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Darlene thought moving to a small town would bring their family closer together, but it just might tear them apart.
When big-city life threatens their children's safety, Brad and Darlene Henderson move with their three teenagers from Dallas to the tiny town of Round Top, Texas.
Married life hasn't always been bliss for Brad and Darlene, but their strong faith has carried them through the difficult times. When Darlene takes a job outside the home for the first time in their marriage, the domestic tension rises.
While working with special needs children at her new job, Darlene meets a little boy who steals her heart. His widowed father is paying more attention to her than is probably appropriate. Problem is, she feels like someone is listening for the first time in a long time.
The teens are struggling to adjust to their new, small-town life, especially since it seems all their parents do anymore is fight. And fifteen-year-old Grace is coping in a dangerous and destructive way.
Can Brad and Darlene survive the changes they face within themselves and their marriage . . . and find a way to help their daughter before it's too late?
Nearing the door, she stretched her arm behind her, searching for the knob. She turned it quickly, and at the click of the latch, her trespasser rushed toward her. In one movement, she jumped backward, across the threshold and into the den, slamming the door so hard the picture of the kids fell off the wall. She looked down at Chad, Ansley, and Grace staring up through broken glass, then hurried through the den to the kitchen. Her hand trembled as she unplugged her cell phone and pressed the button to call Brad. Please answer.
It was tax time, so every CPA at her husband's office was working long hours, and for these last weeks before the April deadline, Brad was hard to reach. She knew she wouldn't hear from him until after eight o'clock tonight. And she couldn't go back in her bedroom. What would she have to live without until then? She looked down. For starters, a shirt. She was later than usual getting dressed this morning and had just pulled on her jeans when she'd noticed she wasn't alone.
She let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her forehead. Brad answered on the sixth ring.
"Bradley ..." She only called him by his full name when she needed his full attention.
"What is it, babe?"
She took a deep breath. "There is a snake in our bedroom. A big black snake." She paused as she put a hand to her chest. "In our bedroom."
"How big?"
She'd expected a larger reaction. Maybe her husband didn't hear her. "Big! Very big. Huge, Brad."
He chuckled. "Honey, remember that little snake that got in your greenhouse when we lived on Charter Road in Houston? You said that snake was big too." He chuckled again, and Darlene wanted to smack him through the phone. "It was a tiny little grass snake."
"Brad, you're going to have to trust me. This snake is huge, like five or six feet long." A shiver ran down her spine. "Are you coming home or should I call 9-1-1?"
"What? You can't call 9-1-1 about a snake." His tone changed. "Darlene, don't do that. Round Top is a small town, and we'll be known as the city slickers who called in about a snake."
"Then you need to come home and take care of this." She lifted her chin and fought the tremble in her voice.
Deep breath on the other end of the line. "You know how crazy it is here. I can't leave right now. It's probably just a chicken snake, and they're not poisonous."
"Well, there are no chickens in our bedroom, so it doesn't have any business in there."
"Chad can probably get it out when he gets home from school. Maybe with a shovel or something, but tell him to be careful. Even though they're not venomous, it'd probably still hurt to get bit."
Darlene sighed. "Our girls are going to freak if they come home to find a snake in the house." She turned toward a sound in the entryway. "I'll call you back. There's someone at the door, and I'm standing here in my bra. I'll call you back. Love you." She clicked the phone off, then yelled toward the door, "Just a minute!"
After finding a T-shirt in Ansley's room, she pulled it over her head as she crossed back through the den toward the front door. This was the first visitor she'd had in the two months since they'd moved from Houston. She peeked around the curtain before she opened the door, realizing that her old city habit would probably linger for a while. Out here in the country, there probably wasn't much to worry about, but she was relieved to see it was a woman. A tall woman in a cowgirl hat. She pulled the door open.
"Your Longhorns are in my pasture." The woman twisted her mouth to one side and folded her arms across her chest. "This is the second time they've busted the fence and wandered onto my property."
Darlene thought this cowgirl could have walked straight off the set of any western movie. She was dressed in a long-sleeved denim shirt with her blue jeans tucked into brown boots. She was older than Darlene, possibly midforties, but she was gorgeous with huge brown eyes and blond hair that hung in a ponytail to her waist.
"I'm so sorry." Darlene shook her head. Brad should have never gotten those Longhorns. Neither she nor Brad knew a thing about cows, but Brad had said a move to the country should include some Longhorns. Although it didn't make a lick of sense to her. She pushed the door wide. "I'm Darlene."
The woman shifted her weight but didn't offer a greeting in return. Instead, she stared at Darlene's chest. Darlene waited for the woman to lock eyes with her, and when she didn't, Darlene finally looked down. Her cheeks warmed as she sighed.
"Oh, this is my daughter's shirt." Don't Bug Me! was scrolled across the white T-shirt in red, and beneath the writing was a hideous picture of a giant roach. Darlene couldn't stand the shirt, but twelve-year-old Ansley loved it. "Do you want to come in?" She stepped back.
"No. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to round up your Longhorns and head them back to your pasture. I'll temporarily repair the fence." The woman turned to leave, and it was then that Darlene saw a horse tethered to the fence that divided their property. She stifled a smile. This woman really was a cowgirl.
"Know anything about snakes?" Darlene eased onto the front porch, sidestepping a board she knew was loose. The porch was on their list of things to repair on her grandparents' old homestead.
"What?" The woman turned around as she held a hand underneath the rim of her hat, blocking the afternoon sun.
"I have a snake in my bedroom." Darlene shrugged. "Just wondering if you had any ... any experience with something like that?" She padded down two porch steps in her socks. "I'm not sure I got your name?"
"Layla." She gave a quick wave before she turned to leave again. Darlene sighed. Clearly the woman wasn't interested in being friends. Or helping with the snake. Darlene watched her walk to her horse and put a foot in the stirrup. Then she paused and twisted her body to face Darlene. "What kind of snake?"
Hopeful, Darlene edged down another step. "A big black one."
Layla put her foot back on the ground and walked across the grass toward the porch. Darlene couldn't believe how graceful the tall blonde was, how out of sync her beauty was in comparison to what she was wearing.
"Only thing you really have to worry about around here are copperheads." She tipped back the rim of her hat. "Was it a copperhead?"
At five foot two, Darlene felt instantly inferior to this tall, gorgeous, horse-riding, snake-slaying blonde. She wasn't about to say that she couldn't tell one snake from the other. "I don't think so."
"All I've got is a .22 with me." Layla pointed back to her horse, and Darlene saw a long gun in a holster. "But a .22 will blow a hole through your floor," Layla added. A surreal feeling washed over Darlene. She thought about their previous home in a Houston subdivision, and a woman with a gun on a horse wasn't a sight they would've seen.
"Do you have a pellet gun?" She stopped in front of Darlene on the steps. Darlene was pretty sure that was all they had—Chad's BB gun.
"Yeah, I think so."
Five minutes later, Darlene pushed open the door to her bedroom and watched Layla enter the scene of the invasion. The bed was piled with clean clothes, but at least it was made up. The vacuum was in the middle of the room instead of in the closet under the stairs. It wasn't the way she wanted a stranger to see her bedroom, but it could have been worse.
Layla got down on her knees and looked under the bed. From the threshold, Darlene did a mental scan of what was under there. Boxes of photos, a flowery hatbox that had belonged to her grandmother, an old red suitcase stuffed with baby keepsakes from when the kids were young—and a lot of dust.
"There he is." Layla leaned her chest to the floor and positioned Chad's BB gun. Darlene braced herself, then squeezed her eyes closed as two pops echoed underneath the bed. A minute later, Layla dragged the snake out with the tip of the gun. "Just a chicken snake."
Darlene stepped out of the room, giving Layla plenty of room to haul the snake out. Big, black, ugly. And now dead. Blood dripped all the way to the front door. Layla carried the snake to the fence and laid it across the timber, its yellow underside facing the sky.
"Belly up should bring rain." Layla was quickly up on her horse. "Tell your husband that I'm patching the fence up, but he really needs some new cross planks."
"I will. And thank you so much for killing that snake. Do you and your husband want to come for dinner tonight? I'd like to do something for you."
"I'm not married. And I can't come to dinner tonight. Thanks, though." She gave the horse a little kick in the flank, then eased through a gate that divided her acreage from Brad and Darlene's. She closed it behind her from atop her horse and headed toward the large house on top of the sloping hillside. Coming from town, the spacious estate was fully visible from the road, and Darlene's youngest daughter called it the "mansion on the hill." The rest of the family took to calling it that too.
In comparison to their run-down farmhouse, Darlene supposed it was a mansion. Both homes were probably built in the late 1800s, but Layla's was completely restored, at least on the outside, with fresh yellow paint and white trim. A split-rail, cedar fence surrounded the yard, and toward the back of the property, a bright-red barn lit up the hayfield not far from a good-sized pond. A massive iron gate—that stayed closed most of the time—welcomed visitors down a long, winding driveway. And there were lots of livestock—mostly Longhorns and horses. If the wind was blowing just right, sometimes Darlene could hear faint music coming from the house.
She was hoping maybe she could be friends with Layla, even though she wasn't sure she had anything in common with her. Just the same, Darlene was going to pay her a visit. Maybe take her a basket of baked goodies, a thank-you for killing that snake.
* * *
Brad adjusted the phone against his ear and listened to Darlene's details about her snake ordeal, then she ended the conversation the way she always did. "Who do you love?"
"You, baby."
It was their thing. Nearly twenty years ago, at a bistro in Houston, Brad wanted to tell Darlene that he loved her—for the first time—and he was a nervous wreck, wondering if she felt the same way. He'd kept fumbling around, and the words just wouldn't come. Maybe she'd seen it in his eyes, but she'd reached over, touched his hand, and smiled. Then in a soft whisper, she'd asked, "Who do you love?" His answer had rolled off his tongue with ease. "You, baby." Then she'd told him that she loved him too, and the who-do-you-love question stuck. Darlene asked him all the time. He knew it wasn't because she was insecure; it was just a fond recollection for both of them. That night at the bistro, Brad had known he was going to marry Darlene.
He flipped his phone shut and maneuvered through the Houston traffic toward home. He was glad that he wouldn't have to deal with a snake when he got there, but he was amused at Darlene's description of the tall, blond cowgirl who shot it with Chad's BB gun.
He had four tax returns to work on tonight after dinner. All these extra billable hours were bound to pay off. He needed the extra income if he was going to make all the renovations to the farm that he and Darlene had discussed. Brad wanted to give her the financial freedom to make their home everything she dreamed it could be. Cliff Hodges had been dangling the word partner in front of him for almost two years, and Brad was sure he was getting close to having his name on the door.
If they hadn't been in such a rush to move from Houston, Brad was sure they could have held out and gotten more for their house. As it turned out, they'd barely broken even, and just getting the farmhouse in semi-livable shape had taken a chunk of their savings. Buying out Darlene's brother for his share of the homestead had put a strain on their finances too, but it was worth it if Darlene was happy. She'd talked about restoring her grandparents' farm for years. The original plan had been to fix the place up over time so they could use it as a weekend getaway. But then they'd decided to make the move as soon as they could, even if the house wasn't in tip-top shape.
Forty-five minutes from his office, he'd cleared the bustle of the city, and the six-lane freeway narrowed to two lanes on either side of a median filled with bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes. Nothing like spring in Texas to calm his mind after crunching numbers all day long, but leaving the office so late to head west put the setting sun directly in his face. He flipped his visor down, glad that the exit for Highway 36 was only a few miles away. Once he turned, he'd get a break from the blinding rays. Then he'd pass through the little towns of Sealy and Bellville before winding down one-lane roads to the peaceful countryside of Round Top. It was a long commute, almost an hour and a half each way, but it was worth it when he pulled into his driveway. Small-town living was better for all of them. Especially Chad.
Brad could still recall the night Chad came stumbling into the house—drunk. His seventeen-year-old son had been running around with a rebellious group of friends in Houston. And sometimes Chad's glassy eyes had suggested more than just alcohol abuse. Brad shook his head to clear the recollections, knowing he would continue to pray that his son would make better choices now that he had some distance from his old buddies.
Brad felt like a blessed man. He'd been married to his high school sweetheart for nearly twenty years, and he had three amazing children. He wanted to spend his life being the best husband and father he could be. There wasn't a day that went by that he didn't thank the Lord for the life he'd been given, and it was Brad's job to take care of his family.
* * *
Darlene finished setting the table. She regretted that her mother couldn't see her enjoying her grandmother's dining room set. Darlene had been surprised to find the oak table and chairs still in the house when they'd moved in. The antiques had been dusty and in dire need of cleaning, but they were just as sturdy as ever. She could remember many meals with her parents and grandparents in this house, at this table.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Need You Now by BETH WISEMAN Copyright © 2012 by Elizabeth Wiseman Mackey. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
This is the story of Brad and Darlene Henderson and their three teenaged children, Chad, Grace, and Ansley. After Chad, their oldest, experiences alcohol and possibly drug problems in high school, the family moves from Houston to the small rural town of Round Top, Texas. Brad, a CPA bucking for partner, continues his job in Houston and the long commute keeps him away from the family more than before. Brad and Darlene are both strong Christians and are raising their children to be also. Darlene ministers to a neighbor who has been bitter with God for years because of the death of her child. The neighbor, Layla, turns out to be a former movie star. Darlene had not recognized her, but Brad did from watching old movies. As time goes on, Darlene and Layla become friends and, eventually, Darlene learns that she helped Layla restore her faith in God.
As I was reading the book I thought of the saying, "wherever you go, there you are", because moving to the small town didn't solve the problems. If anything, they were made worse. Brad is away more because of the long drive and having to work extra hours to become partner. Darlene takes a job partly because the children are more independent and they are in a safer environment.
The reader gets to hear the story from the viewpoints of Darlene, Brad, Chad, and Grace, as well as a few people outside the family. This gives the reader insights about the children sometimes before the parents. This increased the suspense and made me want to read on to find out what happens next.
As in real life, events in the story affected different people in different ways. Sometimes a problem causes one person to turn closer to God for love and support. The same problem might cause another person to reject and blame God. Our strong faithful Christians in this story didn't always react the way we expected. But that's the way it is in the real world. How strong is your faith?
I loved the book and the characters. I laughed with them and cried for them. I even wanted to fuss at them at times. This is the first book I've read by Beth Wiseman, but I'll be looking for more. She has a great talent for making the story interesting from the first page to the last. There's no filler. All meat.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received an advance review copy of this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.High five to Beth Wiseman for writing a page-turning winner! What a treat! I really enjoyed this book. Like life, the plot has many surprises; we never know what to expect. With a new move, a husband working long hours, a family of three teens, and a new job, Darlene, the protagonist is hard put to keep her plates spinning. No wonder she begins to crack. Each believable character adds dimension to this interesting tale.
A Reading Group Guide is included.
Thank you to Audra Jennings at B&B Media Group and Thomas Nelson Publishing for my copy.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 2, 2013
Anyone. Most partys are held here. But it's also a hang out location.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 29, 2013
This is a story of a real family. Life is not perfect and bad things do happen, but with Gods grace and unconditional love for each other families can get through anything
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.acb8791
Posted June 16, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. Once I got into it, I read it in one sitting. This is the first book I have read by Beth Wiseman and I hope she will be writing more contemporary stories like this one.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 5, 2012
I believe i own everyone of Beth's books. This by far is one of my favorites!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I Darlene thought moving to a small town would bring their family closer together, but it just might tear them apart.
When big-city life threatens their children's safety, Brad and Darlene Henderson move with their three teenagers from Dallas to the tiny town of Round Top, Texas.
Married life hasn't always been bliss for Brad and Darlene, but their strong faith has carried them through the difficult times. When Darlene takes a job outside the home for the first time in their marriage, the domestic tension rises.
While working with special needs children at her new job, Darlene meets a little boy who steals her heart. His widowed father is paying more attention to her than is probably appropriate. Problem is, she feels like someone is listening for the first time in a long time.
The teens are struggling to adjust to their new, small-town life, especially since it seems all their parents do anymore is fight. And fifteen-year-old Grace is coping in a dangerous and destructive way.
Can Brad and Darlene survive the changes they face within themselves and their marriage . . . and find a way to help their daughter before it's too late?
~ This book was fast to read and the plot was easy to follow, it was a good book but one that has been written many times by many other authors. I do like how everything tidied up in the end.~
smallkucing
Posted April 26, 2012
I found that the beginning of the book was a bit slow for me and I was confused by the story as the author introduced many characters almost simultaneously.
However, the story got better halfway through the book. I like the way the author focus on Darlene and her daughter, Gracie. However, I was rather doubtful of Gracie's problem which is said to crop up from trying to be perfect. She seems to have everything; a good family and a good school result. Trying to be good all the time did not sound to me that it would create the problem that Gracie had.
Darlene's problem is more believable to me as each day were are faced with temptation. And Dave certainly poses a big problem. Readers can't help but to sympathise with Dave.
Overall, I like the way the author integrated the faith in God through out the book. Although each person in the family have their own problems but their faith never wavered. Through their faith, they influenced the people around them to open up to God.
I give this book 3 stars out of 5. It is highly recommended to those who needs a bit more encouragement and motivations in life.
I have received a copy of this book from Handlebar Marketing with no obligation to post a favorable review. The opinion herein are my own.
onedesertrose
Posted April 24, 2012
I Also Recommend:
After Chad gets into the wrong crowd in high school in Houston, Brad and Darlene Henderson make the decision to move the family to Round Top, TX, to her grandparents’ old homestead. Life starts out with a bang on the first day with a visitor from the snake world, sending Darlene into frenzy.
Brad and Darlene’s marriage seems to have the normal ups and downs, but their deep love and faith have always kept them going. All three children seem to be adjusting to the move on the outside, but brewing on the inside of Grace is another world–a world of cutting to cope with her feelings.
Darlene tries to make friends with Layla Jeger, her next-door rancher, but it’s a touch and go relationship on Layla’s end. Seeking outside friendships, Darlene takes on her first job away from home at the Evans House, a special needs’ school. As time progresses with her working outside the home, tensions in the home abound. About two months later they find out about Grace’s cutting.
Beth Wiseman, in Need You Now, brings out the stormy issues of childhood emotional problems and their families and how they each cope with the individual issues. The multiple points of view are great, as you see the same incident through the different character angles, which makes the story well-rounded and more real. Her story hits close to home, as Beth draws you into the emotions and circumstances of the characters. They could be your own family or the neighbor next door.
The development and descriptions of Grace’s cutting are well-developed and very informative. This issue is prevalent in the teenage world, and Beth’s book helps and encourages parents to be on the lookout and to be willing to get good outside help.
The strain between Brad and Darlene’s relationship is palpable throughout the blame-game scenario and subsequent silence between the two. This leaves Darlene vulnerable to another male’s perspective and understanding, which escalates into a sticky romantic relationship.
Beth interweaves the importance of praying and God’s intervention in response to those prayers in both the Henderson family and Layla’s life, even though it wasn’t necessarily a happily-ever-after as we define it. I commend the author in how she dealt with the circumstances in difficult, real-world outcomes.
This novel was a fulfilling read, yet was filled with difficult scenarios that deeply touched my heart. When an author can get you to grieve over fictional characters, she’s done an in-depth job of portraying real emotions in her characters!
Special thanks to Rick Roberson, The B&B Media Group, for sending me a review copy through FIRST Wild Card Tours. No monetary compensation was provided in exchange for my honest review.
I started reading this page turning book as Part One...and true to two part books it left you on a cliff hanger. Had to know the rest of the story...and a good story it was.
This book has it all, the great love of a family for each other..."Who do you love?". Also so not so typical teenage difficult problems, when Grace their middle child starts coping in a dangerous way.
This book also deals with marriage problems, even where there shouldn't be any. Also enjoyed how dealing with "special" children is highlighted on, and accepted. We are show the great accomplishments of these children and the people who care for them. Also be prepared for heartbreak!
You won't be able to stop at Part One, this book is a compelling page turner!
I received this book from the Publisher Thomas Nelson, and was not required to give a positive review!
A book of forgiveness and redemption in a most unusual fictional book!
It seems like at some point in our lives, we'll blame God for something that hasn't gone right in our lives. Perhaps it's the death of a child we didn't seem coming, or trouble with finances or an affair within our marriage. Yet often times God will place someone in our path when we struggle with the answers why to help us deal with this situation in ways they can verbalize and help us understand when God's ways can seem to overwhelming to comprehend.
In Need You Now by Beth Wiseman, The Henderson family is about to face the biggest challenge of their lives and their faith in God will be tested in ways like they never could imagine. Just when their lives seem to be settling down after moving from Houston to a rural small town of Round Top, Texas, the begin to see the facade that each of them have painted for one another.
With their youngest daughter Grace, just fifteen-years-old, she struggles with being labeled as the perfect child neither of their parents needs to worry about. Yet besides dealing with a boyfriend she left behind when they moved and trying to find new friends at her school, Grace has to find new ways of dealing with her out-of-control emotions. She turns to cutting, to release the emotions that are building up inside and a way to maintain control. Only thing is no one knows except a Goth girl at school named Skylar. Will she be able to stop in time before her family finds out?
Darlene Henderson has been the picture perfect role model of wife and mom, and now that her kids don't need her for anything else but a hot meal, she finds solace in getting a job helping special needs children. When Dave Schroeder, the father of the autistic girl she's been working with, begins to develop a much stronger interest in her that he could have imagined since his wife died, he begins to find new ways to come and see Darlene. Will she be willing to walk away from her own marriage to her husband Brad, even if he is seeing someone from work?
I received Need You Now compliments of B & B Media Group for my honest review and think that Beth Wiseman has done an incredible job at identifying the signs of both affairs and teenage cutting in this remarkable fictional book. Even though the characters are fiction based, this could very well be the story of any family we know. I applaud her for informing her readers through this powerful story and show how often pray is our last resort to our problems when it should be our first line of defense. I highly recommend this book and rate it a 5 out of 5 stars!
Uniquely_His
Posted April 9, 2012
I have read a number of Beth Wiseman's books, I really like her style of writing. She has a way of not only pulling you into the story but she makes you feel like you are a part of the story as well.
In Need You Now, which is totally different than any of her Amish stories, Beth accomplishes to make you feel for each of her characters and live their lives.
Written in contemporary times, about contemporary people who deal with the problems everyone else does, Need You Now, looks at and invites you into the lives of Darlene, her husband Brad, and their three children.
Brad and Darlene move their family out of the big city into a small town, Round Up, Texas, because one of their children was headed for big trouble and going down the wrong path.
The adjustment isn't easy for any of them, especially for their oldest daughter, Grace. And Darlene is starting to go a bit stir crazy, so she decided to get a part-time job; with her husband's blessing.
Darlene working, Grace coping in dangerous ways, Brad getting grumpy and out of sorts, Chad the teenage son, and Ansley, a special daughter... all lead to a story that will make you laugh, cry, pray, and thankful that God does work in mysterious ways to bring us through all of our times of difficulties and trials. Even though we may turn our back on Him, He is always there, waiting, for us to say, "Need You Now."
Thank you to The B & B Media Group and Thomas Nelson, who provided this book for review purposes. I am under no obligation to write a positive review.
NewChristianBooks
Posted April 3, 2012
Beth Wiseman, known for her Amish genre fiction, is applying her storytelling skills to contemporary fiction with admirable results. The best-selling author writes fearlessly with the stresses and struggles that are an inevitable part of a marriage and raising children. She doesn't shy away from letting the characters in this book face some problems and challenges. I think many readers will be able to relate to this book, and be comforted by the fact that they are not the only ones who struggle.
Wiseman doesn’t sugarcoat things, but deals honestly with at the challenges of marriage and raising a family, and the issues that arise in even “good” families and loving marriages. The authentic characters she creates must deal with both joy and pain, but the book as a whole is hopeful. I predict this project will greatly expand Wiseman’s already large and enthusiastic fan base.
MitziAB
Posted April 1, 2012
What makes a novel memorable?
Is it strong characters? check ; believable characters and situations? check, vulnerable and true to life? check engages your emotions and senses? check
Need You Now has all these and more.
I have read most of Beth Wiseman's Amish novels, and loved how she engages the reader, and brings out the things we all share with their culture, but i was not prepared for the depth she put into the characters in this comtemporary novel.
From the first she had my heart beating rapidly as I waited and read to see who or what the intruder was in Darlene's bedroom. At this point, it could have been anything from a mouse to a murderer. The issues Darlene and Brad face as parents is something no parent wants to admit might be in realm of possibilites. The ones they face as couple would never face us, except it does. Who doesn't keep secrets, however innocent we think they are from ones we love? Who doesn't doubt our loved one (parent, child, spouse, sibling) in what they said or did or what we think they meant, or tell others what we think they want to hear?
This novel deals with each of these situations and more, and I was not expecting to feel with the characters as I did. All in all, this was one great novel, and can truly recommend this for all adults who love the Lord or want to know more about Him, as well as all romance readers.
I received this novel from Thomas Nelson Publishers through their Booksneeze program, in exchange for an honest review of the same. The opinions stated in this post are my own.
"Need You Now" is Beth Wiseman's first book outside the Amish secter. I have read so many of her books and loved everyone of them. This one is not exception. The B and B Media Group provided me with this complimentary paperback book.
As Darlene and her husband Brad struggle to raise three teenagers, they move from Houston to Round Top, Texas to a farm left to Darlene by her grandparents, but the house needed a lot of repair. The move did not go well with the children and expecially for their middle child Grace who is fifteen. She was trying to deal with her stress and depression, so she became a "cutter'. (A cutter is someone that hards themself with anything sharp).
The move and the problem with their daughter begin to take a toll on their marriage and expecially when Darlene desides to take a job outside the home. They wondered if their faith was going to see them through so they begin to doubt that also. She needed to get away and make some friends and then Darlene begin to receive too much attention from a father of the sutistic young girl she was assigned too in the school for special needs children. She really needed God now, as she and her husband Brad was having issues and the man's attention was very hard to ignore.
Will their love for each other and of God get them through?
Anonymous
Posted May 12, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted July 20, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 29, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Darlene thought moving to a small town would bring their family closer together, but it just might tear them apart.
When big-city life threatens their children's safety, Brad and Darlene Henderson move with their three teenagers from Dallas to the tiny town of Round Top, Texas.
Married life hasn't always been bliss for Brad and Darlene, but their strong faith has carried them through the difficult times. When ...