Things are heating up in Carr Valley. Listen in as Amanda Cabot and I chat about mysteries and the way sometimes chosen family is exactly what we need.

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This Sisters of the Heart series is a beautiful testimony to the grace of God bringing people together in order to be able to support one another at just the right time.

I love my chats with Amanda, and this one was no exception.

Whispers in the Valley by Amanda Cabot

A woman whose life is in shambles. A man who's fighting for his future. A decades-old mystery. Carr Valley will never be the same.

Victoria Holton has it all, or so it seems: beauty, a doting father, betrothal to one of Philadelphia's most eligible bachelors. But all that ends the day her father is imprisoned for embezzlement. Suddenly penniless and shunned because of her father's crime, she flees to Carr Valley, hoping to find refuge with Sophia, her sister of the heart.

With her life upended, Victoria longs to find a new purpose, but what can she do? She wishes she could solve a decades-old mystery that's haunting a newfound friend, but the only clue leads nowhere. Her attempts at housekeeping in Sophia's hotel are laughable, and despite a number of would-be suitors, she has no intention of marrying. The only man who interests her is one she could never consider, for if there's one thing Victoria knows, it's that she is not meant to be a minister's wife.

Pastor Peter Mulholland has never doubted his calling to the ministry … until now. Even though he can't please everyone, he refuses to let the deacons' demand that he marry determine his future. He knows the kind of wife they expect him to choose, and it's not a woman like Victoria. Besides, what does he have to offer her? Perhaps his critics are right, and it's time for him to leave Carr Valley.

But then a stranger arrives and the whispers begin.

Learn more about Amanda on her WEBSITE and follow her on GoodReads and BookBub.

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Laurie Christine's Dragon Slayer Bible series is such a cool concept. Bible stories retold as fantasy elements? Yes, please Listen in and learn what happens when Shem's father is too busy building a boat than to teach him the warrior skills he'll need.

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This conversation was so cool. I really love what Laurie does with her imagination--finding ways to tell the stories that are somehow fantastical adventure tales AND open eyes to the themes in the Bible that sometimes kids miss in reading the stories. That they're told as stories rather than Scripture helps keep confusion from setting in, which I also appreciate.

Land of Giants: A Dragon Slayer Bible Story by Laurie Christine

A secret alliance, A dangerous mission, A deadly enemy.

Twelve-year-old Shem wants one thing—to become a warrior. But his father, Noah, is too busy building a giant ark to train him. The world mocks his family, and Shem is tired of feeling left out and embarrassed. He's ready to trade his tools for a sword and show the Cobras, the toughest gang in the city, that he's not just some weird kid with a crazy dad.

When Shem makes a secret deal with the son of a family rival, he finally gets the training he's always wanted. But something isn't right. Monstrous giants called Nephilites have invaded the land. And the dragon they serve is more dangerous than Shem ever imagined. If Shem wants to protect his family, he'll have to learn what it really means to be a warrior.

Land of Giants is an action-packed Biblical adventure, perfect for readers who long to battle dragons, defy giants, and discover the true strength that comes from the King.

Learn more about Laure on her WEBSITE or at Dragonslayerbible.com and follow her on GoodReads.

Don't miss her first interview HERE.

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As heartbreaking as it is, everyone knows someone who has or is battling some addiction or another. Heather Greer has tackled that heartbreak in her new release. Listen in to see why I'm ready to dive into this book.

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Tackling a topic like addiction is hard enough without adding romance and the turmoil of deciding if loving a friend is safe enough to trust your heart, too.

Addiction, comes in many forms, drugs, alcohol, gambling, pornography--so many forms even shopping!

Hope Even After by Heather Greer

Loving him was never the problem.
Living with the addiction was.

In a small Illinois town, Daisy Taylor has loved her best friend Luke Masters since high school. But when grief drove Luke away from faith and into alcohol, Daisy learned an impossible truth: loving someone does not mean you can save them. Hoping for more than friendship felt risky, especially when the man she loved stopped believing in God and in himself.

Luke once trusted faith. After devastating loss, he decided it was nothing more than a crutch, and the bottle became his refuge. But when he crosses a line he cannot undo, Luke is forced to confront his addiction and begin the slow, humbling road toward sobriety.

As Luke fights for recovery, Daisy walks a razor's edge, loving someone in recovery without rescuing him, supporting him without losing herself, and guarding a heart she buried years ago. Old feelings resurface. Faith is tested. And the future she once mourned threatens to reappear—fragile and uncertain.

Hope Even After is a faith-filled story of second chances, hard-earned healing, and the quiet courage it takes to trust God when answers do not come easily. With emotional depth and a gentle thread of romance, this novel explores boundaries, grace, and what it means to hope wisely rather than desperately.

Perfect for readers who enjoy thoughtful, faith-centered novels like Still of Night, Where Grace Appears, Night Songs, and The Divine Proverb of Streusel.

If you believe hope can survive loss, love can grow with boundaries, and faith can rise even after disappointment, begin this redemptive story today.

Learn more on Heather's WEBSITE and follow on GoodReads and BookBub.

Like to listen on the go? You can find Because Fiction Podcast at:

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