Ginny struggles to make the holidays joyful for the residents, while still mourning the death of her fiancé. Edith and Frank decide it’s time for an intervention. The two conspire to play matchmaker between Ginny and Chester. The task isn’t an easy one. Ginny must find a way to let go of her grief and Chester’s past may stop any romance from growing. But the two matchmakers are nothing if not persistent. They’ve lived too long, and learned too much, to give up hope. They know that barren winter trees bloom again in the spring and everyone deserves a second chance at love. Semi-finalist Christian Writers Guild’s Operation First Novel Contest 2010

    Did she make a mistake? Her engagement off, Zoe Griffin retreats to tiny Wildflower Island in the Puget Sound. Hiding out as a cook and maid at a shabby bed-and-breakfast seems crazy for a chef who’s used to running her own five-star kitchen. And just as she starts to feel at home, her klutzy mishaps make Zoe fear her handsome new boss will fire her. Dr. Nick Jackson is done with medicine, and owning a B&B is as far from doctoring as he can get. He needs help, but his only employee’s mistakes give him doubts. As Zoe lets her defenses down, Nick begins to see a competent and caring woman. One whose wounds are as deep as his own. But as they fall for each other, Nick and Zoe must learn the hardest lesson of all—to forgive. Only then can they heal the past and embrace the future . . . together. Author Bio Kimberly Rose Johnson, soon to be empty-nester, lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their yellow lab. Island Refuge is her sixth published book and the first in a series of three. Kimberly enjoys long walks, chocolate, and mochas, not necessarily in that order.

    On the cusp of adulthood, eighteen-year-old Penny Carson is swept off her feet by a handsome farmhand with a confident swagger. Though Trent Taylor seems like Prince Charming and offers an escape from her one-stop-sign town, Penny’s happily-ever-after lasts no longer than their breakneck courtship. Before the ink even dries on their marriage certificate, he hits her for the first time. It isn’t the last, yet the bruises that can’t be seen are the most painful of all.When Trent is injured in a welding accident and his paycheck stops, he has no choice but to finally allow Penny to take a job cleaning houses. Here she meets two women from very different worlds who will teach her to live and laugh again, and lend her their backbones just long enough for her to find her own.Gina Holmes ’ stunning literary talent glistens like crystal in Wings of Glass. With subtle brilliance, she takes us into the very heart of what makes us hungry to love and be loved. Simply stellar!” Susan Meissner, Author of A Sound Among the Trees

    She cannot bear the thought of accidentally destroying another man’s life again.Then she meets Hank Johnson. At first, the new fourth-grade teacher gets on Sheila’s nerves, especially after a run-in between one of his students and one of her Kindergarteners. But Hank’s rugged handsomeness and fun-loving personality begin to win Sheila over when he ends up one day after school, helping her to search for her favorite student, Diana, who mysteriously goes missing.Sheila’s faith in God compels her to take a personal interest in Dianas’s broken home life, and at the same time makes her begin to wonder if Hank might be part of God’s plan for her life.But while Hank attends church and seems to have his own brand of faith, he is hiding his own past tragedy that has caused him to doubt God’s love for him during the past several years. So when Sheila’s heart begins to lead her in the direction of missions, Hank abruptly drops his relationship with her. But it cannot end there. A mysterious envelope that Hank has forgotten about turns out to be an intricate and shocking connection between both their tragic paths. Will Sheila ever receive the forgiveness she desperately needs? Will Hank ever admit his love for Sheila – and shake off the past hurt that threatens to keep them apart? “The Envelope” weaves together the lives of one man, one woman and an innocent five-year-old girl to bring about a heart wrenching story of healing, forgiveness and God’s persistent love.

    Five lives irrevocably change when their greatest longings become their new reality–and for one, vice versa.The Journey of Dreams series is Contemporary Christian Fantasy, exploring the delights of our hearts and how the Lord meets them.-------------------------------In my dreams, I had always imagined wandering through meadows of golden, calf-high grasses that swayed in a gentle breeze. The dream recurred often—one I’d loved since my childhood. Sitting on the fire escape of our fourth-floor apartment in Pittsburgh, I’d escape into the woods of Wisconsin, the prairies of Kansas, and eventually the little town of De Smet, South Dakota, as I lived and breathed the adventures of Laura Ingalls. However, of all those places, the Kansas prairie somehow infused itself into my soul. I dreamt of the swoosh of the grasses, the musical sound of the cottonwoods when their leaves rustled in summer winds, and clear skies with only small tufts of clouds to mar their azure perfection...Some things we read in books, whether prose or poetry, and think we understand. However, until you’ve stood in a sea of grasses undulating like the waves of the ocean in the morning breeze, you cannot possibly begin to understand what the phrase, “sea of grass” means. As I stood, watching the rise and fall of the blades dancing in unison to a tune inaudible to me, a rush of contentment washed over me. In this vast sea of nothingness, I knew I had come home.---------------------------------------Jessa Davidson enjoyed a lifelong fascination and desire for life on the prairie. However, she never expected that fascination to become reality. A far cry from her apartment in Pittsburgh, the world of Prairie is more than just a change in geography--it's a change of life. In Prairie, Jessa examines the innermost parts of her soul and discovers desires she never knew she had. From the moment she awoke, transported from the cold Pennsylvania winter, on the sunbathed summer prairie, she knew her life would never be the same.The people of Prairie welcomed her and accepted her--almost without question, but so much of her life changed in that moment--her hopes, dreams, values, and the absolutes of things like time--that she feared accepting her new life as reality.Is Prairie the dreams of her life come true--or her worst nightmare> Is it real? Is it permanent? Or will she awake to discover that she's lost her mind--or worse, her life?And the biggest question on Jessa's heart? Does she care?

    Not only does she catch her boyfriend, the man she hoped to marry, lip-locked with another woman, she also receives the gut-wrenching news that her grandfather, the man who raised her, is dying. His last wish? To see her happily married. Heartbroken, Becky seeks inspiration in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. And finds it in the story of Isaac and Rebekah. If love couldn't keep his parents together, Luke Masterson wonders what will make a marriage last. He decides to steer clear of all women—especially crazy ones like Becky Sawyer, who employs a friend to find her a husband. But when he feels the dogged promptings of the Holy Spirit to move across the country and marry a complete stranger, it seems love has little to do with it anyway. With commitment their only foundation, and love constantly thwarted, can an arranged marriage find happiness in the twenty-first century?

    Its quirky characters and their many shenanigans will make you laugh out loud as they touch a place in your heart.Even though retirement is still three years away, Al Richardson is counting the days. He anticipates many enjoyable years in which every day feels like Saturday. But Al's wife, Millie, has different plans for their retirement. When she learns that a Victorian-era home is up for sale, Millie launches a full-blown campaign to convince Al that God's plan for them is to turn that house into a B&B.But a B&B won't be the only change for the small Kentucky town. A new veterinarian has hung up her shingle, but she's only got one patient--the smelly dog belonging to her part-time receptionist. And sides are being taken in the issue of the water tower, which needs a new coat of paint...but no one can agree who should paint it.The situation is coming to a head. Who could have imagined a town protest over a water tower? And who would believe it could culminate in an illegal parade?Get lost in a novel that reminds you why you love reading.

    Never did he expect to find the unplanned result of that fling - a healthy, wailing baby named Samantha - strapped into a car seat on his back porch, along with a suitcase full of diapers and infant apparel and a note informing Jamie that he’s her father.Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t. But first things first. He’s never fed a baby or changed a diaper in his life. He doesn’t own a crib or a stroller. In a panic, he phones the nearest hospital, where neonatal nurse Allison Winslow takes his call and tells him about a class she teaches called the Daddy School.Classes on how to be a dad are exactly what Jamie needs. But when he attends his first class and sees the tall, earnest, amazingly beautiful and even more amazingly competent Allison, he realizes that he might just need more from her than her lectures on how to hold a baby.Jamie’s efforts to be a father to this precious baby touch Allison. His sense of humor amuses her. His striking good looks turn her on. But how can she trust the sort of guy who’d sleep with a stranger on vacation, without giving a thought to the consequences? How can she give her heart to such a reckless man?

     Preston Barclay is a self-made recluse (and he likes it that way). Teaching college history allows him time to grieve the loss of his pianist wife and find relief from the musical hallucinations that have been playing in his head since her death. But when he and a headstrong colleague, Mara Thorn, discover the body of another instructor on campus, Press's monotonous solitude is shaken up. The preliminary evidence points to Press and Mara. Now they must take some chances, including trusting each other (and bending the rules) to build their own defense. With their unlikely alliance, they must stay ahead of the police, the college's incompetent administration, and whoever is trying to get away with murder. If not, they might end up unemployed, behind bars, or worse . . .

    Her mother, Babs, is a stiletto-wearing Zsa Zsa Gabor type who works as an activities hostess on a Caribbean cruise line...and if you guessed there's some tension there, you'd be right. Factor in an unexpected pregnancy and Mia's idealistic boyfriend, and the mother-daughter relationship is, well, stretched very thin. As is Mia's sanity when Babs shows up to...help. Actually, Mia has a whole neighborhood of quirky characters who want to help, including her BFF, Frankie, a magenta-haired librarian; Silas, the courtly gentleman of indeterminate age who lives downstairs; and Adam, proprietor of the corner grocery store where Mia shops. But it's Adam-endearing, kind, possessed of a perfect smile and impeccable Persian manners-who ultimately charms Babs and rescues Mia from more than one mother-induced meltdown. Could it be that Mia and Babs might actually be able to get along? With Kimberly Stuart's trademark irreverent humor and a surprising and satisfying take on romance, Stretch Marks is an authentic but tender story about family, grace, and the importance of a good grocer.

    So when vandals romp through the local cemetery, she takes advantage of her newfound anonymity and its unforeseen advantages as she launches her own unofficial investigation.Despite her oddball humor and unconventional snooping, Ivy soon becomes discouraged by her failure to turn up any solid clues. And after Ivy witnesses something ominous and unexplained, she can't resist putting her investigative powers to work again. Even the authorities' attempts to keep Ivy out of danger and her nosy neighbor's match-making schemes can't slow her down. But will the determination that fuels this persistent, quirky sleuth threaten her very safety?

    Their marriage might have survived if their daughter Lacey hadn't died . . . and if Greg hadn't been responsible. Libby enlists the aid of her wilderness savvy father-in-law and her faith-walking best friend to help her search for clues to her husband's disappearance...if for no other reason than to free her to move on. What the trio discovers in the search upends Libby's presumptions about her husband and rearranges her faith.

    On the surface, nothing seems to change in this dull town-yet God always works beneath the surface.

    Probably not in retrospect. In my defense I had just moved back into my grandparent’s house, I’d lost my dream job, and a guy on Tinder had stood me up. It was like life had suddenly stamped ‘LOSER’ on my forehead. So when the guy behind the bar started giving me THE look…you know, the one that promised I’d be screaming his name into the wee hours of the morning? When that guy also has the perfect amount of scruff on his chiseled chin, biceps bulging out of his t-shirt, and a cocky grin you knew he’d earned in the sack…when he gives you that look, you don’t bother to figure out what your six degrees of separation are. You jump on that horse and ride it! Pun fully and completely intended. And accurate by the way. I fully admit to feeling sorry for myself and acting impulsively, but by the time I’d figured out WHO the bartender was, I was already falling for him.

     His grace alone gave her the strength to raise her children -- a sweet angel with cerebral palsy as well as a daughter who wants nothing more than to serve God as a missionary on foreign soil. Gloria couldn’t be prouder of her girls, but a future without them both by her side sounds empty and hollow. When God thrusts a godly man like Derek into her path, Gloria isn't sure she’s ready to jump headfirst into a relationship. But maybe God’s giving her the chance for a happily ever after … a second time around.