Forgiving The Past by Elaine Stock

Forgiving The Past by Elaine Stock

Imagine this scenario: You’re a widowed single-parent mom with an impressionable eight-year-old son. Your conscience is riddled with the worry that you might have pushed your husband toward his death, and that’s on top of the weight bearing down on you from your childhood days of participating with a pack of kids to bully a particular family in town.

Then, the one boy who was part of that picked-upon family, now a grown man and stirringly handsome purchases the house across the street from you. You’ll likely see him every day.

And, with a gulp, you realize…that you want to see him. That actually, despite all that transpired between the two of you back in high school, you’re Attracted to him with a Capital A.

Might that magnetism between the two of you be mutual?

                  Her name flowing too easily from his lips seized

                  her drifting attention. “Yes?”

                  “You’re someone I could never forget.”

In my newest release, an inspirational romance, Christmas Love Year Round, Book 1 of the Kindred Lake Series, the reunion of two long-ago enemies is the setup that kicks off the story. While one theme, the forgiveness of others is central, more so is whether one can forgive themselves for their actions as well as lack of actions. Another theme is love—what is it and will it last? Sure, love and good cheer are abundant during the Christmas holiday season, but the test of love’s strength is whether love can and will last year round. Is it possible, considering one’s shameful past? Can one stop the past memories from hurling the ugliness into the present? And, that’s the final theme: making amends into amems.

The topic of bullying heats up the pages of newspapers and slaps its way across social media. Sadly, it has become an epidemic in our society. Yet, antagonizing, intimidating, and shaming others is as old as mankind. Christmas Love Year Round is a special story for me because I, like many, have been picked upon. Introverted, mature-beyond-my-years, struggling with acne beginning in fifth grade, and moving from city to country mid-school-year, set me up as a too easy target. A shaggy-haired blond punk kid led the attack against me with a couple of handful of pals to help. Not fun at all! Nor, was it easy to get through my days. The name-calling, other insults, and stinging laughter hurt. Two and a half years later—in the middle of my junior year—I couldn’t take it a day more. I begged my father to take me to a dermatologist to treat my complexion. I also got my hair styled. I felt better about myself. Slowly but surely I started to make friends; people outwardly treated me much nicer…kinder. When this troublemaker kid would walk by me, with his herd of goons, I started to hear his pals urge him to knock off the tossing of caustic barbs. Finally, by the time I graduated, this self-appointed tormenter had stopped his enemy fire. He didn’t apologize, but that was fine. As long as he held back his explosives, it was all good.

It’s sad that people pick on others because of differences. Danny, my character Cami’s son, asks his mom that if God wants us to love each other, why does He make it so hard for us to do so. I hope you’ll read Christmas Love Year Round to find out Cami’s response to her son, and to see whether Cami and Gavin can let go of their shared troubled past and make amends into amens.

Here’s a great deal for you: today, August 25^th, Christmas Love Year Round is up on Pre-Sale for only 99-cents on Amazon. Also, the “companion” novella to this new novel, And You Came Along, is also marked down to 99-cents and can be ordered on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The Kindle edition of Christmas Love Year Round is officially avaliable for the Pre-Sale price of 99 cents until the Kindle book releases on September 25th. The print version is now available as well. Here's the link for the Pre-Sale:

https://amzn.to/2wnp2z8

May each of you be blessed with love and joy year round!

Blurb for Christmas Love Year Round:

Cami Richardson is good at chasing away the men in her life: first Gavin Kinkaid, a former classmate she’d helped to bully, and later, her husband who left her widowed and a single mom. Now all she wants is to bring a smile back to her eight-year-old son. What she doesn’t expect is for Gavin to become her new neighbor.

Gavin wants to settle down after serving in the Air Force and mend the separation between him and his dad. What he didn’t count on is his changing feelings when he sees Cami as a kind woman instead of his former adversary.

When Cami’s son blindsides them both during the Christmas season, is their reunion at risk or will it grow stronger?

 Author Bio:

Elaine Stock is the author of the novels Her Good Girl, winner of the 2018 American Fiction Awards in the Christian Inspirational category, and Always With You, which won the 2017 Christian Small Publishers Association Book of the Year Award in fiction. And You Came Along, a novella, released in December 2017. Her novels fuse romance, family drama and faith in a clean fiction style. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, and Women’s Fiction Writers Association. In addition to Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, she hangs out on her active blog, Everyone’s Story, dedicated to uplifting and encouraging all readers through the power of story and hope.

Born in Brooklyn, NY, Elaine has now been living in upstate, rural New York with her husband for more years than her stint as a NYC gal. She enjoys long walks down country roads, visiting New England towns, and of course, a good book.

Elaine Stock--Fusing Romance, Family Drama, and Faith in a Clean Fiction Style.

website: http://elainestock.com

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