Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Christian fiction

If you give me a book by Jody Hedlund …

If you give me a book by Jody Hedlund, I will want to start reading it right away. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

If I start reading it right away, I will let the children play anywhere in the house.

If I let the children play anywhere in the house, the house will get messy.

I will feel guilty and want to clean.

I will help them pick up,

Make them dinner,

And put them in bed as early as possible so I can get back to my book.

If the kids are in bed and the house is quiet, I will keep reading.

I will stay up too late.

In the morning, I will need extra coffee to start my day.

If I’m drinking coffee, I will need a book to read.

So I’ll continue reading the new  Jody Hedlund book.

NobleGroom_mck.indd

One cup of coffee will turn to two.

And soon it’s midmorning and I haven’t washed a dish or folded a piece of laundry.

I will Tweet the author to tell her my house is being ignored because her book is so good.

She will have no sympathy and tell me I can clean later.

clean later

I will turn on cartoons so the kids will leave me alone to finish the book.

I will set the book down a dozen times near the end to wait on them.

When I read the last word, I will close the book,

And sigh.

I will plunge my hands in the dishwater and feel a sense of loss.

Because if I finish a Jody Hedlund book,

chances are,

I’ll want to read another one.

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I received a copy of A Noble Groom from the author in exchange for my review, which you can find here on Goodreads or here on Amazon.

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Post written with admiration for Laura Numeroff’s brilliant “If You Give a …” series of books.

How a question led to a story: Review of You Don't Know Me by Susan May Warren

Imagine you’re sitting on a plane and the woman sitting next to you is visibly upset. You’re naturally curious and compassionate, so you ask a question or two: How are you? and Why are you on this flight? The woman says she’s on the way to see her daughter, who is going into a federal witness protection program. She’s saying “good-bye.” Forever.

That happened to author Susan May Warren, and she turned the experience into a book, You Don’t Know Me, the sixth novel set in the fictional Minnesota town of Deep Haven. you dont know me cover

In the close-knit town, Annalise Decker is a devoted wife, supportive mother and community activist. Her husband is running for mayor, and life, from the outside, looks perfect. Then a federal agent shows up with news that could wreck her world: the man she testified against 20 years ago is out of jail and seeking revenge. And Annalise’s carefully guarded secret, that her real name is Deidre O’Reilly and she’s in the Witness Security Program, is in danger of being made known. She has to decide if she’ll give up the life she’s built on a lie to protect her family or entrust herself to the grace and love of her family and the protection of God.

I picked this book up on sale for Kindle before Christmas last year. I’ve read one other Deep Haven book and a novella, both of which made me eager to pick up another one in the series. Though they all take place in Deep Haven, you don’t have to read all of them or have read them in order. I’m not even sure which ones I’ve missed, but each time I’ve taken the trip to Deep Haven through Warren’s novels, I’ve not been disappointed.

Warren blends suspense, humor, romance and inspiration like a perfectly seasoned soup. Her stories are warm, comforting, hearty and keep you coming back for more.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to say good-bye to your family forever, start a new life and then have that life threatened. Annalise’s choices are not easy and Warren makes her struggle real to the rest of us, who probably will never have to face that kind of choice.

I appreciated, too, that this story was borne out of something that really happened to someone through an encounter the author had in real life. As a writer, that inspires me, because I see stories everywhere. Warren’s tale is encouraging in so many ways. It’s not fluff; it’s tough.

And more often than not, I’m loving books that aren’t afraid to go deep.

Check out the first chapter and see if a trip to Deep Haven is in order.