Welcome with me author and blogger Lori DeJong as she introduces her upcoming release. Lori has also graciously offered one person the choice of a print (US only) or ebook copy of the book.

I’m honored to have this opportunity to introduce you to my debut novel, Love’s True Calling, to be released on June 27.

I say debut, although this isn’t my first novel, by far. There have been many before it that helped me hone my skills as a writer, and a vast majority of them will never see the light of day. 

In fact, Love’s True Calling itself wasn’t meant to be written. At first, anyhow. It was homework for an online writing workshop I was taking on plotting a novel based on your characters’ motivations. But once I’d spent four weeks in the workshop and had the novel plotted, I found I’d fallen in love with Wyatt and Harper, my protagonists, who meet up in the most unlikely of places eleven years after she shattered his teenage heart.

Here are the first few paragraphs of Chapter One that I hope will intrigue you enough to want to know more. Enjoy!

Harper had never felt so … old.

She fidgeted in her seat at the end of the second row as her classmates gathered in groups around the room on this first day of the fall semester, the proverbial square peg. The last time she sat in a college classroom, most of these kids were in middle school. Of course, starting her sophomore year of college nine years after her freshman hadn’t been the original plan, but then, well … life. There was no way to see what lay around that next curve.

And hers had seen plenty of curves in her scant twenty-eight years.

A quick glance at her watch told her class should have begun five minutes ago. Odd for a professor to be late the first day, especially one with as stellar a reputation as Dr. Marjorie Vance.

A man strode into the room and closed the door behind him. “Okay, everybody, please take your seats, and we’ll get things rolling.”

Harper froze. She hardly recognized the man, but that voice she knew. The voice she’d witnessed transition from boy to adolescent crackle on the way to its present smooth, deep timbre. The voice she last heard the night she broke his heart. The night he took hers with him when he walked away.

Wyatt and Harper’s story is one of second chances. Of finding hope in the most tragic of circumstances, learning how to forgive when it seems impossible, and finding purpose through God’s redemptive love. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Love’s True Calling is Book One of my True Calling series. Book Two, Love’s True Home, will be published in June 2024, and Book Three, Love’s True Measure, will be released in June 2025. Come follow me on my journey by clicking on my website or Join My Community link.

Enter giveaway: Leave a comment and your cleverly disguised email address (so the ‘bots don’t get you) as you answer this question: What appeals to you about second chance love? We will draw randomly from all comments for a print (US only) or ebook copy of the book. Example of how to disguise your email address: donna AT livebytheword DOT com

About Lori:

Lori enjoys penning stories of grace and the redemptive power of God’s love that inspire others to hope regardless of circumstance, find joy in the moment, and grow in their faith. She resides in Georgetown, Texas, with her husband and has one grown daughter. Love’s True Calling was the 2022 winner of the ACFW Genesis Award for Romance.

About Love's True Calling:

After years of jumping through other people’s hoops to be all they thought she should be, and enduring a tragedy no mother should, self-described “newbie” Christian, Harper Townsend, has finally found her true calling … and her true love. Until it appears that to follow one may mean leaving the other behind.

Adolescent Psychologist, Wyatt McCowan, is beyond delighted to have the-girl-that-got-away back in his life, and his heart. But even as they fall more in love, he realizes that being obedient to God’s calling on each of their lives may pull them apart. She rejected him once in favor of another, which left him hurt and angry. But this time, he can’t fault her for following hard after the God she loves with all her heart, even if it means leaving him once again.

Connecting online:

My website: https://loridejongwrites.com/

Join My Community:  https://bit.ly/LoriDeJongCommunity

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/loridejongwrites/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/loridejongwrites

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/loridejongwrites

Bookbub:  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lori-dejong

To purchase Love’s True Calling:  https://scrivenings.link/lovestruecalling