About the Book

Book: Relentless Love

Author: Heather Greer

Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance

Release Date: June 2, 2020

Without passion, there is no love. Without love, is she even living?

Living with limits protects a heart from hurt. After unexpectedly losing her husband, it’s a lesson Katie Blake has learned well. From moving in with her elderly father to staying at home with her son, Sammy, Katie’s life has been arranged to avoid further pain.

After three years, life feels stagnant. It’s time to carefully venture into the world once again. Sammy needs friends his age, and Katie needs a project to focus on.

As Sammy adjusts to preschool, Katie finds her perfect job. Her position even allows her to befriend Anna, a young mother who needs encouragement. Events also bring Nathan Phillips, a childhood friend, back into her life. Each successful step forward encourages Katie to continue opening her heart. By the time her friendship with Nathan begins to deepen, Katie is ready to pursue the relationship.

Nathan’s encouragement gives Katie strength to make tough decisions regarding her father’s care as his dementia progresses. But when Sammy is injured while in Nathan’s care, Katie knows she’s made a mistake. It won’t happen again. Abandoning their relationship in favor of safety is only the beginning. Katie has felt God calling her to help change Anna’s situation, but the risk is too great. God will have to find another way to help.

It takes a strange message from her father for Katie to understand God’s relentless love and desire for her life to reflect His love. But will Katie take the risk or continue limiting love in favor of a life without hurt?

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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

Authors leave a bit of themselves on the pages of what they write. Whether it comes out in a name or character’s special interest or a faith lesson the author had to learn themselves before they could put in on paper, somewhere in what is written readers will find a hint of the author in the story. This glimpse into the author’s world add a feeling of authenticity to the story.

My family and friends will quickly recognize at least one of these windows into my world as they read Relentless Love. Though I didn’t intend it, my personal experiences with dementia and Alzheimer’s care are woven into the story. While the exact details are different, I was a full-time caregiver to my grandmother through the middle and late stages of her life with dementia. Dealing with the confusion, illogical thinking, obsessing, and paranoia that are portrayed in the story is part of everyday life for a caregiver.

In including Katie’s experience with her father’s deteriorating mental health, I pray others facing the same struggle find encouragement and strength. And because my time with my grandma was blessed with sweet memories, in spite of the struggles, I’d like to share a recipe she passed down to me in high school. I cannot make this cookie without thinking of the one who made it first and all the lessons she taught me about what it means to love God, our families, and others.

Lace Cookies – from the kitchen of Sue Ellen Forby

Ingredients:

1 cup oats                                            3Tbs. flour

¼ tsp. salt                                            1 stick butter

1 cup sugar                                          1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. baking powder                         1 egg

Directions: Mix oats, salt, sugar, baking powder, and flour. Melt butter and pour over dry ingredients. Add vanilla and egg. Mix well. Refrigerate at least one hour, until set.

Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into marble sized balls and place at least 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Edges of cookies will be golden brown. Remove from oven and carefully slide parchment from pan to let cookies cool completely before removing them from paper. These cookies puff during cooking but flatten out completely as they cool.

My Review

This is my 100^th book review of 2020! I love being able to read and share wholesome books, thanks to God’s abundant blessings and the privilege of being a part of several wonderful review groups. This week also happens to be the celebration of Celebrate Lit’s 5-Year birthday! It is so wonderful to observe this milestone, and I am so delighted to be able to be a part of the team!

With these special moments, it seems fitting that the books I am reviewing this week are each part of a series. Heather Greer’s “Relentless Love” is the final book in her trilogy about fictional character Katie, a young woman facing the heartache of both past and present while also being a single mom to a toddler and living with her elderly father. Due to her previous devastating losses, Katie is cautious and wary. And lonely. Perhaps what drew me to empathize with her so much is the fact that we all deal with loneliness sometimes, and even more so these days with the coronavirus pandemic. When Nathan correlates Katie’s own loneliness with that of her father (for very similar reasons that I will not detail to avoid potential spoilers), I appreciated his insight. I also loved his response to Katie’s question: “How does a mother teach her son to become a man?” He tells her, “You teach him about the man his father was.” This advice , upon contemplation, actually has a double meaning: teaching little Sammy to emulate not only his dad’s actions, but also his Heavenly Father’s.

This story deals with some heavy themes, to a greater extent than I was expecting, but Greer achieves a laudable balance between them and lighter scenes. “Relentless Love” explores dementia and the crushing blow that it can strike to families. My grandpap had Alzheimer’s, and thus, having firsthand knowledge of how heartrending the condition and others like it can be, I again felt like I connected with the characters more than I may have otherwise. Nevertheless, I believe that this book series needs to be read because it does broach difficult subjects of the body and spirit. It lets us know that it is ok to cry, but that we also need to trust the Lord with every difficult circumstance because His love truly is relentless. He will pursue us to the ends of the earth when we are His, so that we in turn can share His unyielding love with others. When we do, even in the midst of our own storms and trials, we realize that the Lord blesses us through this.

Contemporary romance readers, and those who have been following this trilogy, will definitely not want to miss out on “Relentless Love”! For sensitive readers: In addition to having a part of the story about dementia, infertility is also a topic that is discussed, although very cleanly and well within the bounds of propriety. For horse and ranch lovers, there is some of that as well!

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.