Last month, we had such a wonderful conversation in the comments to my post about sex and Christian romance. Thank you all so much for spending time with me!
One of the recurring themes that cropped up in some of those comments was the desire to escape and find solace in books.
I one hundred percent agree!
Books have always been a place of rest for me – a place to get away from life and hang out with new friends. In elementary school, I considered our school librarian one of my best friends. In middle school, books were the friends that I never seemed to be able to make–or keep–in person. That continued through high school, college, and on to today.
Some of my best friends live in the pages of books.
Finding Christian romance as it’s written today (not the Janette Oake my mother loved – although, I do have a soft spot for that for nostalgia purposes), has opened up the world to a host of new friends who also share my faith. I love that I can open the pages (or haha, download it onto my Kindle) and lose myself in a story that I know will be full of swoony heroes, sigh-inducing kisses, and a happily ever after that honors God.
You know what else I love? I love seeing my new friends (my new book friends, you realize) deal with the same things I do. They stumble over their tongue and say mean, hurtful things. They over react. They sin–sometimes on purpose–they have to deal with the things that come from their choices. They struggle with God’s sovereignty.
And at the end of the day, like the Apostle Paul, they come out on the other side knowing they have fought the good fight and finished the race.
And me? Having walked alongside them as they struggled through whatever hardships their author threw at them, I am encouraged. I am strengthened in my own faith. The hours of solace I found in the pages can linger.
Again, for me, the books where the struggles are more realistic give me more solace than the quiet, gentle reads where the biggest hardship the characters go through is a misunderstanding that has nothing to do with the deepest roots of who they are.
I suspect a lot of this plays into why I write the kind of stories I do. (Aside from the fact that the stories I write are the ones God gives me. There’s always that, isn’t there?) Christian romance novels have expanded my circle of Christian men and women who I consider friends. And sure, they’re fictional, but they’re friends nonetheless. Writing Christian romance novels has done the same thing.
It’s been fascinating and fun to realize that the characters I put on the page can be my friends–and hopefully your friends, too. So here are a few of my favorites, who I hope, if you haven’t already met, you’ll add to your TBR and give them a chance.
Nearest and dearest, because she’s like my firstborn, Lydia Brown. She’s the heroine of Wisdom to Know. She’s rebellious, mostly because she’s never felt like she was enough–and she doesn’t want to let the box lid of expectations clatter down over her head.
From the same series, Allison Vasak. Compassionate and intelligent and so willing to believe that things are going to be okay, even when it doesn’t seem possible.
You can meet Lydia and Allison here.
There’s Jackson Trent, Ben Taylor, and Zach Wilson — roommates and friends who share a sarcastic sense of humor, a love of video games, and a strong commitment to sharpening one another’s faith when the chips are down. (And really, I’d be remiss if I left off David Pak and Adam Lassiter from this list — because the men of my Taste of Romance series are some of my favorites.)
You can hang out with the boys here.
Vanessa Fischer and Topher Adams are two who I’d love to hand out with time and time again. Not only because their jobs seem like they’d be a lot of fun and I’d enjoy learning about them, but because they both know exactly who they are and where they’re going, but they’re not afraid to detour when they need to.
Get to know Vanessa and Topher (and their friends!)
I could go on–but I don’t need to make a list of all my books. And I realize that it sounds like I’m choosing favorites amongst my books, but I’m not. I love them all in their own ways – they all have so many things that make them good friends.
Now it’s your turn. What was the last book you read where you finished the last page and thought, “Gosh, I wish that character (or those characters) were my friend in reality.” ? Or, if you can’t come up with that – what was the last book you read where you ended with a feeling of solace and comfort?
I’d love to gift two commenters their choice of my existing e-books. So leave me a note and I’ll choose winners Sunday afternoon.
Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace on their way to their own romantic happily ever after.
I’ve read almost all of Karen Kingsbury’s Baxter family boks and I definitely feel like they would be amazing friends to have. I struggle with making and keeping friends and love to “meet” people through reading. I think one of the reasons I like reading series is because I can keep visiting with the same people.
Yes indeed! I’ve heard such good things about the Kingsbury Baxters at some point I need to actually get to them!
I’ve said it before and I still stand by it…I would love to live in Bridgeview with Val’s amazing characters or in Chapel Cove with all of the friends created by Marion Ueckermann, Alexa Verde and Autumn MacArthur.
As for your books, Elizabeth, Lydia touched me deeply and she remains in my heart to this day!
I love Bridgeview and Chapel Cove! I do think Bridgeview sneaks out of small town since it’s a neighborhood in the city, but I won’t argue too hard :)
I want to live on Hope Ranch. :) I also love Staci Stallings’ Grace series. I already own all your books, so don’t include me in the drawing.
Staci has fabulous characters who I absolutely want to be friends with! And yay! I’m glad you love Hope Ranch. I’ve enjoyed spending time there while I’ve been writing the series.
I recently finished Elizabeth Musser’s newest book, The Promised Land. In it were characters I’d already met in The Swan House, The Dwelling Place, and The Long Highway Home. I loved the characters, and the fun thing is that the place in The Long Highway Home that is described as a refuge for refugees actually exists, and the characters are a compilation of the people who have served there or gone there for refuge! My college roommate and her husband have gone there to volunteer many times. Anyway, I think I have all of your books, so you don’t need to include me in the drawing either :-)
Oh, I loved The Swan House! I don’t know that I realized there were more with those same characters.
I’d love to be in Chapel Cove or in Hope Harbor, the series by Irene Hannon. I’d love to have one of Charley’s fish tacos! I have some of your books in my TBR stack, and I’m sure when I read them I’d love to be there! I’m reading an ARC for Alexa Verde right now, and I’d love to hang out with them, too!
Hope Harbor! Yes!!
I’d love to hang out with the characters from Pepper Basham’s books, any of them really, but especially from her Mitchell’s Crossroads series. Or Courtney Walsh’s Harbor Pointe series too.
I just re-read “Love’s Second Chance” by Patty H. Scott. I told her that I wish the heroine Kat was my BFF!
Mitchell’s Crossing is definitely somewhere I’d love to visit
Ooh I’ll have to look that up.
I am reading “Meant for Her” by Joy Avery Melville and it is a great story. I love the book characters in them and I would love to have them as my friends and inspiration.
Ooh! Another one for me to look up! Thanks!
I would love to visit Chapel Cove and Hope Harbor, as others have mentioned. I would be a daily regular for coffee and something sweet at the Baxter family bakery from your stories. I often think, as I’m reading, that I would love to be friends with a character in the story.
The thing that I find challenging is that story characters all fall short. As much as I may like them and think that I want to know them, I can’t. Which means they are inherently SAFE. Even if they act in ways that make us feel uncomfortable, we can put them away or skip over them with impunity. Can’t do that with the flesh and blood kind. Nor can the story characters truly rise to the richness of a live conversation. No book character has ever shared my interest in foreign languages or wanted to listen to me bang on about multi-lingual puns. Even when a story character does hit on a shared topic of interest, I don’t get to add my two cents. I’m at the mercy of the other characters as to how the conversation progresses.
Reading about fictional characters is like learning from a textbook. As enjoyable as the subject is to study, there is always the lab session to be considered. Or even the actual world that God created. Like the old saying goes, a ship in the harbor is safe but that’s not what a ship was made for.
Sorry, got carried away. Time for me to go take my meds and pick my next novel from the giant tower of TBR. :) :)
I only read books with a feel-good HEA.
I guess the not real part is the part I love most. Because real people are messy and hard.
Those are best for sure.
Adore Me by Autumn Macarthur. I just loved the main character, Paula, She was sweet, funny, reliable and real. A great mother, a great mother-in-law, a great Grandma, and a great woman and friend. I couldn’t stop smiling even a month after I read the book.
I love many of Autumn’s characters!
If we’re talking Paranormal YA, I’d go with Emberly and her cast of friends from Julie Hall’s newest book (first in her new series), “Stealing Embers”. If rather, we’re talking Contemporary Romance, I’ve never wished for a cast of brothers to be more real than the Spark brothers and their better halves, by Liwen Ho, or the community from the Farm Fresh series by Valerie Comer :)
Mmm. Those Spark Brothers.
Julie’s book is in my TBR pile – I have to be in the right mood for YA. But everyone I’ve seen talk about it has raved.
Right?
And it *is* good, but if this year has taught me something, is not to rush the process, so just wait for the right mood, it’ll be worth it :)
At the recommendation of a very good trusted reading friend, I discovered a new-to-me author whose character’s instantly made me feel like part of them! It’s entitled “The Christmas Table” by Donna VanLiere. Then I realized, this was the 10th book in the “Christmas Hope” series! So of course the characters were already established…but I am going backwards and reading the rest of the books. I NEED to find the backgrounds of these wonderful people. One thing I love, Donna made them real in my mind–their struggles, their anxieties, their quirks, their gentle faith, just everything! The ending was perfect, leaving me with a feeling of satisfaction & a smile on my face. That’s a good author in my book (pun intended). If you can make me care about your characters, you have me hooked for life :-)
I’m late. I have to say Janette Oke got me back into reading her When Calls the Heart series made me fall in love with Mounties and Canada. Lori Wick’s California series also spoke to me. But now CF has evolved. I got to the point that the later single books by Janette Oke were the same book with different characters. And Lori Wick became way to preachy.
I haven’t read to many books lately but I still remember some of the books and wanting to be in the book. I need to get back into reading and I really am not sure what the block is. (ok part of it is head pain right now I am due for my next botox treatment so the migraine pain is much higher). But I will get back into it.
Same here for sure! The people in the books matter most.
Pain makes everything harder. Big hugs.
And I shouldn’t be down on Janette Oake. My mom loved those early books. And so did I.
Thank you for the post, I just finished a A Handful of Hope and it gave me a feeling of solace and comfort as I finished it.
I recognize that, that characters in books can be your best friends. I love female characters that are strong enough to do that even a man should do, like be a warrior or something like that. Thank you for this post!
I have a few. I have loved reading the Joanne Fluke Hannah Swensen mysteries. I would love to be friends with all the main characters. I was so invested in reading Kristin Harmel’s Book of Lost Names. It is set during World War II. This has been a story that has haunted my thoughts since I finished reading it.
I, too, love the Bridgeview series and the characters. I prefer country living but they all manage to find some green spaces to enjoy, even in the city. Have a wonderful week!
One of the books I’ve read this year with a great message is Once Upon a Christmas by Amanda Tru ❤️