Have you ever watched a friend or relative debate the merits of two different potential boyfriends? Ever done so yourself? Ever (gasp!) wondered if the husband you chose is the right one?
True confession time: I have done all three of those things. I’ve bitten my nails watching a friend choose between the bike messenger and the wealthy banker. I’ve let the super-handsome skydiver go to embark on a wonderful relationship with the chubby, geeky engineer. And I’ve wondered, with some anguish, whether I was right to marry the conservative, traditional finance guy instead of the liberal, sensitive writer (I still think yes… although that marriage’s demise is a whole other story).
I guess it’s no wonder that my Sacred Bond series kicks off with a love triangle. Since readers keep asking how I came up with the premise for such a looong series, here’s a piece of the story.
- A Christmas Bond was the first Sacred Bond story I wrote. This prequel novella, set in the year 2000, tells the story of a lonely veteran who’s started a residential school for at-risk boys and finds himself spending Christmas there with four of them. When one of the boys steals the baby Jesus from his neighbor’s lawn nativity scene, John Moretti has to connect with the neighbor’s pretty granddaughter to solve the mystery, and in the process, he helps her to reconnect with God. Of course, they fall in love! But out of somewhere, explaining John’s history, I wrote this line: “It had been in just such a car that he’d made the biggest mistake of his life, one he was still paying for. And still nursing that same old flame.” What? Where did that come from?
- I kept on puzzling about that question as I pulled together the Sacred Bond Christian romance novels, one for each of the four at-risk teenagers who grew up to be heroes. Finally, it came to me. I wrote Before the Bond, a 1980s-set short story about a college girl who breaks up with her handsome, successful premed boyfriend and has a few dates with the bad-boy townie who works as a handyman
at her college. Yes, you guessed it: the handyman is a young John Moretti. Emily and John make a serious mistake, and Emily has to choose: should she go back to the future doctor, or take the huge risk of jumping on the back of a motorcycle with John? What would YOU do? You can read that story for free when you sign up for my newsletter right here: http://www.leetobinmcclain.com.
- We catch up with Emily eighteen years later in A Bond for the Holidays. Yes, she married the premed student, who’s now a stable, successful doctor. But their marriage is thrown into turmoil when the secret from Before the Bond comes back to haunt them. How does a happily-married couple keep their family together when their faith and trust and history is called completely into question… at
Christmas? Find out how it all resolves in A Bond for the Holidays, featuring Emily, her husband Robert, and, yes, our bad-boy friend, John Moretti.
What about you? Would you choose a stable doctor or a bad-boy handyman? Ever struggled with a romantic choice, or advised your daughter or sister about one? Comment TODAY for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card. Maybe you’ll use it to buy the two Christmas-themed boxed sets I’m in this year. John’s story, A Christmas Bond, is in Home for Christmas, and Robert and Emily’s story, A Bond for the Holidays, is in Love’s Gift. Both collections feature wonderful authors and faith-filled stories to lift your spirits… and each set is only 99 cents. It’s our Christmas gift to you, our readers.
When I was young this guy from my church was really into me but I was to young to date,being 14, and only living in his town for the school year.
He tracked me down at my Grandmother’s a few years later but things didn’t click for me.
I always wondered what if?
I am pondering that questions right now–choosing the right husband! So right now I am unfortunately separated and living alone. Well not all alone. I have 2 loyal. loving cats!! Wishing you happy holidays!!
I have often wondered what would have happened if I had stayed in touch with my childhood boyfriend. When my first marriage ended due to my husband deciding he no longer wanted the responsibility of a family, I met that childhood friend again at my grandparent’s house. His words to me were “I have been waiting for you”. Oh, how I wish I would have maintained contact with him. Instead I remarried only to end up single again 18 years later.
I love that your series covers such a large span of time, Lee.
Ah…matters of the heart. I tend to hold my peace when it comes to giving relationship advice to friends and family. As for myself, after 18 years, I think I made the right choice. :)
I haven’t been in a relationship yet but would probably go for the stable doctor.
I have read Before the Bond and His Baby Bond, and am really enjoying the stories.
Wow, I love these stories! Thank you all for commenting! Wondering “what if,” pondering while living with the cats, childhood sweethearts… everyone has a different romantic path to follow, I guess! Jill, you sound both blessed to have found the right man and smart to avoid giving relationship advice! And Lientjie, thank you for the kind words about my books.
When I was younger, I was certainly drawn to the “bad boy,” though I never actually dated one. Actually, very few existed in the small town where I grew up. As I grew older, I realized the importance of looking for deeper, more meaningful qualities in someone… other than just a guy who would irritate my parents :-)
Love the series…well, all of your books, Lee…but about the “what if’s”…We all have pasts…some better or worse than others, but it’s the present’s that matter most because with a lot of faith that the Lord can and will guide us when we seek Him…we know that all things work together for good to them that Love Him (Romans 8:28)…I’m thrilled my present is with my husband of almost 17 yrs and know that through all the pasts that we both carry…we have founded our marriage on Jesus and know with a lot of work and faith…it’ll work out for good (even if some hard/bad times happen along) :)
I always went with the theory, if you have to choose between two people, always go with the second. If you had loved the first, there would have never been a second. Love these books. Merry Christmas!!
Always choose from the heart.
Hmmmm…I was never really attracted to the bad boy type…the loner type maybe. Something about the brooding hero gets to me back then. Now, I love a good story with a smart and witty, some mischievous smile of a hero will keep me hooked.
How about the stable doctor who looks like a badboy handyman in his free time? ;)
You guys are so funny! Carrie–sounds like you want the best of both worlds! And as the parent of a teen, I am just entering into the “I like him because Mom doesn’t” phase from the parent side–oh, no! Yes, we all have pasts and probably a little “bad boy/girl” in all of us… sinners in need of salvation, and what looks like a bad boy from the outside may not be so bad. Jesus loved the bad boys!
I love your theory, Jodi! Right up there with finding something the last place you look because, after all, you stopped looking when you found it! So true in both cases.
As a veteran of a successful 35+ year marriage, I think everyone has regrets once or twice. Two humans, no matter how hard they’re trying to put each other and God first, are going to struggle and wonder if they made the best choice. And let’s admit it. We do not try to put each other and God first every single minute. (I may be alone here, but I don’t think so!)
Marriage is hard work some days, even when you’re both fully committed.
Lee, I enjoyed your two Christmas novellas!
Marriage is work but it is rewarding when both are focused on God first.
My story is a little different. I didn’t have any dates while in high school. I met a nice fellow while in college, but he had a girl friend at the time. After graduating from college, my cousin told me I needed to flirt a bit, but I wasn’t that type. At a conference, something the speaker said nudged me to ask the Lord to “drop a boyfriend in my lap without my having to flirt.” Not long after that the fellow mentioned above came back into my life, and a relationship developed. When I was pretty sure he was going to ask me to marry him, I wondered about the previous girlfriend. That’s when the Lord nudged him to tell me why I was the one, and the others were not! We’ll celebrate 42 years of marriage this month.
I’m asking God to pick the right man for me. He’s wiser than I am about these kinds of things. :)
Andrea
andrearenee2004@yahoo.com
I am right up there with Valerie. I have been married 42 years to a disabled Viet Nam veteran. It takes a lot of love, prayer and patience to deal with a husband that has so many issues due to the war. When I think of being married for 42 years it seems like a long, long time. But honestly we take one day at a time and the years pass by so fast. Having grandchildren really brings that extra joy to a marriage. I was never attracted the bad guy way back when.
That would be a tough question to answer. To me, I could care less if someone is a doctor or a handyman. It just all depends how well they would treat me and my kids.
Merry Christmas!!!!
35 years is amazing, Valerie–I salute you!
Such long marriages and such inspiring attitudes. Focusing on our own service and how the other person treats us makes such good sense. And leaving it all to God, Andrea–that sure makes more sense than trying to figure it out ourselves!
In “real life” the bad boys have done nothing but break loved one’s hearts, but as a reader. they are fun to read. Done right, those boys transform and it’s always a great read.
After watching my older sister get her heart broken by her boyfriends, I decided that I’d not give my heart so easily. I dated my husband for two years before we married and it’s been wonderful, even through all the ups and downs of life. I respect the stable characters more than the wild ones, in life and in books :)
What an interesting question, Lee! In general once a decision is made I feel it’s best to resolve to make the most of it. But- I will admit to succumbing to “what ifs” on occasion. I had a college beau who went away to graduate school and when he returned with a proposal I had already begun dating my future husband. Sometimes I wonder if I should have waited for him….
Very good point about the difference between life and books! Definitely sounds like popular opinion is leaning toward the stable guy over the bad boy, at least in real life.
Heidi, you sound like a very smart woman, learning from the mistakes of others. And Edie–oh, yes, those college beaus can really stand out in our memories, can’t they?
I have read both stories plus several of the others. Love these characters! As a teen I had a crush on a ‘bad boy” that was older than me by several years. He discouraged my interest so I was fortunate not to have to choose. He had a lot respect for my dad and seem to know that there was not a future for us. I am glad I did not choose someone because he was different from what I knew. Too many of my friends married the wrong one and suffered for it. When my marriage ended, I did not look for someone else. I put my time into raising my boys. I believed that if I was to marry again that God would direct my path to meeting someone. That was the better choice because there was so much growing in my faith that I needed to do. Have a wonderful Christmas!
Thankfully I’ve never had to choose between two men in my life….I think that would be so complicated! I never liked the “bad boy” type, to me, they are too arrogant & boastful. They’d drive me away…lol!
I was engaged to be married at 19 to my high school sweetheart. I don’t feel I was too young, even looking back I knew I loved him with my whole heart. He went in the military right after graduation and sadly he broke things off with me in a “dear Jane” letter (oh I hate those!). He never really gave me a straight answer and then I learned (years later) that he married someone else a few months afterwards. A gal on the same ship as he was at the time…it was a co-ed ship. I was devastated and my life made all sorts of wrong turns after that. I lost who I really was. Fast forward to today, I’m married to the love of my life after a first marriage that should have never been. Long story….lol…but God has blessed me in so many ways and has restored so many things in my life! I will always wonder what-if things would have worked with my high school sweetheart, he was after all, my first love :-) One can’t ever forget the first one! God knows best and I’m very blessed with my husband because in all the ways that count, he is like my first love. Kind, gentle, loving, respectful & Godly :-)
A few months after I was saved, I broke up with my unbeliever boyfriend and that’s the best and only choice I think I made. My now husband of 13 years wooed me shortly after and we’ve been in love ever since!
Oh Emily, I wish you would have told John from the start! Less interesting series that way but I just can’t get over it! I’m working my way through the Love’s Gift collection, anticipating some more Bond action!
Life does take so many turns, doesn’t it? I guess we gain some wisdom along the way, except for those rare few who start out wise. Beth, your plea to Emily made me smile. The series would never have happened if she’d told the truth! Please let me know what you think of the way things turn out in A Bond for the Holidays.
Thankfully, I chose the right husband because after TWO dates with him, he proposed and we’ve been blissfully married for over 30 years! Three children and 2 granddaughters later, I wouldn’t change a thing! We both just knew it was right from the very moment we met! I know it isn’t usual but I’m so glad it happened to me!
I chose a bad boy handyman… Married for 39 years now :)
I am enjoying reading Love’s Gift and Nowhere for Christmas is next!
Merry Christmas :)