Light Shines on Promise Lodge by Charlotte Hubbard

April 17, 2020

Light Shines on Promise Lodge by Charlotte Hubbard

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Charlotte Hubbard will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click to see the other stops on the tour.

For abandoned wife Annabelle Beachey, Promise Lodge is a refuge where she’s gained confidence and self-sufficiency. But she and the others are dismayed when newly arrived Bishop Clayton King claims the community is too progressive and sets out to change its ways. Worse, her husband, Phineas, returns, expecting her to give up her faith as he has. And he won’t leave Promise Lodge without her…

But little by little, Annabelle’s determination and new forthrightness make Phineas realize his mistakes—and truly hear his wife for the first time. Meanwhile, Annabelle finds herself feeling compassion—and even renewed love—for her newly humble, more caring husband. And as Bishop Clayton’s attempt to control Promise Lodge threatens everything its residents have built, Phineas and Annabelle must work together with unshakeable courage to save their new home—and their opportunity for forever happiness.

Read an Excerpt

“You know,” Cyrus remarked to his brother Jonathan, who sat beside him at the table, “I think Gloria might be coming around. Now that she’s our scribe for The Budget, along with managing Rosetta’s rentals, she doesn’t seem like such an airhead anymore.”

Jonathan’s eyebrows rose as he, too, watched Gloria enter the kitchen. “Spoken like a man in love,” he teased. “Since when are you sweet on Miss Lehman?”

“Lay off that talk, man!” Cyrus replied as he playfully punched Jonathan’s arm. “I’m just saying that Gloria’s changed. Remember how she used to follow Allen around like a lovesick puppy, spying on him and baking those brickbat brownies for him?”

“Why would you care, unless you’re interested?” his brother challenged. “Maybe today’s wedding and Allen’s engagement to Phoebe is getting you in the mood, eh?”

Jonathan’s remark caught Cyrus by surprise. The two of them had been working six days a week all spring and summer to help their older cousins, Simon and Sam Helmuth, establish their landscaping nursery, so they hadn’t had a lot of time for dating.

And now that Phoebe’s hitching up with Troyer, only two are left—unless you broaden your horizons and start scouting around Forest Grove . . . or Cloverdale, where Maria is.

“I rest my case. If you have no response, you’re susceptible to wedding fever,” Jonathan remarked lightly.

Cyrus sat up straighter to challenge his brother. “Here you are at twenty-four—much older than I am—and you’ve got no prospects at all. What’s your problem?”

“Puh! I could have women swarming around me like bees if I—”

“So why don’t you?” Cyrus shot back. “You’ve had the same opportunities I’ve had.”

“Are you calling me out? Saying I couldn’t latch onto any girl I wanted?” Jonathan said in a deceptively calm voice.

Something about the tilt of his brother’s eyebrows and the light in his brown eyes sent a surge of adrenalin through Cyrus’s system. Was it the ticking of his biological clock goading him, or was he rising to Jonathan’s challenge?

“So prove it,” Cyrus heard himself say beneath the happy chatter that filled the dining room. “If you’re not engaged by Thanksgiving, you owe me five hundred bucks!”

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