Last month, I posted The Prodigal Daughter as though written by my character, Meg Carmichael, and I asked if any of you had read other “prodigal” retellings. I didn’t get any bites, and I thought… I’m sure there must be stories with that theme out there. I know I’ve written some and read more! So I began to dig.
First, of course, is Meg’s story, The Cowboy’s Forever Crush, which you can currently find as part of the just-released multi-author Christmas box set, Once Upon a Starry Night. Meg has already returned to her childhood faith and her parents’ love when this novella begins, but she describes her journey to her love interest, Eli, as a prodigal’s journey.
In Dancing at Daybreak, part of my Urban Farm Fresh Romance series, you met Dixie Wayling. If you’ve read the series, you’ll recall that Dixie and her live-in boyfriend, Dan Ranta, were peripheral characters in the earlier stories, and I began to get curious about them. Dan came to faith and, at the beginning of Dancing at Daybreak, he’s just given Dixie an ultimatum: either they get married, or one of them moves out. Dixie is having none of that marriage nonsense and flounces out, leaving her three children, one of whom is Dan’s. She has quite a journey with a God who keeps pursuing her even while Dan, a brand-new believer himself, isn’t always sure what he should be doing and how he should be handling his relationship with Dixie.
Berry on Top, the final title in my Farm Fresh Romance, is also a prodigal daughter story. Liz has rejected everything due to a very unfortunate incident at her high school graduation. Now she is reluctantly back from Thailand after a decade away, but she’s not quite ready to meet Mason, the guy who wronged her, who now apparently is a nice guy, a single father, and a Christian. But Liz isn’t done running.
Elizabeth Maddrey’s novel Wisdom to Know features another female prodigal, Lydia, a pastor’s daughter who’s spiraling downhill quickly. In her case, Kevin has loved her from afar for a very long time, and he keeps trying to be her friend even while she rejects him and everything/everyone else reminding her of Jesus. All I can say about this powerful story is… “but God.” Read it if you haven’t!
Toni Shiloh’s novel To Win a Prince features Ekon Diallo, who is stripped of his princely title via a criminal sentence and must learn what it’s like to be truly noble. He goes from entitled, having anything/everything he wants, to learning what really matters and finding his way home. Ah, sounds like the prodigal son to me!
Emily Conrad’s An Awestruck Christmas Medley has about 5 POV’s, and one of them is Matt Visser, who is returning home to his parents after rehab. He’s still pretty rough around the edges and worried how they’ll receive him after all that happened while he was using drugs. This Christmas novella introduces the members of a band, Awestruck, and Matt’s redemptive story continues in book 4, To Believe in You.
Carolyn Miller’s hockey romance Big Apple Atonement features a pastor’s son who has lived hard and finally comes back to God and his dad.
Honorable Mention: Whatever Comes Our Way by Jaycee Weaver includes a prodigal mother, for a different twist! The heroine’s mom lived a selfish, party-hard lifestyle most of the heroine’s life but Christ turned her life around and she humbly sought to rebuild a mother-daughter relationship again.
There’s just something about the biblical account of the prodigal, found in Luke 15:11-32. You’ve got a character who has everything he (or she) needs. There’s stability and love, and yet our character decides they want more. Different things. Better(?) things. They throw off the shackles of their decent upbringing and go wild, spending all their money and ending up in despair, alone, wounded, at the end of his or her rope.
But… Jesus.
Isn’t that where God finds us? As long as we’re doing okay, proud of ourselves, carrying on doing good things and being polite, we often don’t feel like we need God’s intervention in our lives. But when we hit rock bottom, as the characters in the above mentioned novels do, God can say to us, “Are you done running yet? Are you done with your toddler temper tantrum? NOW will you give in and let Me love you the way I’ve always wanted to? Because, my child, I’ve never stopped pursuing you. I’ve been right here all along, waiting for you to realize what could be yours in Me.”
And so, I love writing novels about prodigal characters. I have two or three more that lean that direction, but less blatantly. And I love discovering this layer in the novels I read.
Because when God gets a hold of a person — whether he or she is real, or fictional! — there’s no end to the impact that can have on everything about that person. Their careers, their hobbies, and their romances.
Can you think of other CCRs with prodigal characters? Or, what other parables or Bible stories would make a great basis for a romance? Let’s talk!
Valerie Comer is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner who writes where food meets faith and fiction. She injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Her life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.
I love your last paragraph! I know I need to remember that and keep praying!
I love prodigal stories but I am one of those who can’t remember which book had a particular character and short of re-reading all my books…
I wouldn’t have bitten, as I tend to remember the story but not the book title. Though I feel like a prodigal reader at the moment. So looking forward to when eye surgery and healing is completed next year and I can return to the fold of readers who can safely read more than a little bit each day. Thanks :)
Hi Dianne! Best wishes on your eye surgery. I also feel like a prodigal reader. I thought my eyes were just getting old and tired easily, but I will be having cataract surgery in November (right eye) and December (left eye). I also don’t have make the connections of story with the title. Read to many books. Enjoy your weekend.
Thanks so much for including An Awestruck Christmas Medley! Matt’s part in that one holds a special place in my heart!
I have read books like this, I’m just not good at remembering titles!! I have to ask, have you read The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller?? I know it’s not CCR, but it’s a really good book! Puts a totally different light on this, as prodigal actually means extravagant, and he uses it to show the main point is how extravagant God is in His pursuit of each of us.
What a wonderful post today. Welcome. Mom tried very hard to raise five kids the way God would want them to be raised. She did a great job. When I was thirteen, I got epilepsy. It wasnt until I was in high school that I had had enough. I wanted to be normal like everyone else. So I stopped being “Lori” and stopped taking my meds. And woohoo I was normal and FREE to be me. Than it happened. I was home thank goodness. I have five grand malls (the big ones) in four hours. I was dehydrated and really not good. My dad read to me from the Bible. They took me to the hospital. My doctor did not show up. But another neurologist stopped by the nurses desk, saw my doctor was not there so he stopped in and introduced himself to my parents. The rest they say is history. Dr. Young took me as a patient all the way through our second child turning six. He loved our children. Back then they did not know how the meds I was on would affect the baby while I was carrying. But I got a loud clear voice from God that “I will take care of you both-Love me and obey” WOW looking back I could so see the hand of God all over my life. And He led me to a young man who would be my love/protector for life. We recently celebrated our 40th anniversary. Both our two children are in perfect health. YUP God is so in control of our lives when we let Him be.
I am like some of the other ladies. I can remember a story but don’t remember the title. So it’s hard to answer this question.
Have a wonderful day!
Rereading all your books doesn’t sound so bad… LOL
I can imagine your frustration! Praying for you this morning.
Praying for you this morning, too, Renate!
You’re welcome! I didn’t expect to love Matt, but I really did. Isn’t that the way of prodigal characters?!?!
I haven’t, Trudy! I’ll keep an eye out for it, though! God’s extravagant love – for SURE!
Wow, Lori, THANK YOU for sharing your testimony of God’s faithfulness!!!!
You, too!
Today my extended family is gathering for Canadian Thanksgiving (or, as we call it here, “Thanksgiving” ;) )
I’ll check in when I can, but I’m also hosting and cooking (with help) for 18 people, so…
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Enjoy your family time.
Valerie Comer I wonder if at times in our Christian walk we are all prodigals when life throws us a curve ball or we face disappointments and our walk with God is rocky.
Fall is finally here in SW Michigan. Rain and 53 degrees (12C). Enjoy your weekend. Best wishes.
That’s a good point, Renate. We are all prodigals at times…
I think Jacob’s story would make a great romance. Thank you for sharing. Actually, he is also a prodigal. God bless you.
Jacob is, isn’t he! Hmm…
I sort of have a prodigal son story in one of my novels, THE SECOND SHUTTLE BOAT, too. It is the sequel of THE CREW, 20 years later (or actually 2 years from the epilogue). In The Crew, one of the characters, in his youth, had come upon a secret plan and therefore he had betrayed some smugglers and, in order not to be the victim of their revenge, he had to run abroad, in a place which is not a sea port.
Some 18 years later, in the epilogue, the main character, with her friend and her twin adopted children (who had just been admitted to Uni) go on a trip to that country and have a one-day-stop in the town where the runaway (prodigal son) had settled. They see him drunk at a table, without being seen, and they send the two youngsters to talk to him. The youngsters make him promise that he would stop drinking and that he would keep in touch with them, and the epilogue ends here.
THE SECOND SHUTTLE BOAT is, actually, a metaphor for a second chance at love. He returns to his hometown 2 years later (about 20 since he had left) and fighting himself in order to stay sober. And he succeeds. Everyone of his relatives still alive welcome him, starting with the three younger sisters whose hero he had always been. He falls in love with a widow… but the smugglers are back and recognize him. He will have a last fight with them, as they take his new love hostage. And everything is well when it finishes well… With a wedding, and with the bouquet hitting the girl twin :P and falling between her and her table mate, who was on the groom’s behalf. (She was on the bride’s).
Cool :)