Faith, Hope, and Love Blog Tour + Book Review
Faith, Hope, and Love Volume 1
Greetings! Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Michaela Bush's Faith, Hope, and Love Volume 1!
Greetings! Today is the release day for Faith, Hope, and Love Collection Volume One, and I am so honored to be today’s spot on the blog tour!
If you’ve been around for any length of time, you’ll know that Michaela Bush has become one of my favorite authors since I began blogging/bookstagram. The Lady of Lanaria was one of my first ARCs (and one of the first that I applied for because I was so excited about the concept), and her Mount Sterling series was what made me fall in love with the contemporary genre.
This collection is comprised of three of her previously published books. I’ve been meaning to read them for nearly a year, so when I saw the opportunity to help with its release, I couldn’t pass it up.
Summary:
What could God do with absolute brokenness? With shredded pasts, hopeless futures, and hearts beyond human help? In the midst of war-torn minds, broken self-worth, the harrowing reality of human trafficking, and doubts, three couples find healing, hope, and love. Not to mention the interesting ways that life intertwines the stories of family and strangers alike. In the Faith, Hope, and Love Vol. 1 Collection, follow the lives of Lucy and Spencer, Levi and Eleanor, and Morgan and Martin as they explore themes of healing, selflessness, sacrifice, and what we are called to do above all else.
A second edition contemporary Christian volume containing the complete first three books of the Faith, Hope, and Love collection: Welcome Home, My Compass Home, and Guide Me Home.
ARRIVING SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2021.
Personal Review:
First, I have to take a moment to appreciate the length of this book. At 603 pages, it’s a tome sure to delight any bookworm.
I was trying to decide how to rate this book, but I couldn’t bring myself to give it any less than five stars. I read it over a month ago, and as I looked over the notes I had taken while reading, all my favorite parts came to my memory.
As I’ll mention in the content review, this book tackles hard topics. However, Michaela Bush approaches them with grace and sensitivity.
She weaves in Christianity with such sincerity that I never found it preachy.
The compelling characters had me rooting for them all 600 pages. If there’s one thing to say about this book, it’s the sense of joy that runs throughout. Like all of the author’s other books, the series and writing style sucked me in from the start. The setting is so cozy, down to Lucy’s job at the local bookstore.
I tend to be harsher on contemporary books because, to an extent, they’re rather predictable. Especially romance. From the start, you can guess who ends up with who, and where’s the mystery in that! I’m learning to appreciate the journey, though, and one thing that helped me do that with this series is the characters. The main characters are different in every book, with the rest of the cast appearing as side characters.
Truth is, this book isn’t perfect. No book is. And as I mentioned above, I struggle to show as much grace to romance/contemporary books. Sometimes I felt like the characters hit their goals too easily (though the characters themselves would certainly disagree with me), and the cynic in me can find happily-ever-afters hard to find plausible. But even as those feelings crept in, I realized part of the reason I kept coming back to this book. If the happily-ever-afters are unrealistic, by the end, I couldn’t care less because the world needs more stories of overcoming tragedy, of hope and light. Stories of joy. Any cheesy moment can be forgiven because it’s so heartwarming. There’s nothing wrong with hard, heavy books (or the heavy moments in this series). But there’s also nothing wrong with a book that I know will make me smile every time I open it, and that’s just what this series is.
All this rambling review to say, this series is everything you could want in a contemporary romance, and I can’t wait to see what the author does next.
Content Review:
While this collection is clean, it also acknowledges the brokenness of the world. Topics like PTSD, abuse (child and domestic), and human trafficking are all explored.
Sexual – Some kissing, but nothing graphic
Violence – See above; some blood and references to abuse and war
Other – A character drinks heavily at points.
Author Info:
Michaela Bush is an independent writer of Christian fiction. She graduated from Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 2019 with a degree in English and minor in Psychology. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, and when she isn’t writing, freelancing, or building her own editing business, she’s out with her horses and playing violin. Writing has been her calling since the age of six and she hopes to touch lives and inspire readers with clean, thoughtful, and impactful novels. Follow her blog at www.tangledupinwriting.com.
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Individual Blurbs:
If you want to learn more about the individual books in the series, keep reading!
Welcome Home: Lucy is an eternal optimist, but keeping her heart safe is her top priority. Too much hurt has befallen her in the past, so she keeps her head above water – barely. The charade falls apart when she meets Spencer Clarkson, a homeless veteran with too many skeletons in his closet. What could God do with such broken souls, and what broke them in the first place? Will they find safety, even after monsters from the past come and rip apart their newly placed roots in small-town New York?
The first installment in the Faith, Hope, and Love Vol. 1 Collection.
My Compass Home: Lucy and Spencer Clarkson are now married, but their happily-ever-after will be tested by the resurfacing of Spencer’s past. Meanwhile, Levi Barnes is left adrift by the changing tides of life, which leads him to stumble into meeting Eleanor, a mysterious newcomer to Cortland with an equally mysterious past. What kind of person will Levi discover under her mask?
When opportunities to heal arise, for Levi and Eleanor as well as Lucy and Spencer, what paths will they choose? Above all, can God forgive the unforgivable? The broken? The angry at heart?
The second installment in the Faith, Hope, and Love Vol. 1 Collection.
Guide Me Home: Morgan Barnes has watched her cousins grow up and get married left and right. She’s ready to give up on marriage herself — until she’s blindsided by Martin Nolan. Cortland means new life for Martin, but old habits are hard to break, even if he truly wants to. Can he seize the opportunities given to him, or will he toss it all away?
