Review + Tour GIVEAWAY: Breath of Heaven by Alana Terry

About the Book

Title: Breath of Heaven  
Author: Alana Terry  
Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction  
Release Date: December 9, 2017

She hasn’t fallen out of love with her husband. She just can’t stand his church. 

Nobody told Katrina being a pastor’s wife would be easy. But she never imagined that the stress she and her husband would face from his new job could so easily destroy their marriage. 

In spite of her mother’s disapproval, Katrina marries a pastor whose job immediately plucks her away from her music, her symphony, and the city life she loves and plants her in the small town of Orchard Grove, Washington. 

If she knew going into her new life that she’d be sacrificing her music career for a congregation full of gossips and backbiters and that the pressure of her husband’s new job would turn him into someone she hardly recognizes anymore, she might have reconsidered marrying him in the first place. Unfortunately, it’s too late to do anything about that now. Or is it?

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My Thoughts

Relevant, compelling, engrossing, and real … Breath of Heaven is all that and more. Contemporary women’s fiction is one of my favorite genres and Alana Terry hits it out of the ballpark in her Orchard Grove series that she describes as “real-life couples facing real-life issues.” These stories touch us at the heart of where we live, and therein lies their strength. Breath of Heaven captured my emotions from the beginning and kept me eagerly turning the pages, not at all sure how things would work out.

Pastor Greg and Katrina are newlyweds when his new ministry takes her away from the concert world that she not only loved, but found security in. And then the controlling demands and expectations of the rural congregation begin to change Greg, as they would anybody. Orchard Grove was “a little country church where half the congregation hated him, and the other half was just waiting for him to do something unforgivable, and all of them were comparing him to other pastors in the congregation’s past.” I have family members and many friends in ministry, some who have had similar experiences, so this book hits close to home for me.

As a musician myself, the overarching theme of music resonated in a special way. Katrina, an introvert and very private person who has recently suffered great loss, is completely out of her depth – and then she begins to take up her beloved violin again. In the author's expressive prose … “Why had she neglected him for so long? Why had she ignored the one friend who could truly understand her sorrows and turn each tear into music, a prayer without words that expressed the hidden depths of her soul?”

Above all, Breath of Heaven is Katrina’s journey, emotional and spiritual. Much of the lyrical prose gives voice to Katrina’s thoughts, but it moves at a steady pace that I found fascinating, never boring or repetitive. And then there’s Grandma Lucy, a stalwart Christian that everyone should have in their life. Oh, what spiritual wisdom and heart for prayer! How insightful and piercing are her words to Katrina … “Now tell me, if the Lord is the source of your hope and joy, why does your music sound so wounded?”

Breath of Heaven reflects the nature of Christian living, and it reminds me of how important it is to pray for pastors and their wives. I long for more of this type of ministering fiction from Alana Terry. Breath of Heaven gets 5 stars and goes on my favorites list.

Very highly recommended.

I received a copy of this book through Celebrate Lit. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

About the Author

Alana is a pastor’s wife, homeschooling mom, self-diagnosed chicken lady, and Christian suspense author. Her novels have won awards from Women of Faith, Book Club Network, Grace Awards, Readers’ Favorite, and more. 

Alana’s passion for social justice, human rights, and religious freedom shines through her writing, and her books are known for raising tough questions without preaching. 

She and her family live in rural Alaska where the northern lights in the winter and midnight sun in the summer make hauling water, surviving the annual mosquito apocalypse, and cleaning goat stalls in negative forty degrees worth every second.

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Guest Post from Alana Terry

I used to think being a pastor’s wife would be glamorous. Now I know better!

Although I’ve loved the different churches where my husband has been called to serve, being a couple in full-time ministry can definitely take its toll on a marriage.

Breath of Heaven is a novel in my Orchard Grove Christian women’s fiction series, which deals with real-life couples facing real-life issues. In Breath of Heaven, two newlyweds are thrown into the world of church politics, and the honeymoon period is quickly over.

I wrote this novel to give an inside peek at what it’s like if you’ve never been a pastor’s wife as well as to offer some hope and encouragement to women who know the stress of being married to someone in full-time ministry.

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Alana is giving away a grand prize of books 1-3 in the Orchard Grove Christian women’s series (paperback or ebook)!!

Click the image above or the link below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries!

https://promosimple.com/ps/d06f/breath-of-heaven-celebration-tour-giveaway

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