About the Book

 

Book: Faith’s Journey

Author: Heather Greer

Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance

Release Date: February, 2018

Sometimes it’s the unexpected path that leads you on your journey back to faith. Katie McGowan left her parents and their faith behind years ago. However, when faced with a devastating betrayal, Katie is ready to go back to Carbondale, Illinois to help her elderly parents despite their tempestuous relationship. Drained by the constant friction, Katie finds emotional support and encouragement in Austin. His practical, simple faith speaks to Katie, and she finds herself yearning for a new connection to God. As their friendship grows, so does the attraction between Katie and Austin. 

Before her fledgling faith and thoughts of romance have a chance to take root, Katie’s cheating fiancé returns, remorseful and promising change. Can her tentative faith strengthen their past love? And if her heart breaks again, will Katie’s journey to faith end before it has really begun?


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About the  Author

Heather Greer is a pastor’s kid and pastor’s wife from southern Illinois. Though her nest is quickly approaching the empty stage, with three of her four children out on their own, she enjoys the times she gets to spend with all her children, husband, and grandson. Equal mix geek and romantic, you could as easily find Heather watching an episode of Doctor Who as the latest Hallmark movie. Of course, you may find her baking, reading, or crafting too!

 

Heather’s writing and teaching ministries revolve around a passion to see believers grow in their faith. Though God has used her most often with teens and adults, she has worked in ministries reaching all age groups through the years. It is Heather’s prayer for God to use what she writes in her books and on her blog to challenge and encourage readers in their faith walks.

 

More from Heather

 

What happens when a person raised in church begins to see the failure of those within the church to live their faith every day instead of on Sunday morning? Often, the truths of scripture are pushed aside in favor of blanket statements like “churches are full of hypocrites” and “I don’t want to follow a God whose people are like that”. In frustration, they walk out the church doors in frustration. Sometimes they walk out with their beliefs intact, but other times faith gets left in the pew they vacate.

 

That’s what happened to Katie in Faith’s Journey. And when she left home for college disappointed with the people in the church she was raised in and at odds with her mother, it was all too easy to listen to the voices in her life telling her religion and God made no difference in life.  Deciding she knew better than anyone what her life should be, Katie makes her own decisions without considering the God she left behind.

 

It takes a return home for Katie to start realizing there may be more to God than the people in the pews. Maybe she was quick to see the failures of others to live their faith but slow to see her own problems with the same issue. And maybe it’s time to acknowledge that regardless of how others are living out their faith, God has plans for her and desires a relationship with her that defines who she is every day.

 

While the original idea that sparked Faith’s Journey was what happens when someone you love betrays you, I quickly realized Katie’s story was more than that. In a sense, the first betrayal she needed to face wasn’t the one with her boyfriend. It was the perceived betrayal by those in the church who failed to live faith outside the church walls. It’s a feeling I believe many Christians have to face since there isn’t a perfect person in any pew.

 

I pray Faith’s Journey may be an encouragement and give a new perspective to those who currently struggle with the idea of church. And I hope it’s also a challenge to those of us faithfully in the pews each week to make our time there about more than religion or habit. I pray Faith’s Journey challenges us to evaluate the depth of relationship with have with God and let Him change the way we live every day, not just on Sunday.

 

My Review

 

A contemporary Christian romance, “Faith’s Journey” by Heather Greer speaks to some of the most common issues affecting young adults today. Katie McGowan is a prodigal who returns to her childhood home to care for her aging parents after the devastating infidelity of her fiancée. She does not have faith despite that of her parents and the fact that she grew up going to church. She comments early in the story that “I believe God is there, but I don’t see that He has made much of a difference in the lives of those in the pews every Sunday. They all sing and pray and shout hallelujah, but it doesn’t really change the way they live outside the church doors.” This is one of the toughest issues that faces the church today: hypocrisy. People will not want to become followers of Jesus if we do not live out God’s commandments but instead present a selfish, two-faced veneer. Still, I have to admit that I didn’t care for Katie’s character, especially not in the beginning. Her attitude and temper annoyed me, but then again, I have to admit that there are times when I struggle too. Austin, on the other hand, is easy to love and displays the qualities that earmark him for evangelization. There is enough tension and drama to keep readers entertained while also exploring God’s Truth. Young adults and older readers are the target audience, but I would further recommend this story to those concerned about prodigals within their own families, alcoholism, and family tensions.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Celebrate Lit and was not required to post a favorable review. All opinions are my own.

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