indigo plant and process them in a way that produced a beautiful blue dye? Indigo Isle didn’t answer that question, but it did take us through the production of indigo dye, which was a fascinating detour that didn’t detract from the central story.

Of course, no one would want to read a novel about making indigo—that could get tedious.

Indigo Isle is the story of Sonny Bates (female, despite the name), who ran way from her Christian home in South Carolina fifteen yeas ago and headed for the bright lights of Hollywood. Now she’s a successful location scout, back in Charleston, South Carolina, as location manager for a movie shoot.

While scouting the islands off the coast to find a location for a romantic beach scene, Sonny comes across a private island locals say is owned by the Monster of Indigo Isle. Sonny finds something about the island – and the so-called monster – compelling, and keeps returning to the island, where she strikes up an oddrelationship with the owner, Hudson Renfrow.

Hudson is battling his own issues, so this is the story of two broken people reluctantly helping each other heal, while falling in love in the process. But the path of true love does not run smooth, and it runs a lot less smooth in Indigo Isle than in most other Christian romance novels.

I was recently chatting with a friend about a book she’d loved but I’d abandoned, and she asked me if the reason I didn’t like it was because of the Grumpy Sunshine trope i.e. the hero was grumpy, while the heroine was all sunshine and unicorns. I couldn’t really answer, as it wasn’t something I’d considered before.

Now I’ve read Indigo Isle, I have to say I do like the Grumpy Sunshine trope … if it’s done well.

It’s definitely done well in Indigo Isle. I think it works because the characters are portrayed so well, and everything that happens is a natural result of their backgrounds and personalities … including the inevitable conflict.

(If you want to know more about grumpy sunshine books, check out this episode of the StoryChats @ Inspy Romance podcast.)

I do have to add a content warning for sexual assault. If that’s a trigger for you, avoid Indigo Isle (or proceed with caution).

Indigo Isle is an excellent Christian romance, a compelling beauty-and-the-beast romance with a #MeToo element … and the obligatory happy ending.

Thanks to Tyndale House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About T I Lowe

T I LoweT. I. Lowe is an ordinary country girl who loves to tell extraordinary stories. She is the author of nearly twenty published novels, including her recent bestselling and critically acclaimed novel, Under the Magnolias, and her debut breakout, Lulu’s Café. She lives with her husband and family in coastal South Carolina.

Find T I Lowe online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

About Indigo Isle

Sonny Bates left South Carolina fifteen years ago and never looked back.

Now she’s a successful Hollywood location scout who travels the world, finding perfect places for movie shoots. Home is wherever she lands, and between her busy schedule and dealing with her boss’s demands, she has little time to think about the past . . . until her latest gig lands her a stone’s throw from everything she left behind.

Searching off the coast of Charleston for a secluded site to film a key scene, Sonny wanders onto a private barrier island and encounters its reclusive owner, known by locals as the Monster of Indigo Isle. What she finds is a man much more complex than the myth.

Once a successful New York attorney, Hudson Renfrow’s grief has exiled him to his island for several years. He spends his days alone, tending his fields of indigo, then making indigo dye―and he has no interest in serving the intrusive needs of a film company or yielding to Sonny’s determined curiosity. But when a hurricane makes landfall on the Carolina coast, stranding them together, an unlikely friendship forms between the two damaged souls. Soon the gruff exterior Hudson has long hidden behind crumbles―exposing the tender part of him that’s desperate for forgiveness and a second chance.

A story of hanging on and letting go, of redemption and reconciliation, and of a love that heals the deepest wounds, from the author of the breakout Southern fiction bestseller Under the Magnolias.

Find Indigo Isle online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

Speaking of making us look bad ... three thousand bucks on a coat?

Book Review | The Billionaire’s Backup (Billionaire Next Door #4) by Elizabeth Maddrey

Noah and Jenna share a birthday.

Back in college, they made the cliche marriage pact: if they weren’t married by thirty-three, they’d marry each other.

Yes, it’s a romance cliche, but it is a fun cliche. It wasn’t overdone–both characters remembered the pact and how they’d like something to come of it, but it wasn’t the centre of the story. Instead, it was the setup for an excellent friends-to-more story (which just happens to be my absolute favourite romance trope).

As the story starts, Noah and Jenna are both thirty-two and still single, and have maintained a strong friendship over the years. In fact, architect Jenna is currently renovating the six-bedroom historic home Noah has recently purchased.

As suggested by the title, The Billionaire’s Backup is a billionaire romance.

This is a trope I have a love/loathe relationship with. I like the fact the characters don’t have money troubles (well, the billionaire doesn’t), because it can get a little depressing reading novels where the lack of money is a central plot point. I don’t like billionaires who are rude or arrogant, or who have made their billions through exploiting others (e.g. underpaying the people who work for them). One of the reasons I enjoy Elizabeth Maddrey’s billionaire series is that her billionaires are all regular guys, a group of close-knit friends who hit big on the stock market, but who haven’t let money change them.

Of course, having money does mean they can do things most of us can only dream of.

Money might not buy happiness, but it sure buys some fun stuff … and I enjoyed seeing Noah splash some of that billionaire cash when it came to impressing Jenna.

My salvation was because of my personal relationship with Jesus. But sanctification—the lifelong process of becoming more and more like Christ—took place in community.

The story also had a more serious point to make about being a Christian: the importance of community. It challenged me to rethink how I do Christian community, as that’s definitely something that has changed in my life since the pandemic.

Overall, The Billionaire’s Backup is a fun contemporary Christian romance that will appeal to fans of marriage pact, friends-to-more and billionaire romances … especially those looking for a Christian faith thread. Recommended.

Now I’m looking forward to the next in the series, The Billionaire’s Teacher!

About Elizabeth Maddrey

Elizabeth MaddreyElizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who loves a good happily ever after.

She began writing stories as soon as she could form the letters properly and has never looked back. Though her practical nature and love of computers, math, and organization steered her into computer science at Wheaton College, she always had one or more stories in progress to occupy her free time. This continued through a Master’s program in Software Engineering, several years in the computer industry, teaching programming at the college level, and a Ph.D. in Computer Technology in Education. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books and has mastered the art of reading while undertaking just about any other activity.

She lives in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. with her husband and their two incredibly active little boys.

Find Elizabeth Maddrey online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

About The Billionaire’s Backup

Jenna and I have been friends since college.

Not besties or anything. Just the kind of friend you hit up when you want to go to a party but don’t want the pressure of a date.

She’s fun. Independent. And she gets me.

Which is probably why we dated for a while – more for fun than anything..

The kiss was completely out of left field. And so was the ridiculous pact to get married if we were still single in our thirties.

Neither of us have ever mentioned that pact again.

But man, a lot of years have passed and I can sometimes still feel her lips on mine. Now that she’s going to be renovating my house, it could definitely be a problem.

The whole pact thing might have been dumb, but would it really be such a bad idea for us to get together?

Find The Billionaire’s Backup online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Always By My Side by Iola Goulton 99 cents on Amazon this week only

Introducing … Always By My Side by Iola Goulton

My debut novel is now on sale!

I tend not to share my own writing journey on this website (an error I do need to rectify). Yes, I have been writing. Yes, I have completed a novel. Yes, that novel  was published on 30 May 2023.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on my book news, subscribe to my newsletter>>

If you pre-ordered from Amazon, thank you so much for supporting me! The story should now be on your Kindle … so happy reading!

If you do read Always By My Side, please consider leaving a review on your favourite online retailer—reviews help other readers discover stories they will love.

And if you have read Always By My Side, please leave a comment and let me know your favourite scene or line. I love sharing my favourite lines from the novels I read, and I would like to share your favourite lines from my novel.

Here’s more about the book:

Always By My Side

A hardworking introvert meets a handsome adventurer longing to settle down.

Tabitha Thomas longs to leave Trinity Lakes and travel the world in honor of the beloved grandmother who raised her and her siblings. But she’s needed at home—she’s the responsible triplet, the one who stayed home to run the family inn while her brother and sister left to live their dreams.

Kiwi Logan Wylde doesn’t call any place home. When an injury frustrates his travel plans, he accepts an invitation to return to Trinity Lakes and recuperate at the Lakeview Inn, where he hopes to rediscover his purpose in life.

When Tabby and Logan find a property deed while cleaning out Gran’s rooms, Tabby embraces a new challenge—to solve the mystery of the floodplain and renovate the old boatshed. Working with Logan reignites long-suppressed feelings, but will their differences drive them apart?

An opposites-attract, friends-to-more, small town contemporary Christian romance.
Welcome to Trinity Lakes, a warm and welcoming small town in east Washington, filled with charm, family, and friends, where fresh starts, second chances, and romance abound. You’ll meet swoony bachelors, cowboys, and adventurers, sweet and sassy ladies, and your new best friends. This series of standalone Christian romances will warm your heart, inspire your faith, and bring a smile to your soul.

Always By My Side is on sale for 99 cents wherever ebooks are sold for one week only.

Then the price will go up to 3.99, and it will be available to borrow free for members of Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon | Other ebook stores (until 8 June)

I am the cliche protagonist. And I have no desire to be anyone else.

Book Review | The Words we Lost by Nicole Deese

What first caught my attention about The Words We Lost was the cover.

Illustrated covers have been a thing in contemporary romance for a while, although they tended to indicate rom-coms rather than pure romance. This style of cover is newer, but I really like the illustrated look with a focus on the title. Indigo Isle had the same kind of cover, and the same kind of vibe. Both novels are definitely Christian romance, but which have the depth of characterisation and overall character journey that’s more common in women’s fiction.

Yes, The Words We Lost is a romance, but with that women’s fiction vibe.

Ingrid Erikson is the Senior Acquisitions Editor at San Francisco publisher Fog Harbor Books, having built her career on the sale of a five-book Young Adult fantasy series by her now-dead best friend. Unfortunately, Cecelia Campbell—CeCe—had the misfortune to die before turning in her final contracted manuscript, which is now missing. Fog Harbor wants to find the missing manuscript, and Ingrid is charged with finding it.

But Ingrid’s grief over CeCe’s death has led to an unusual disability … and one that is potentially career-ending for an editor.

She can’t read. Well, she can read the words. She just can’t comprehend them. So she heads to Port Townsend to work with Joel, CeCe’s cousin and Ingrid’s teenage sweetheart, to retrieve a package she hopes will be the manuscript that will save her career.

This is a romance novel, so we know how the story is going to end.

We also know the course of love is destined to never run smoothly, particularly in terms of Ingrid’s relationship with Joel. It’s safe to say The Words We Lost was anything but predictable, in the best possible way.

I’ve read a lot of novels about novelists, but very few about an editor in a publishing house (the only other one I can recall is Stealing Adda by Tamara Leigh, which was about an author and her editor). As such, I enjoyed seeing the publishing industry shown from a different angle.

I especially enjoyed the fact The Words We Lost was written in first person.

I always find that brings me closer to the characters. Despite her problem with words, Ingrid has a distinctive and compelling character voice … perhaps made more compelling because she’s a professional who has built her career on words but has lost those same words.

The Words We Lost is subtitled A Fog Harbor Romance, and I do hope that means it’s the beginning of a series because there are several characters I’d like to meet again—not least, the ever-peppy Chip, the preppy editorial assistant.

I recommend The Words We Lost to fans of romance/women’s fiction authors such as TI Lowe, Tammy L Gray, Irene Hannon, or Carmen Schober.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Nicole Deese

Nicole DeeseNicole Deese is an award-winning author who specializes in humorous, heartfelt, and hope-filled novels. When not working on her next contemporary romance, she can usually be found reading one by a window overlooking the inspiring beauty of the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides with her happily-ever-after hubby, two sons, and a princess daughter in Idaho.

Find Nicole Deese online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

About The Words we Lost

Three friends. Two broken promises. One missing manuscript.

As a senior acquisitions editor for Fog Harbor Books in San Francisco, Ingrid Erikson has rejected many a manuscript for lack of defined conflict and dramatic irony–two elements her current life possesses in spades. In the months following the death of her childhood best friend and international bestselling author Cecelia Campbell, Ingrid has not only lost her ability to escape into fiction due to a rare trauma response, but she’s also desperate to find the closure she’s convinced will come with Cecelia’s missing final manuscript.

After Ingrid jeopardizes her career, she fears her future will remain irrevocably broken. But then Joel Campbell–the man who shattered her belief in happily-ever-afters–offers her a sealed envelope from his late cousin, Cecelia, asking Joel and to put their differences aside and retrieve a mysterious package in their coastal Washington hometown.

Honoring Cecelia’s last request will challenge their convictions and test their loyalties, but through it all, will Ingrid and Joel be brave enough to uncover a twice-in-a-lifetime love?

Find The Words we Lost online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #286 | Beautiful Storm by Mandi Blake

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I recently found this on sale on Amazon, and I’m looking forward to reading my first Mandi Blake book.

Here’s the first line from Chapter One:
Tori massaged the aching muscles in her neck with one hand and gave a half-hearted wave to the nurses at the other as she passed.

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Beautiful Storm

Tori’s life was perfect—a successful job, a doctor for a husband, and a pristine loft in Chicago—until her husband left her for someone else. With her divorce comes a surprise cabin in the Deep South, and she wants nothing more than to get rid of it so she can get her life back in order.

Marcus is the self-appointed guardian of his sister and three brothers, while their mother lives a toxic lifestyle, but one call to his auto repair shop from an entitled city girl turns his world upside down. He’s a master of reading people, but the feisty newcomer poses an interesting challenge.

As their lonely hearts search for help and healing with each other and God, the dangers of the world come knocking. Will Tori be able to save Marcus’ family and make him see that their differences aren’t enough to keep them apart?

A sweet, Christian romance that shows us that love is greater than our circumstances.
Beautiful Storm is book four in the Unfailing Love series, but the books can be read in any order.

Find Beautiful Storm online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #285 | Indigo Isle by T. I. Lowe

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m quoting from Indigo Isle, the upcoming release from Southern Christian fiction author T. I. Lowe. I love the cover, and the title really caught my eye.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

So this is how it feels to be near death and utterly alone.

 

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

 

About Indigo Isle

Sonny Bates left South Carolina fifteen years ago and never looked back.

Now she’s a successful Hollywood location scout who travels the world, finding perfect places for movie shoots. Home is wherever she lands, and between her busy schedule and dealing with her boss’s demands, she has little time to think about the past . . . until her latest gig lands her a stone’s throw from everything she left behind.

Searching off the coast of Charleston for a secluded site to film a key scene, Sonny wanders onto a private barrier island and encounters its reclusive owner, known by locals as the Monster of Indigo Isle. What she finds is a man much more complex than the myth.

Once a successful New York attorney, Hudson Renfrow’s grief has exiled him to his island for several years. He spends his days alone, tending his fields of indigo, then making indigo dye―and he has no interest in serving the intrusive needs of a film company or yielding to Sonny’s determined curiosity. But when a hurricane makes landfall on the Carolina coast, stranding them together, an unlikely friendship forms between the two damaged souls. Soon the gruff exterior Hudson has long hidden behind crumbles―exposing the tender part of him that’s desperate for forgiveness and a second chance.

A story of hanging on and letting go, of redemption and reconciliation, and of a love that heals the deepest wounds, from the author of the breakout Southern fiction bestseller Under the Magnolias.

Find Indigo Isle online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

Why can't we grow closer to God without going through hard times? Isn't there another way?

Book Review | Saving the CEO by Liwen Ho

Devin Kendall is the CEO of his family’s multi-million dollar business. But to keep his role, he has to get married in the next three months … and he doesn’t even have a girlfriend.

Scarlett Hayes is the youngest of four sisters, all of whom work in the family’s Christian matchmaking business. Her friend Bekah recommends Scarlett to her brother, Devin, and they form an instant connection … which is more than a little awkward considering Scarlett is supposed to be finding Devin his perfect match, not falling for him herself.

I must say I’m not a huge fan of plots that centre on an already-dead character ruling from beyond the grave in the form of a dictatorial will. It often seems to me that such clauses indicate a lack of trust from the dead person. However, Saving the CEO managed to take this trope and deal with it well.

While Scarlett and Devin seem like complete opposites (he’s a serious oldest child, and an almost-workaholic professional, while Scarlett is a youngest child who often comes across as flighty). But they also have lots in common – they are both hardworking, determined, family oriented Christians … who find each other attractive.

And that’s awkward, because Rule #1 of matchmaking is Don’t Date the Clients.

Watching Devin and Scarlett pretend to not be attracted while they worked to find Devin some appropriate matches was fun. Watching them fall for each other was even more fun. The, of course, came the inevitable scene where Scarlett realises Devin hadn’t told the whole truth i.e. he hasn’t told her about the will. And to say any more would be a spoiler.

I was impressed by the maturity shown by both Devin and Scarlett, especially Scarlett.

She was younger than Devin and a lot more outgoing, to it would be easy to assume she was immature and flighty, but she was not. She was just as dedicated to her fmaily and to hw work as Devin, even if her job wasn’t as high-powered as his. I liked the way they dealth with their conflicts and difficulties, and I loved their chemistry.

Overall, this is a fun contemporary Christian romance, especially recommended for fans of billionaire romances or matchmaker plots.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

About Liwen Ho

Author Photo: Liwen HoLiwen Y. Ho works as a chauffeur and referee by day (AKA being a stay at home mom) and an author by night. She writes sweet and inspirational contemporary romance infused with heart, humor, and a taste of home (her Asian roots).

In her pre-author life, she received a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Western Seminary, and she loves makeovers of all kinds, especially those of the heart and mind. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her techie husband and their two children, and blogs about her adventures as a recovering perfectionist

You can find Liwen Ho online at:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

About Saving the CEO

This matchmaker has finally met her match …

To inherit his family business and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, Devin Kendall must find a wife. The only problem? He’s a workaholic CEO who can’t remember the last time he went on a date. The best solution? Hire his sister’s matchmaker friend to do the job for him. If only they didn’t get along like two dogs after the same bone.

If Scarlett Hayes didn’t have a bet to win, she would never have agreed to take on her handsome but incorrigible new client. Devin might seem like the perfect match on paper, but he needs plenty of help in the one area he lacks—romance. She’s determined to pull out all the stops to coach him, including taking him out on a practice date. If only the emotions he stirs up inside of her didn’t feel so real.

The more time Devin and Scarlett spend with each other, the more they realize they’re not so different after all. When they finally agree to work together toward a common goal, how will they handle the chemistry growing between them?

Find Saving the CEO online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #284 | When I Come Home Again by Jennifer Rodewald

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line.

Today I’m sharing from When I Come Home Again by Jennifer Rodewald, which I picked up on sale on Kindle a couple of months ago.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

Saturdays were for relaxing. This was a fairly new perspective in Brenna Blaum's world.

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

Saturdays were for relaxing. This was a fairly new perspective in Brenna Blaum’s world. Well, new in the last seven years.

About When I Come Home Again

A tragic fallout drove them apart. Will forgiveness lead them to a second chance?
She’s moved on.

Brenna Blaum had been sure of three things in her life—her brother, her running, and her dad’s star receiver. But in a matter of a year’s time, everything she’d counted on fell apart, leaving her devastated. Seven years later, she’s stable again. She has a supportive boyfriend, fulfilling career, and close friends. She keeps her past heartache where it belongs—in her rearview mirror. Until the man who broke her heart finds his way back to Big Prairie.

He has to go back.

Craig Erikson had it all—popularity, success, and the love of his high school coach’s daughter. But after a year of mistakes that ended in a tragic accident, he’d left Big Prairie—the place he’d thought to always call home—hoping that without his antagonizing presence, Brenna would be able to heal. Now his mother desperately needs him, as do two young boys in her care. Craig has little choice but to return for good.

Can they live in the same small town without dealing with their messy past?

Unsure that she can forgive him, Brenna does her best to avoid him. Irritated that she ignores him as if they’d never meant anything to each other, Craig becomes determined not to allow it. Life in a small town forces their interaction, making them confront their unresolved issues and igniting emotions that have smoldered for seven years. As Craig and Brenna are pushed together, can they endure the hard places still littering their lives?

If so, is it possible to find their way back to love and home again?

Find When I Come Home Again online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!