Book picks similar to
The Living End by Lisa Samson


christian-fiction
fiction
christian
grief

The Church Ladies


Lisa E. Samson - 2001
    When tragedy strikes one of their hometown sons, the church women are drawn together through compassion. The Church Ladies is a contemporary tale illustrating how women can have a major impact on the church. Through friendships that reach beneath surface level -- and trials more severe than simple -- they unite with common purpose: to pray, share, and comfort. Slowly, the community of believers learns that the church grows when it is rooted in love. Characters you'll laugh and cry with, in situations every woman will instantly relate to, light up this page-turner about a miracle that could happen anywhere.

The Rising: A Novel


Robert Ovies - 2014
    Walker touches the arm of his mother's dead friend at her wake service and whispers the wish that she wouldn't be dead, he's just trying to do the right thing. But when the undertaker sees the woman's rosary sliding off her outstretched fingers and tumbling down her raised left arm, the firestorm can't be held in check. Frightened people near and far demand to know how many of their own loved ones might have been buried alive by the same undertaker, or by any undertaker. But proof that C.J. Walker can indeed raise the dead is secretly videoed, then publicly aired. In a single morning, C.J.'s mother, Lynn, watches their home becoming a fortress and her son becoming a target. Grieving individuals desperate to see death let go of their loved ones; representatives from news, medical, and scientific organizations; influential religious representatives; and powerful government agencies all move in to gain maximum positions of influence over the greatest power on earth. Through the ordeal, Lynn and her separated husband, Joe, struggle to find a way to escape with C.J., to keep him hidden from every pursuer, and somehow to make it possible for him to live a normal life again. But to do it all they must act quickly, before he's stolen away by authorities in high places.

When the Last Leaf Falls


Bill Myers - 2001
    Henry's classic short story "The Last Leaf" begins with an adolescent girl, Ally, who is deathly ill and angry at God. Her grief stricken father is a pastor on the verge of losing his faith.

The Salt Garden


Cindy Martinusen Coloma - 2004
    There's Sophia, a reclusive author who retreated from the world after a tragic loss, Claire, a young journalist who's reluctantly returned to her home town, and Josephine, a passenger from the ill-fated ship.As they discover the truth about lost love and buried secrets, each woman finds hope, healing, and strength to face the future.

A Thousand Tomorrows


Karen Kingsbury - 2005
    Abandoned as a child by the person he needed the most, he swears he will never allow himself to love again. Ali Daniels denies love as well. Carrying a terrible secret, she lives life to the fullest, taking risks and refusing relationships. When Cody and Ali meet, their first instincts are to hide behind their emotional walls, seemingly doomed to repeat the patterns they have established for most of their lives. But their attraction is too strong, and soon they're doomed in another way, for neither can avoid falling in love, regardless of the consequences. Only after three years--a thousand tomorrows later--do they realize at what cost their relationship comes. In the end, they must decide if love is worth the ultimate price.

Refiner's Fire


Sylvia Bambola - 2000
    This book's "secret underground society" is not Nazi war criminals, however-it's the persecuted Christian church. Yuri and Alexander Deyneko, separated as teens in postwar times, are reunited thirty-five years later in 1980s Bucharest. Now on separate sides of Nicolae Ceausescu's Iron Curtain, the secret life of one brother, a top army official and clandestine Christian, and the ambition of the other- now the American Ambassador to Romania-puts them on a collision course with each other. Fates hang on an issue of conscience. Great writing propels readers through the plot toward a gripping climax.

Covenant Child: A Story of Promises Kept


Terri Blackstock - 2001
    She resolved to hope . . . and to fight for them to her last breath.Kara and Lizzie are heiresses to one of the largest fortunes in the country. But when their father dies suddenly, the toddlers are taken from the arms of Amanda, their loving stepmother, and given to relatives who only want the children’s fortune for themselves.Kara and Lizzie grow up questioning their worth . . . until the day when they learn the truth.Intensely involving, emotionally charged, and infused with hope, Covenant Child is an inspiring story that challenges us to embrace the life God holds out to us.“Blackstock is a masterful writer . . .” —Christian Retailing

Through a Glass Darkly


Gilbert Morris - 1999
    Some unlikely people gather around him to help him back into life, and then he meets a woman who touches his heart and who may be the key to his unknown past

Worlds Collide


Alison Strobel - 2005
    Some Will Change Your Life.While the headlines screamed “Hollywood Heartthrob Marries Girl Next Door,” the public relationship of Jack Harrington and Grace Winslowe never revealed the private struggles that threatened to pull them apart–and when celebrity biographer Jada Eastman starts digging, she discovers that there’s more to this couple than anyone could guess.Their relationship began like a scene from one of Jack’s movies. Leaving behind a dead-end relationship and the bitter Chicago winter, Grace had moved to Southern California to start a new life. Meanwhile, Jack had established himself as an up-and-comer with considerable acting talent, and a private heartache. When a fateful accident pulled the two of them together, they couldn’t avoid their initial attraction or the vast differences in their values and lifestyles.Now, against the backdrop of Beverly Hills and the 24/7 nature of the entertainment world, Jada grapples with her own beliefs as she encounters the spiritual chasm of this famous couple. Can Grace and Jack face the consequences of their own personal histories–and can the biographer avoid being affected? As the three of them examine the couple’s bittersweet story, it becomes clear that everyday decisions can carry lifetime consequences when individual worlds collide.

Eventide


Cindy McCormick Martinusen - 2006
    An Italian seaside village. Days of adventure and romantic exploration. Moonlight swims in a sparkling sea. A once-in-a-lifetime love. And though it ended in heartbreak, though she moved on to marry happily and have a son, Carrie never quite put that summer behind her. Now she's dying young and still haunted by thoughts of her long-ago love. Her best friend Lauren, determined to put Carrie's mind at ease, sets out to do something completely foreign to her own cautious, conservative nature.Out of love, Lauren will find and confront the man she despises, the man who broke her best friend's heart, the man who has spent the last twenty years running from his past. Out of love, she will journey alone to retrieve secrets left behind after that never-for-gotten summer. And somehow, she will set into motion events that change nothing . . . but transform everything.As the mysteries of twenty years unravel, as husband and son and friend and even a long-lost love converge to say goodbye, something unexpected unfolds.Another seaside adventure. Another moonlight swim. And somethow, even at eventide, the miracle of enduring grace.

Original Sin


Brandt Dodson - 2006
    But Angie looks like she could use a friend, so Colton has his first case.When the mystery is finally resolved, Colton is resigned to improve his parenting skills with his daughter--and while the pair still struggle with each other, "hope" finally gets a chance to grow.?First in the Colton Parker, P.I. series, from Brandt Dodson--a compelling new author with a family history in law enforcement spanning several generations.

The Note


Angela Elwell Hunt - 2001
    . .En route from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Tampa International, Flight 848 bursts into flames and crashes into Tampa Bay. All 261 passengers and crew are killed. For one week, newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder and her fellow reporters cover one of the nation's worst air disasters in years with overwhelming and numbed emotions.Then a woman Peyton's never met gives her a plastic bag that has washed up behind her house. The bag contains a note, almost certainly from the doomed flight, with a simple yet wrenching message: T- I love you. All is forgiven. -DadCombing through the passenger list to find the victims whose children's names begin with T, Peyton is determined to deliver the note to its proper owner. A quest which will prove as important to Peyton's own life as to the mysterious T.

Tristan's Gap


Nancy N. Rue - 2006
    Respected and admired for her obvious parenting success, she leads a popular mothers’ group at her church, passing along wisdom gained through years of experience. until she woke up in a mother’s worst nightmare. Then the unthinkable happens. Sixteen-year-old Tristan, the quiet “good girl” of the family, disappears–and the search brings to light unpleasant truths that prompt Serena to question nearly everything she believes about her children, her marriage, and her faith. “Where did we go wrong?” Brokenhearted by her daughter’s behavior and her husband’s angry response, Serena struggles to see God’s hand of grace in their lives. Initially determined to rescue Tristan from whatever trouble she’s in, Serena learns the painful lesson that true strength won’t be found in regaining control of her daughter’s choices but in finally learning when to let go.

October Baby


Eric Wilson - 2012
    Hannah soon learns from her parents she was adopted and is the survivor of a failed abortion attempt.Bewildered, angry, and confused, Hannah turns for support to her oldest friend, Jason. Encouraged by his adventurous spirit, she joins his friends on a road trip, embarking on a journey to discover her hidden past and find hope for the unknown future.Along the way, Hannah finds that every life is beautiful, and that life can be so much more than what we might have planned.

Riders of the Pale Horse


T. Davis Bunn - 1994
    State Department Official, 1992). This quote from the original edition of Riders of the Pale Horse introduces the story of two young Americans, a foreign-service officer and a mission volunteer who cross paths near the Afghanistan border on very different assignments and yet with a common goal: to stop nuclear materials from falling into terrorists' hands. High-stakes political and spiritual conflict keep readers on the edge of their seat in this suspenseful story.