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New Releases in Christian Fiction 1

March 2020 New Releases in Christian Fiction

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More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW Fiction Finder website.


Contemporary Romance:

Love & Liberty by Elsie Davis — A New Hampshire firefighter and an Audubon Society member go head to head when his work involving controlled forest fires threatens a rumored eagle nest. (Contemporary Romance from Sweet Promise Press)

Formula for a Perfect Life by Christy Hayes — College senior Kayla Cummings’ dreams are crushed by an unplanned pregnancy after a one-night stand with her secret crush. When she confronts the baby’s father, Ben Strickland, his destined life spins out of control. With the clock ticking and decisions to make, Ben and Kayla embark on a journey where falling in love might be the biggest surprise of all. (Contemporary Romance, Independently Published )

Hill Country Redemption by Shannon Taylor Vannatter — When Rance Shepherd takes a job stocking cattle for a local rodeo, he’s shocked that his new client is his ex-sweetheart, Larae Collins. Now he’s determined to prove to the single mother that he isn’t the restless cowboy she remembers. But when he discovers her little girl is his, they both must forgive past mistakes for a second shot at a future together. (Contemporary Romance from Love Inspired [Harlequin])

Spring Splash by Denise Weimer — An injured college swimmer volunteers to help with a Special Olympics swim team as a part of her sports marketing practicum and butts heads with the team’s handsome but stubborn coach. (Contemporary Romance from Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas)


Children’s:

Selah’s Stolen Dream by Susan Count — Thirteen-year-old Selah’s perfect life unravels when her beloved horse is stolen. Then ten-year-old Emma buys the dream of a lifetime at a horse auction. When she learns the horse was stolen, even removing her hearing aid won’t drown out the voice telling her to make it right.But two girls can’t divide the horse they both adore. So will life surprise them with an answered prayer? (Middle Grade from Hastings Creations Group)


Historical:

Sorrento Girl by Dawn Klinge — It’s 1938, and Ann Brooks has big dreams of her new life as a Seattle College coed. She’s left the old-fashioned ways of her small country town behind to pursue higher education and a teaching career. But not everyone is ready for change. Society still preaches that a woman’s place is in the home. Some refuse to see Ann as an equal deserving of an education — let alone a career — and Ann’s friends think school is simply a springboard to pursue a marriage of wealth and convenience. When Ann meets Paul, an aspiring journalist with strong ideas of his own, she learns an unexpected lesson in courage and discovers what it really means to live her dreams. Will Ann give up everything she thought she wanted for love? Or can she have it all? (Historical, Independently Published)

The Blue Cloak by Shannon McNear — Based on real events beginning in 1797 — Rachel Taylor lives a rather mundane existence at the way station her family runs along the Wilderness Road in Tennessee. She attends her friend’s wedding only to watch it dissolve in horror has the groom, Wiley Harpe, and his cousin become murderers on the run, who drag their families along. Declaring a “war on all humanity,” the Harpes won’t be stopped, and Ben Langford is on their trail to see if his own cousin was one of their latest victims. How many will die before peace can return to the frontier? (Historical from Barbour Publishing)

Roll Back the Clouds by Terri Wangard — Sailing on the Lusitania is a dream-come-true for Rosaleen and Geoff Bonnard, but their journey turns into a nightmare. Will they ever find their joy again? (Historical, Independently Published)


Historical Romance:

The Heart’s Stronghold by Amanda Barratt, Angie Dicken, Gabrielle Meyer, and Kimberley Woodhouse — Join four brave women making their mark on history at Colonial forts. Faced with tragedy and distrust they will fight to bring civility, family, and love to the frontier. (Historical Romance from Barbour Publishing)

Hope in the Mountain River by Misty M. Beller — This epic journey is not at all what she expected. Joel Vargas can’t believe he’s lost his older brother in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains after surviving their harrowing voyage across the Atlantic. And he can’t shake the feeling that Adam—his only living relative—is in dire trouble. No matter what the cost, he and his band of friends won’t stop until Adam is found. He’s not sure if two Indian women they meet on the way will be a help or hindrance. After the devastating loss of her daughter and husband to a sickness that swept through their Nez Perce camp, Elan is desperate to find an escape from her grief. As she and her friend journey through the mountains toward the great river, a band of white men is the last thing she expects to find, especially as winter blows in full force. When the dangers increase, accomplishing Joel’s mission becomes the only hope for all their survival. If the elements don’t consume them, Elan has a feeling life will never be the same for any of them. (Historical Romance, Independently Published)

Out of the Embers by Amanda Cabot — Ten years after her parents were killed, Evelyn Radcliffe is once more homeless. The orphanage that was her refuge and later her workplace has burned to the ground, and only she and a young orphan girl have escaped. Convinced this must be related to her parents’ murders, Evelyn flees with the girl to Mesquite Springs in the Texas Hill Country and finds refuge in the home of Wyatt Clark, a talented horse rancher whose plans don’t include a family of his own. At first, Evelyn is a distraction. But when it becomes clear that trouble has followed her to Mesquite Springs, she becomes a full-blown disruption. Can Wyatt keep her safe from the man who wants her dead? And will his own plans become collateral damage? (Historical Romance from Revell – A Division of Baker Publishing Group)

Woman of Sunlight by Mary Connealy — From a remote Colorado mountain to the bustle of Chicago. Ilsa finds herself married and dragged into rushing wagons and horses, high rise buildings and a ruthless killer who’s followed them across a country. (Western from Bethany House [Baker])

The Merchant’s Yield by Lorri Dudley — A debutant finds herself in a compromising situation with a Leeward Islander, which lands her in a marriage of inconvenience with the man who then carries her across the Atlantic to his home. When he learns of her weak constitution and believes she can’t survive the hardships of island life, she sets out to prove him wrong. (Historical Romance from Wild Heart Books)

A Love Not Forgotten by Linda Shenton Matchett — Allison White should be thrilled about her upcoming wedding. The problem? She’s still in love with her fiancé, Chaz, who was declared dead after being shot down over Germany in 1944. Can she put the past behind her and settle down to married life with the kindhearted man who loves her? It’s been two years since Charles “Chaz” Powell was shot down over enemy territory. The war is officially over, but not for him. He has amnesia as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, and the only clue to his identity is a love letter with no return address. Will he ever regain his memories and discover who he is, or will he have to forge a new life with no connections to the past? (Historical Romance by Shortwave Press)


Romantic Suspense:

Killer Harvest by Tanya Stowe — Can she stop a deadly crop virus from ending up in the wrong hands? Biologist and single mom Sassa Nilsson just witnessed her mentor’s brutal murder by environmental extremists. Now she’s the last link to a deadly pathogen they plan on unleashing—and their number one target! But can handsome border patrol agent Jared De Luca shield Sassa and her baby long enough to find a cure…before the entire world faces the unthinkable consequences? (Romantic Suspense from Love Inspired [Harlequin])

Traces by Denise Weimer — When a failed romance and a $500,000 prize lure Kate Carson into participating in the reality TV show, Traces, the least she expects is to pick her partner. After all, she’s the PR spokeswoman of the company that derived a thirteen-lens, rotating camera from military use and installed it atop Atlanta’s tallest skyscraper. But she never would have chosen to evade techno hunters for twenty days with “G.I. Joe.” Stoic, ex-military Alex Mitchell is the sort of man she always vowed to avoid, while the shadows of Alex’s past cause him to spurn emotional involvement. When Kate’s insider knowledge makes her a target of someone more threatening than game show hunters, Alex offers her only hope to reveal the dark plans of proponents of The Eye. (Romantic Suspense from Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas)

Song in the Dark by Jessica White — After graduating from Juilliard, harpist Jenna Fields returns home to Albany to escape her manipulative ex and prove to her controlling mother that she can orchestrate her own life. Homicide detective Dean Blackburn spends his days seeking justice for the dead. But darkness taints everything, including him. When his three Dobermans lead him to Jenna playing in the park, he tries to resist the beautiful musician and focus on his cases. At least until he witnesses Jenna’s ex attempt to blackmail her and learns she’s being stalked, just like one of his homicide victims. When her world crumbles beneath her feet, and Dean learns she has her own dark secrets, he helps Jenna see that the key to escaping her mother’s gilded cage is already in her hands. (Romantic Suspense from Mantle Rock Publishing)

Secrets She Knew by D.L. Wood — Boston police detective Dani Lake dreads returning to her small hometown of Skye, Alabama, for her ten-year high school reunion–and not just for the normal reasons. At only fifteen, Dani tragically discovered the body of her murdered classmate, setting in motion the process that led to the unjust conviction of her dear friend and an unshakable burden of guilt she carries to this day. So when new evidence surfaces during her trip home which suggests the truth Dani’s always suspected, she embarks on a mission to expose the real killer, aided by Skye detective Chris Newton–who happens to be the man Dani’s best friend is dying to set her up with, and also the only person who believes her. But when Dani pushes too hard, someone pushes back, endangering Dani and those closest to her as she unearths secrets deeper and darker than she ever expected to learn—secrets that may bring the truth to light, if they don’t get her killed first. (Romantic Suspense, Independently Published)


Suspense:

Chasing the White Lion by James R. Hannibal — Rookie spy Talia Inger goes deep undercover in the world’s first crowdsourced crime syndicate to unveil a monster and rescue kidnapped refugee children. (Techno-thriller from Revell – A Division of Baker Publishing Group)

Kings Falling by Ronie Kendig — Leif Metcalfe and his team, dubbed Reaper, need to recover the stolen, ancient Book of the Wars if they hope to stop the Armageddon Coalition and their pursuit of global economic control. But their attention has been diverted by a prophecy in the book that foretells of formidable guardians who will decimate the enemies of ArC. While Iskra Todorova uses her connections in the covert underworld to hunt down the Book of the Wars, Leif and Reaper attempt to neutralize these agents but quickly find themselves outmaneuvered and outgunned. The more Reaper tries to stop the guardians, the more failure becomes a familiar, antagonistic foe. Friendships are fractured, and the team battles to hold it together long enough to defeat ArC. But as this millennia-old conspiracy creeps closer and closer to home, the implications could tear Leif and the team apart. (Military Suspense from Bethany House [Baker])

Plus check out these recent additions to Fiction Finder published within the past month:

Love & Hope by Elsie Davis, Contemporary Romance
Bite the Dust by Jackie Layton, Cozy Mystery
Jordan’s Arrow by Allen Steadham, Speculative
The Letters by C. Kevin Thompson, Suspense

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A Mom to Many

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by Sarah Hamaker

Sometimes, you don’t know how blessed you are until you view your situation through someone else’s eyes. For kids, we often don’t take a look at who our parents are until we’re parents ourselves or have grown up enough to have perspective on our childhoods and the people who raised us.

For me, the revelation that my mother had more to offer the world than just being my mother started after my twelfth birthday when my parents began taking in foster children. From babies to teenagers, my parents eventually had more than 40 foster kids pass through their homes and hearts. Each one held a special place in our hearts, and each one knew without a doubt that they were loved and a part of our family for as long as they lived in our home.

Even as a sometimes sarcastic and unappreciative teenager, I knew something special was happening in our home. It wasn’t easy to be a foster sister to kids who sometimes stole from me, ruined my possessions and invaded my space. But I also knew it wasn’t easy for my parents, either, especially for my mom who was a stay at home mother.

Not many moms would willingly, lovingly continue raising kids for half a century, but that’s what my mom did. She started, as do most moms, with her own children, having two girls and a boy before her 25th birthday. Eleven years after the youngest of the original trio was born, along came a fourth child—me. That meant I was kind of like an only child for a while, given my older siblings left home for jobs and college after high school.

But my parents decided that their house—and their hearts—needed more than one child at home, and so they took up the calling to be foster parents when I was entering the seventh grade. There were babies and preschoolers, tweens and teens, all of whom were in need of more than a place to stay and food to eat—they needed love and comfort and the chance to experience what makes a house a home. All that and more my mom and dad gave them.

Now that I’m a mother of my own, I marvel at how my mom related to these battered, bruised kids who had been treated so abominably by their own moms and dads (and other relatives). Kids who were sexually abused, physically abused, mentally abused and verbally abused. Kids who had never eaten a meal with the entire family seated around a table. Kids who had never had a space of their own in a house. Kids who had never been loved just because. Kids whose back stories broke your heart.

Then they arrived at my parents’ house, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes without anything but the clothes on their backs, sometimes with all their meager belongings stuffed into a black trash bag. All of them scared, upset, lonely, and missing their parents.

And greeting them at the door was Mama Jo, my mother, with her heart opened wide. She would settle them into our house as if they were a long-lost son or daughter returning home. Not once did she ever treat any foster child as if they were less than a full member of our family.

Gently, patiently, and lovingly, my mother taught them the things we who were raised in loving families learned from infancy, things like how to treat one another with kindness, how to do chores and how to act at the dinner table. She advocated for them at school, but expected them to do their own school work. She gave them hugs but meted out consequences when necessary. She prayed for them, and showed them how God cared for them as well.

She wasn’t perfect, and she would be the first to admit she made mistakes. But the kids understood that here was someone who cared, who had their best interest at heart and who was a safe haven in the storm of their lives.

Because most of all, she gave them unconditional love and acceptance. My mom never allowed the child’s current circumstances dictate the child’s future—she’s a firm believer that people can change, and kids can too. That attitude, coupled with the amazing successes she and my father achieved with these foster children, led the local social services department to call my parents first with the most difficult cases.

My parents even adopted twins who had been foster kids in our home for several years before their biological mom and dad gave up their parental rights. The boy-girl twins were 14 years younger than myself, meaning my parents willingly extended their child-raising years to care for these two toddlers who by that time called my parents Mom and Dad.

What my mother gave those kids made a lasting difference. Some of their stories we know the ending to because they still keep in touch decades later. The troubled 10-year-old boy who bounced back and forth from his mom’s house to ours as a foster kid now has a successful military career. The abused teenage girl who had started to make unwise choices became a nurse who asked my father to walk her down the aisle when she got married. The sexually abused nine-year-old girl who developed an annoying personality to cope credits my mother for showing her she was loveable and is now married with children of her own.

When I reflect on the half century my mother spent raising kids, the majority of which were not her own by birth, my heart overflows with love and gratitude at the example of motherhood she gave me and countless others. To me—and I’m sure to all of those foster children she loved so much—her model of mothering has been the pattern that I strive to follow. If more mothers were like Mama Jo, the world would indeed be a better place.

This story originally appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Best Mom Ever!

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Birthing a Baby—and a Book

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by Sarah Hamaker

Writing and publishing a book is often compared to giving birth. In my case, my first book and my fourth baby had the same birthday.

Like many books, mine started with a germ of an idea about helping women decide on a work-from-home business or at-home employment. I wrote up a proposal and three sample chapters, sending it off with high hopes. A year of rejections from numerous publishers and agents (albeit with several nice notes expressing regret that my book didn’t fit their current line-up) followed my initial foray into publishing. Then I stumbled upon a small press in California that expressed interest in my book.

Nearly twelve months of back and forth emails resulted in a signed contract and a six-month deadline to complete the manuscript. I was elated yet panicked because I had a three-month-old baby, two preschoolers at home—and no extra money for childcare. With my husband’s support, I plowed ahead, knowing it would take determination to research and write a 55,000-word book practically from scratch.

Adding to the challenge, I had to locate and interview women who worked from home to liven up the drier facts and instructional aspect. Thankfully, I already knew several women who had at-home employment. Posting on a few relevant listservs pushed my total number of interviews to fifty.

Researching the book was like a scavenger hunt to uncover the most up-to-date data, and the actual writing was the biggest hurdle of all—not so much the stringing-together-of-sentences part, but the carving-out-time-to-sit-in-front-of-the-computer part. I became adept at snatching every spare moment I had, writing furiously in fifteen- to thirty-minute stretches, which was often the longest period of time I could find during the day. I sandwiched in phone interviews as my children napped. I edited pages sitting on a park bench while my youngsters played on the jungle gym.

Finally, I sent the book off to the publisher for the long wait until publication. Meanwhile, I found out we were expecting baby number four.

The publication date kept getting pushed back until it was smack up against my due date. On June 23, our fourth baby arrived, and when my husband went home from the hospital, he found a box of books on our doorstep—Hired@Home had arrived on the same day as our son.

I felt like the proud parent of two newborns, not just one. Having both events happen at the same time brought me more joy than one can imagine.

Along the journey to publication, I learned that it takes more than writing skills to make an author. It takes time management because there are never enough hours in the day in which to write. It takes perseverance because there will be numerous setbacks. It takes optimism that you can write, even when current circumstances make it seem impossible.

Today when people ask me as a mother of four children between the ages of three and nine how I find time to write, I usually say that I can’t not write, that to me, writing is as necessary as eating and breathing. I can’t fathom never picking up a pen and writing down my thoughts, my ideas and my stories.

Granted, there are times when life intervenes and my writing has to be put on the back burner for a while. But I’ve found that you can usually squeeze in a few minutes each day, each week or each month to write—even if it turns out to be only five minutes here or fifteen minutes there.

Like the pregnancy of a first child or a fourth, birthing a book involves careful forethought, followed by patience, and the expectation that the outcome will become all the hopes and dreams that went into its conception.

So far on my writing path, I’ve been “mother” to one published book, and the experience has made me look forward to future publishing “pregnancies.” An “only child” is a blessing in itself, but this parent wants a growing family.

This story originally appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers.

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A Full House

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By Sarah Hamaker

Like most families, mine is, well, a bit unusual. True, I have a father and a mother, who have been married for more than fifty years. But I have had more than forty siblings.

When I was child, I had two sisters and a brother who were many years older than me—fifteen, thirteen, and eleven years older, to be exact. So in grade school, I was an only child of sorts, who had older siblings drop by once in a while.

Soon after my twelfth birthday, my parents decided to fill our great, big house with more children in a rather unconventional way: as foster parents. Through the years, my mom and dad showed love to many children of all ages, whom they treated as part of the family. As for me, I gained numerous brothers and sisters—both older and younger.

There was Hope, who joined our family as a 16-year-old and ended up staying for two years. A few years after she left our house, she asked my father to walk her down the aisle at her wedding, a testimony to the special relationship she developed with my parents. Sandy, an eight-year-old with emotional problems, attached herself to me and sometimes would refuse to go to court-ordered counseling sessions unless I accompanied her.

There were newborn babies, like Mark and Stephen, whose smiles and coos are some of my happiest memories of those days. Then there were the twins, a brother and sister who were five months old when they arrived. They, like many foster children before them, ended up staying with us for more than two years and then becoming eligible for adoption. By this time, my parents already had raised four children and were grandparents, but they ended up adopting Jenny and James.

Much has been said about the importance—and necessity—of foster parenting, but being a sibling to foster brothers and sisters brought its own rewards. I reveled in being a big sister to countless children. However, it wasn’t always laughter and lightness. I had to share “my” things and “my” parents with other children, many of whom had no concept of family life.

Yes, there were times when I hated having strange kids in my house playing with my toys and interrupting my schedule. But my parents taught me that these relatively small sacrifices made a big difference in the lives of these neglected and abused kids. I had a real chance to make a difference, to show sisterly love and affection to children whose own families had not shown much love. With my parents’ encouragement, I could play a small role in helping to ease their pain and to show them that someone cared about them.

I also knew the love that my parents showered on these children in no way took away from their love and care for me. I never felt neglected or overlooked, no matter how packed the house became or how often I had to sacrifice my wants to their needs.

My parents raised foster children for three decades. Amazingly, many of those foster children who passed through our house—whether for a few months or a few years—kept in contact with my parents after they left. Some send annual Christmas cards, some call my parents regularly, and a few occasionally even visit—all a testimony to the love and impact my parents had on their lives.

Today, as I raise four young children of my own, I look forward to a time when me and my husband might reach out to other children in need of a temporary haven. I hope one day that I can pass along some of the things learned by watching my parents foster children and teach them about love and life.

This story originally appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family.

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A Tree Fell Through It

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By Sarah Hamaker

Brushing my teeth, I heard the scratching of what sounded like branches tickling the roof. I paused, wondering what it could be, given that no trees were close to our house. I attributed the sound to a stray branch that must have been flung up on our roof from Hurricane Isabel, which was blowing her way through our city in September 2003. Being pretty far inland, we were not too alarmed by this display of nature’s fury.

            Then I heard the faint sound of breaking glass. A split second later, the entire house shook. My husband and I stared at each other in frozen horror before bolting to check on our nearly 1-year-old daughter asleep in her crib across the hall. The sound had jolted her awake—never had a cry sounded so sweet—and my husband gratefully snatched her up and darted back to the relative safety of our room.

            Peeking down the darkened hallway, we could see remnants of our attic lying on the floor of our living room. After grabbing a few essentials, my husband ventured out, flipping on the hall light. The illuminated site of the destruction provided enough of a visual for us to safely pick our way out of the house and into the still raging hurricane.

            My husband started the car while I hurried across the street to let a neighbor know we were okay and were heading to a friend’s home. Shaking but grateful to be alive, we drove away, skirting fallen trees and downed power lines.

            The next morning, bright sunlight starkly contrasted with the storm’s destruction. We returned home to see what the dark and rain of the night before had hidden from view: A giant tulip poplar tree that used to reside in the center of our yard had effectively split our rambler in two, crashing through our kitchen window with its long branches extending over the front of our house.

            We had hoped to be able to get back inside to check on our cats, one of whom I had seen in the kitchen just moments before the tree fell but we were uncertain of the house’s stability. As we stood on the sidewalk gaping at the damage and wondering what to do, a local fire truck pulled up. The firefighters had heard about what happened at our house and informed us, with a note of awe, that our home had received the worst damage in the city. They volunteered to go inside to check for our cats, and we were thrilled when both felines were found unharmed, although plenty scared.

            In the days and weeks that followed, we remembered the feeling of relief when we realized that everyone in our lives who mattered was unscathed—me, my husband, our daughter and even our two pets. We clung to that memory as we navigated the long and sometimes exhausting road to recovery.

            Family, friends and neighbors—most of whom we hadn’t yet met given that we had moved in only six months earlier—expressed amazement at our calmness throughout the ordeal. Words cannot fully express how utterly grateful we were to God that He had spared our lives. Yes, we lost many things: books, toys, furniture, dishes, computers, and a fridge and freezer full of food. But those things were replaceable. Our home was rebuilt better than before—and I even had the chance to make a few kitchen renovations during the reconstruction.

            The damage inflicted by Hurricane Isabel—the costliest and deadliest hurricane in the 2003 Atlantic season—was temporary, but the opportunity to witness to God’s goodness in the midst of our trial is something we still cherish. When we meet neighbors for the first time, their eyes pop when they realize we live in “the house the tree fell through” years earlier.

            The storm and its damage may be years in our past, but every so often we pull out the photos of the tree’s destruction and marvel at how blessed we were—and still are. Whenever we begin to feel ungrateful or unsatisfied with what we have, those photos and memories offer a reminder of how we came through that trial. Especially during this time of economic uncertainty, reflecting on our close call with that tree makes us all the more thankful for our lives and for the things that matter most.

This story originally appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings.

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