Book picks similar to
Reason to Breathe by Deborah Raney


christian-fiction
contemporary
fiction
inspirational

We Hope for Better Things


Erin Bartels - 2019
    But when she loses her job after a botched investigation, she suddenly finds herself with nothing but time.At her great-aunt's 150-year-old farmhouse, Elizabeth uncovers a series of mysterious items, locked doors, and hidden graves. As she searches for answers to the riddles around her, the remarkable stories of two women who lived in this very house emerge as testaments to love, resilience, and courage in the face of war, racism, and misunderstanding. And as Elizabeth soon discovers, the past is never as past as we might like to think.Debut novelist Erin Bartels takes readers on an emotional journey through time--from the volatile streets of 1960s Detroit to the Underground Railroad during the Civil War--to uncover the past, confront the seeds of hatred, and discover where love goes to hide.

The Watch on the Fencepost


Kay Dibianca - 2019
    . .     This award-winning mystery/romance is the ultimate puzzle!      A mysterious gold watch propels Kathryn Frasier into a quest to prove her parents' recent deaths were not an accident. But when she solves the mystery behind the watch, she uncovers a dark family secret and stumbles onto a trail of cryptic clues that lead her to a remarkable cast of characters, all of whom had a connection to her parents: an actress with a talent for disguises, a politician with a secret of his own, and a handsome businessman who shows a sudden romantic interest in Kathryn.            But can she solve the mystery before she becomes the next victim?

Once Upon a Laugh


Pepper D. Basham - 2018
    Some of your favorite inspirational authors have come together in this collection of all-new novellas.From light-hearted romance to laugh-out-loud love, this set will put a smile on your face and keep you reading long into the night.Jane by the Book by award-winning author Pepper BashamShe lives by the plans. He talks to imaginary characters. Can they team up to solve a family mystery?Crossed Out by USA Today bestselling author Christina CoryellRuth Erickson always spends her morning break doing the crossword puzzle. Tate Darrow just messed it up. What’s that old saying about love and war?If She Dares by Mikal DawnHe’s a board game champion, but can he win her heart?Definitely by award-winning author Heather GrayDating isn’t on her to-do list. Dating a pastor? Definitely not.Under the Honey Moon by Jessica R. PatchA honeymoon cottage reunites a pair of childhood friends. Can it offer them a future filled with happily-ever-after?A (wildly) Wonderful Wedding by Krista PhillipsThey may be the worst maid of honor and best man in the history of weddings…Save the Last Word by award-winning author Betsy St. AmantWhen conventional meets creative, who will get the last word?The Long Game by award-winning author Laurie TomlinsonWhoever said all is fair in love and war never dealt with small-town football…

Bringing Maggie Home


Kim Vogel Sawyer - 2017
    While berry picking in a blackberry thicket in 1943, ten-year old Hazel momentarily turns her back on her three-year old sister Maggie and the young girl disappears. Almost seventy years later, the mystery remains unsolved and the secret guilt Hazel carries has alienated her from her daughter Diane, who can’t understand her mother’s overprotectiveness and near paranoia. While Diane resents her mother’s inexplicable eccentricities, her daughter Meghan—a cold case agent—cherishes her grandmother’s lavish attention and affection.   When a traffic accident forces Meghan to take a six-week leave-of-absence to recover, all three generations of DeFord women find themselves unexpectedly under the same roof. Meghan knows she will have to act as a mediator between the two headstrong and contentious women. But when they uncover Hazel’s painful secret, will Meghan also be able to use her investigative prowess to solve the family mystery and help both women recover all that’s been lost?

Hallowed Halls


Hannah Alexander - 2014
    Joy Gilbert is fired from a lucrative position she hates in the city, she returns to her small hometown to find her former fiance single, her once vivacious mother struggling financially and physically, and Tressa, the 15-year-old daughter of the boss who just fired her, popping out of the back door of her car. Tressa refuses to return to the city, where her divorced parents struggle emotionally over the death of their son. When Dr. Zack Tyler sees Joy walk into the ER with the daughter of the man who lured Joy away from him, he's hesitant, though he's overjoyed to see her again. Out of compassion, he hires her in the ER so she can support herself and her mother, and their relationship blooms.Meanwhile, Tressa has blackouts that grow increasingly bad. Joy and Zack rediscover their love for one another as they discover what caused the break-up. Together they work to save Tressa and uncover a rare genetic defect, a mystery that has ravaged decades of Tressa's family line.

Finding Jeena


Miralee Ferrell - 2010
    . . in short, a new life. But when rumors around town cast her boss in a shady light, Jeena starts questioning her employer's integrity. Still, the money is good and his ethics aren't her concern. Right? Wrong. The rumors are just the beginning. Jeena's boss disappears just when hush-hush phone calls, unpaid salaries, and piles of bills attract the attention of federal authorities. Then, Jeena's carefully crafted world begins to crumble and her struggle with alcohol rears its ugly head. Shaken to the core as she faces financial and emotional ruin, Jeena is confronted with her prejudices--and with a God she had long forgotten.

A Season to Wed: Three Winter Love Stories


Cindy Kirk - 2015
    Now twelve new couples will find themselves in the wedding spotlight in the second Year of Weddings novella collection.Love at Mistletoe Inn by Cindy KirkSometimes the road to happiness is paved with youthful mistakes.Ten years after what she thought was her almost-wedding, Hope Prentiss discovers that the ceremony counted—and, as fate would have it, the jilted John Burke has just ridden back into town. After spending some time with John and helping plan a Christmas wedding for a mystery couple, Hope begins to wonder if she really wants a divorce . . . or a real wedding of her own.A Brush with Love by Rachel HauckRevealing the beauty in other women might be Ginger Winters’s specialty—but it will take an unexpected kind of love to help Ginger see the beauty in herself.Ginger Winters will be the “beauty-maker” for the Alabama society wedding of the decade.But when high-school crush Tom Wells shows up looking for a haircut, Ginger’s thinly veiled insecurities threaten to keep her from love once again . . . despite Tom’s best efforts.Serving Up a Sweetheart by Cheryl WyattMeadow knows how to serve delicious food to match any wedding theme. But can she accept love when it's served up on a silver platter?Meadow Larson is having the mother of all Mondays when her roof caves in during a blizzard, right before the most important wedding contract of her career.Renovation contractor Colin McGrath offers to fix Meadow’s roof, even though he knows he is the last person she would accept help from.But the more Meadow gets to know the new Colin, the more she realizes God may have something more permanent in store than a new catering kitchen.

Before I Called You Mine


Nicole Deese - 2020
    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.Joshua may be a substitute teacher by day, but Lauren finds his passion for creating educational technology as fascinating as his antics in the classroom. Though she does her best to downplay the undeniable connection between them, his relentless pursuit of her heart puts her commitment to stay unattached to the test and causes her once-firm conviction to waver.With an impossible decision looming, Lauren might very well find herself choosing between the two deepest desires of her heart . . . even if saying yes to one means letting go of the other.

Mistaken: First Impressions Are Never What They Seem


Karen Barnett - 2013
    Convinced that handsome newcomer Daniel Shepherd is connected with her brother s rum-running gang, Laurie quickly scratches his name off her list. Daniel has mixed feelings about returning to the dirty mill town of his youth, but grudgingly agrees to manage his grandfather s drug store until a replacement can be found. The moment he meets Laurie on the windswept bluff overlooking the beach, he knows that if he can earn her love, he might have a reason to stay. But when Laurie pushes him away--for none other than Federal Agent Samuel Brown--Daniel wonders if Laurie really is the upstanding woman he thought her to be. The Strait of Juan de Fuca, just off the beaches of Port Angeles, Washington, was treacherous water for reckless rum-runners and the agents who tried to catch them. So when she realizes her brother is in danger, romance is the last thing on Laurie's mind. Yet the people she believes she can trust, may not be so honorable after all.

Not Without You


Harriet Evans - 2013
    But she hasn’t been called that for years, not since she became an A-list movie star. Living in Los Angeles, she can forget all about the life she left behind in England. But she's lost something of herself in the process, too.Glamorous 1950s starlet Eve Noel had none of Sophie's modern self-confidence. She didn’t choose her name. A Hollywood producer did. In fact, he made all her decisions - what to wear, when to smile, who to love. Right up until the day she simply vanished from the spotlight. No one knows where she went, or why.As Sophie’s perfect-on-the-outside world begins to crumble, her present collides with Eve's past, She must unravel the mystery around her idol's disappearance before it's too late for them both.

Perfectly Impossible


Elizabeth Topp - 2020
    An artist at heart, Anna works a day job as a private assistant for Bambi Von Bizmark, a megarich Upper East Side matriarch who’s about to be honored at the illustrious Opera Ball.Caught between the staid world of great wealth and her unconventional life as an artist, Anna struggles with her true calling. If she’s supposed to be a painter, why is she so much more successful as a personal assistant? When her boyfriend lands a fancy new job, it throws their future as a couple into doubt and intensifies Anna’s identity crisis. All she has to do is ensure everything runs smoothly and hold herself together until the Opera Ball is over. How hard could that be?Featuring a vibrant array of characters from the powerful to the proletarian, Perfectly Impossible offers a glimpse into a world you’ll never want to leave.

The Abolitionist's Daughter


Kathleen L. Maher - 2018
    Horse traders from Virginia, Ethan Sharpe and his brother Devon would defend their livelihood from her interfering kind. When love ignites, friends become enemies separated over the course of a long and brutal conflict. Can the very influences which carved a chasm unite a torn family against all odds?

The Janus Journals


H.L. Wegley - 2019
    When her father is murdered, he left her with a warning, an assassin on her trail, and his secret history contained in a set of journals. As Allie tries to elude the assassin and read the journals, she learns that the loving father who raised her was not the man he appeared to be, and the man she must now trust with her life is someone Allie must never trust with her heart.At strong safety, Grady Jamison could defend against opponents in the red zone, but he couldn't stop the drunk driver who hit his car and killed his sister. Does Allie Petrenko's call for help mean Grady has been given a second chance, a chance to do things right? Once again, he's defending in the red zone. And he must not let the world-class assassin score, because the goal line marks the end of Allie Petrenko's life.The Janus Journals, set in Virginia and near Lake Chelan in Washington State, is high-action romantic suspense at its best. The dual timeline will take you on an epic journey through the twilight years of the Cold War that reshaped one man's destiny while creating deadly tentacles, reaching into the present, threatening an innocent young woman.

Hurricane Allie


Rachel Hauck - 2013
    As Allie rushes through wedding preparations days before her wedding, Kyle makes a last minute trip to New York to secure a new client. Meanwhile, a hurricane bears down on the coast days before their wedding. Is it a bad sign the storm is named Allie? Stuck in New York, Kyle struggles to find a way home. Meanwhile, Allie scrambles to find Plan B. Her perfect wedding is ruined but not even the forces of nature can stop a wedding that was meant to be.

Long Time Coming


Vanessa Miller - 2010
    Kenisha Smalls has lived in poverty all her life. She has three children by three different men and has just been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. While the meeting between these two women appears accidental, it becomes their catalyst of hope. Neither woman expects the blessing that God has in store for her. While Deidre guides Kenisha on the path to eternal life with Jesus Christ, Kenisha teaches Deidre how to stand strong against the storms of life.