Langley Taft is a firm believer in the narrow way. She trained to work alongside her father in their lumber dynasty and married the man of her parents’ choosing. A man who turned around and issued her a humiliating divorce. Left alone to raise her sister’s illegitimate son, she defies her family to do what she knows is right: deliver the baby to his father—even if that man is Wilder Monaghan, the irresponsible heir to a rival lumber company who lives on the other side of the country. And who happens to be the scoundrel she once fancied in her youth.
A lover of adventure, opportunity, and all things exciting, Wilder isn’t prepared for the surprise appearance of the son he thought was dead, or for the woman who shows up with her life shaded by unjust accusations but determined to help him raise his son. Parenting alongside the stringent Langley might be his most challenging adventure yet. Or his most rewarding, provided he can teach her how to have fun and in the process win her affections. But why would a studious, responsible woman like Langley Taft look twice at him, a reprobate trying to find his course back to the narrow way?
As secrets are revealed, driving a wedge between Wilder and Langley, they both must humble themselves to receive a gift they did not earn, a gift not bought with money or charm: the gift of a second chance.
A native of Washington State, Sondra Kraak grew up playing in the rain, hammering out Chopin at the piano, and running up and down the basketball court. After attending Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, she moved to North Carolina to work for a small non-profit ministry. It was in the backroom of that office, amid the clamor of copy machines and printers, that love blossomed. She married her mountain man in 2004, and they spent the first season of their marriage in New England where Sondra attended Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and graduated with her Masters of Biblical Studies.
Now settled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, she works part-time at her church doing worship ministry and leading Bible studies. Life at home with her husband and two children is full of board games, four square competitions, read-aloud-marathons, and magically multiplying loads of laundry.
She writes historical romance set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, through which her passion and delight is to provide readers with stories that not only entertain but nourish the soul. Her debut novel, One Plus One Equals Trouble, was a Genesis semi-finalist and the winner of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference Unpublished Women’s Fiction Award.
‘If he could change one thing about his life, he’d change the silence of God.’
Wilder has a reputation as a fun loving young man, never serious. But Wilder knows his flaws–after all, he has an illegitimate son. Wilder has his hidden pain that hinders him from achieving the holiness he so desperately seeks from God.
Langley knows she is rigid and judgmental at times, but letting to is so very hard for her. These two people want to change but sometimes the pull to flesh is hard to combat. However, God’s grace truly is sufficient and Wilder and Langley are recipients of that grace in the most wonderful of ways.
Sondra Kraak has certainly done a wonderful job in the fifth book in this series. Heart-deep and full, this one will linger in your heart and mind a while. Recommended.
*My thanks to the author for an early copy of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.
Publication Date: September 15, 2020
Length: 458 pages
Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CCQ6RM7/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
Simply Susan 