I spent way to much time thinking (and way too little time sleeping) about which book should be the first to be reviewed on the blog. Kind of a big decisions, right? I can never do my first post over. While I’ve always been an avid reader, I have not always been an avid reader of Christian Fiction. A few years ago, we were in the middle of being foster parents to two high emotional needs kids and, as many mom do, I had lost a bit of myself by pouring everything into them. Then, my stupendous mom gave me a Nook and I decided I was going to do something for me: read. Having gotten burned by some random stories I wish I could unsee (you know the kind I mean!) I did a little research before buying my first book. Diligently I read reviews and researched author website to find a book I thought I’d enjoy and that wouldn’t veer into inappropriate territory.

Stealing the Preacher by Karen Witemeyer was that book. And little did I know that finishing that story would launch me into a world of avid readers who shared similar beliefs and awesome writers who cared and interacted with their readers/bloggers, lifting them up in faith while giving us great entertainment.

I didn’t realize until after I had finished Stealing The Preacher that it was not the first in the series, but that did not diminish the storyline at all. I was drawn from the very first page and I think I finished in within a couple of days. It was the perfect combination of action, comedy, and faith which allowed me to escape life for a little while and simply sit and enjoy something. Karen Witemeyer, I will be forever grateful for you for that.

On his way to interview for a position at a church in the Piney Woods of Texas, Crockett Archer can scarcely believe it when he’s forced off the train by a retired outlaw and presented to the man’s daughter as the minister she requested for her birthday. Worried this unfortunate detour will ruin his chances of finally serving a congregation of his own, Crockett is determined to escape. But when he finally gets away, he’s haunted by the memory of the young woman he left behind–a woman whose dreams now hinge on him.

For months, Joanna Robbins prayed for a preacher. A man to breathe life back into the abandoned church at the heart of her community. A man to assist her in fulfilling a promise to her dying mother. A man to help her discover answers to the questions that have been on her heart for so long. But just when it seems God has answered her prayers, it turns out the person is there against his will and has dreams of his own calling him elsewhere. Is there any way she can convince Crockett to stay in her little backwoods community? And does the attraction between them have any chance of blossoming when Joanna’s outlaw father is dead set against his daughter courting a preacher?

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