Saturday, November 14, 2026

My Thoughts The Teacher’s Mending Heart Author: Lauralyn Keller

About the Book

Book: The Teacher’s Mending Heart

Author: Lauralyn Keller

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: September 22, 2026

In the quiet hollows of a dying Appalachian town, a guarded nurse and a grieving teacher must decide if a second chance at love is worth the risk.

After losing her fiancé in the Great War, nurse Bethany Astor swore she’d never risk her heart again. But when the Red Cross sends her to the struggling mountain town of Laurel Ridge, Tennessee, she meets a schoolteacher whose pain mirrors her own. As she uses her skills to heal his injured leg, Bethany discovers that keeping her walls intact might be harder than she ever imagined.

Dylan Harper’s leg injury kept him from the battlefield, but his emotional wounds run deeper. Haunted by a tragic accident that claimed a young student’s life, he’s learned that loving someone means risking devastating loss. When Bethany arrives in town with her gentle spirit and healing touch, she awakens feelings he thought long buried—and terrifies him with their intensity.

As Laurel Ridge fights for survival, Bethany and Dylan must confront the ghosts of their past before they can embrace a future together. With both their hearts scarred by loss, will they find the courage to choose love over fear before time runs out?

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Lauralyn Keller loves to combine history and romance in stories that touch the heart. She lives in beautiful Colorado and is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking, hiking, and reading.

More from Lauralyn

This story started as fanfiction.

I love the show When Calls the Heart. Janette Oke was one of my favorite authors as a teenager, so I was thrilled when Hallmark turned her books into a series. Back in season 6, I hardcore shipped Nathan with Elizabeth almost as soon as he joined the cast. The potential for a relationship between them sparked my creativity, and soon I was writing fanfiction for them. At first, it was all a continuation of the show itself—where I hoped it would go, how I could see the characters behaving, what situations they might find themselves in. Then 2020 hit, and the pandemic shut everything down. My fanfiction became more hypothetical, taking characters from the show and placing them in completely different times and places. I wrote three or four full-length novels that bore very little resemblance to the show—some historical, some contemporary—driven by my love of those characters and, more importantly, my love of storytelling.

Healing Hearts was one of those stories.

I wondered what would happen if I took Nathan, Elizabeth, and a few other characters and put them in a small French town immediately after World War II. Their jobs changed. Their motivations changed. Their circumstances changed. Before I knew it, the only things When Calls the Heart and Healing Hearts really had in common were the names of the characters.

Sure, some themes remained—love after loss, rising above difficult circumstances, and finding hope in the midst of hardship. But those are themes that belong to historical fiction as much as they belong to any particular story.

Several years later, I remembered that fanfic and how much fun it had been to write. I wondered if I could tinker with it and turn it into a real novel. I started changing names, places, and circumstances, expecting to end up with essentially a fanfiction rewrite. Instead, I ended up with a completely different story.

That story became The Teacher’s Mending Heart—the story of Bethany and Dylan, a nurse and a teacher in small-town Appalachia in the aftermath of the Great War.

And then things took a personal turn.

I’m a teacher, so my own job was the inspiration for Dylan’s. And the heartbreak he experiences is the same heartbreak I experienced: the loss of a student. Writing Dylan’s journey to healing became a form of healing for me.

I didn’t set out to write through my own feelings of pain and all the what-ifs that come with loss. But as Dylan’s story progressed, those feelings flowed out through him. Grief is hard. It’s something most of us have wrestled with in one form or another, and I think stories can sometimes help us process the things we don’t have words for ourselves. My prayer is that by reading Dylan and Bethany’s stories of healing after loss, some readers might find the same comfort I found in writing them

On a lighter note, Bethany’s character was inspired in part by my sister. Bethany is a nurse, but her specialty is massage therapy, which happens to be my sister’s specialty as well. A lot of Bethany’s phrases or actions as a masseuse came directly from my sister. That was fun to write, and I might have chuckled a time or two mimicking my sister’s mannerisms. I don’t know a whole lot about massage personally, but having a research aide close by and in person was very helpful!

This story ended up being the most personal I’ve written yet. It certainly wasn’t intended that way—after all, it started as fanfiction! But perhaps that’s part of the beauty of writing. Sometimes a story takes you somewhere you never expected to go. The Teacher’s Mending Heart is close to my heart because of that journey, and I hope Dylan and Bethany’s story blesses you in some way.

My Thoughts

One of my favorite things about historical fiction is being transported back in time, and The Teacher’s Mending Heart does a wonderful job of that! Set in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee in 1919, the story gives us a glimpse into what life was like for small communities struggling to recover from World War I and the Spanish flu.

I especially enjoyed the historical setting and learning about the hardships these communities faced. It really makes you appreciate the resilience of people during that time and how much they depended on one another to survive.

The characters were another highlight for me. Bethany and Dylan are both carrying emotional wounds from their pasts, and I appreciated that their struggles felt genuine. Watching their relationship develop while they worked through grief, fear, and the possibility of second chances made the story even more meaningful. I also enjoyed the supporting characters and the sense of community throughout the book.

Lauralyn Keller does a lovely job of blending history, memorable characters, faith, and romance. If you enjoy historical fiction that teaches you a little something about the past while giving you characters to connect with, this is definitely one worth picking up!

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, November 3

Texas Book-aholic, November 4

Lyssa Loves Books, November 5

Holly’s Book Corner, November 5

Devoted To Hope, November 6

Simple Harvest Reads, November 7 (Guest Review from Marilyn)

Life on Chickadee Lane, November 8

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, November 9

lakesidelivingsite, November 10

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, November 11

Pause for Tales, November 11

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, November 12

For Him and My Family, November 13

Connie’s History Classroom, November 14

Mary Hake, November 14

Blossoms and Blessings , November 15

Cover Lover Book Review, November 16

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Lauralyn is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/HdqGY/the-teachers-mending-heart-celebration-tour-giveaway

Sunday, September 27, 2026

MY THOUGHTS The Ballerina’s Bargain Author: Lorri Dudley

The Ballerina’s Bargain

About the Book

Book: The Ballerina’s Bargain

Author: Lorri Dudley

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: September 8, 2026

A burdened earl. A determined ballerina. Saving the theatre was part of their bargain. Losing their hearts wasn’t.

London, 1815

Emmeline Laurent has survived by grace and grit. After her parents’ execution in France, she has learned to live unseen as a humble ballerina instructing young pupils in a small London theatre. When whispers spread that the Danforth Theatre may be sold to an unscrupulous buyer, Emmeline fears not only for her livelihood but for the safety of her impressionable students. With no time and no options, she does the only thing she knows to do: leap into a moving carriage and bargain with the new lord who holds their fate.

Grant Atherton, the Earl of Quincy, has inherited the crushing weight of duty along with a failing theatre, an arranged engagement, two younger sisters to usher into society, and a mountain of his father’s secrets. Selling the Danforth is the only way to save his family from ruin. The last thing he needs is a beautiful, infuriatingly determined ballerina turning his careful plans upside down.

But when Emmeline’s hidden past begins surfacing and the danger circling the theatre proves far deadlier than either of them realized, Grant must choose between the life he planned and the one God may have been preparing all along.

For fans of Roseanna M. White and Jen Turano — a sweeping Regency romance about the grace found in surrender, the courage it takes to trust, and the God who makes a way when every door seems closed.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Lorri Dudley has been a finalist in numerous writing contests and has a master’s degree in Psychology. She lives in Ashland, Massachusetts with her husband and three teenage sons, where writing romance allows her an escape from her testosterone filled household.

More from Lorri

Many young girls dream of growing up to become a ballerina. There is a romantic whimsy to the airy skirts, graceful movements, and illusion of defying gravity as dancers balance en pointe and extend their limbs with such elegance that they seem almost infinite. While modern audiences often associate ballet with beauty and enchantment, behind the heavy stage curtains of Regency England’s opera-ballet lurked a darker reality.

Many of the ballerinas came from impoverished families struggling to put food on the table. Girls trained from a young age, long before the onset of womanhood, and were expected to endure grueling hours of rehearsal despite blisters, sore muscles, and bleeding feet. For some, ballet offered a better alternative for a working girl than scrubbing floors and emptying chamberpots as a scullery maid, laboring as a laundress near scalding water and hot presses or cleaning dangerous cotton machinery in a mill.

At least the stage held the possibility of applause—if the performance was well received. If it wasn’t, audiences could be merciless. Performers might be shouted down, heckled off the stage, or pelted with food. Fights occasionally erupted among patrons in the pit or upper gallery, while disreputable men gathered in the front row of what was known as Fops’ Alley in hopes of catching a scandalous glimpse of the ballerinas’ ankles.

Their wealthy counterparts could become a ballerina’s sponsor, gaining special access to backstage rooms where they could ogle the dancers and receive in-person introductions after a performance. These men were known as protectors, though the title was a misnomer. In exchange for a ballerina’s exclusive attention, they offered gifts the young women could scarcely afford themselves, like new ballet slippers, ribbons, bracelets, or other trinkets.

While saving the theatre and its ballerinas from these so-called “protectors” forms the premise of The Ballerina’s Bargain, the novel doesn’t dwell on the darker details of these backstage arrangements. Instead, it focuses on the heroic efforts of its protagonists to spare the young ballerinas from a wretched fate. However, the tension of what may happen should they fail lingers in the wings throughout the story.

Enjoy!

MY THOUGHTS

One thing I really love about historical fiction is when I walk away from a book feeling like I actually learned something, and The Ballerina’s Bargain definitely did that for me. I loved the time period and all the little historical details Lorri Dudley worked into the story. There were several things I didn’t know before reading this one, and of course that sent me down a rabbit hole wanting to learn even more.

I especially enjoyed learning more about the world of ballet during this time and what life and society were like for women. I love when the history is worked naturally into the story instead of feeling like I’m getting a history lesson. It made the setting feel so much more real, and I found myself just as interested in those details as I was in the romance and the characters.

This was such an enjoyable read for me because it gave me a little bit of everything I look for in historical fiction—a good story, interesting characters, romance, and a time period I could get completely lost in. Give me a book that entertains me while teaching me something I didn’t know before, and I’m a happy reader. The Ballerina’s Bargain did exactly that.

Blog Stops

Devoted Steps, September 19

The Lofty Pages, September 20

Books Less Travelled, September 20

Devoted To Hope, September 21

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, September 21

She Lives To Read, September 22

Texas Book-aholic, September 23

Melissa’s Bookshelf, September 23

Fruitfully Planted, September 24

For Him and My Family, September 24

Sydney Schmied Books, September 25

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, September 25

Connie’s History Classroom, September 26

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, September 26

Simple Harvest Reads, September 27 (Guest Review from Donna)

Sylvan Musings, September 28

Leslie’s Library Escape, September 29

Paula’s Pad of Inspiration, September 30

Cover Lover Book Review, September 30

Holly’s Book Corner, October 1

Pause for Tales, October 2

To Everything There Is A Season, October 2

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Lorri is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/aa58y/the-ballerinas-bargain-celebration-tour-giveaway

Thursday, September 24, 2026

MY THOUGHTS Sparks of Hope Author: Avrie Swan

About the Book

Book: Sparks of Hope

Author: Avrie Swan

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: September 1, 2026

A woman rebuilding after tragedy and a grieving father searching for hope discover that the past isn’t finished with them.

After the Peshtigo Fire reduces her teaching dreams to ash, Willow Deeran refuses to let the flames win. She pours her last hope into an audacious plan: opening an orphanage for the children left homeless by Wisconsin’s deadliest wildfire. All she needs is funding—and a partner she’s never met.

Violin maker Valentine Ashardt has spent the year since the fire hiding behind his grief, haunted by the daughter he lost in the blaze. Helping Willow build the orphanage offers more than purpose. As silent co-owner, he’ll have access to every child who comes through its doors. Surely, one of them will be his Mary.

As anonymous threats mount, old accusations resurface, and a mysterious little girl with no memory arrives on their doorstep, Willow and Valentine must decide if their dreams might not look different than they’d once hoped. Because sometimes God’s plan looks nothing like what we imagined. And sometimes the family we’ve been desperately searching for has been standing beside us all along.

For fans of Joanna Davidson Politano and Jody Hedlund—a tender story of faith renewed, purpose rediscovered, and love rising from the most unexpected ruins.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Avrie Swan is a Christian author and avid reader with a love for all things historical. Having grown up exploring antique stores and museums, she eventually decided to combine her interest in history with her love for writing and began working on her first full-length novel at the age of fourteen. She especially enjoys writing stories that focus on themes of family, faith, and growth through difficult times.

When Avrie is not writing, she is watching old movies, collecting antique books, and hunting for agates. A native Wisconsinite, she enjoys spending the cold winters indoors with her cat on her lap and a good book in her hand.

More from Avrie

Hello, folks!

It’s hard to believe Sparks of Hope is the third and final entry in The Peshtigo Fire Chronicles series. Writing this book was bittersweet… but also undeniably exciting. Willow and Valentine’s story took me some time to develop, and the result is a book with a lot of heart. Their tale explores themes of found family and growth while also rounding out Carina and Charlotte’s journeys. I hope you enjoy the conclusion to their stories!

One of my favorite elements in Sparks of Hope is Valentine’s occupation as a luthier. My family has always enjoyed music, and since I took violin lessons for several years when I was younger, I thought it only fitting to include a violin maker in one of my stories. I didn’t know much about the process of building violins when I started my research for the book, but I soon discovered it’s a fascinating and detailed craft. I have the utmost respect for the skilled people who shape the instruments enjoyed by so many.

While music plays a small role in Sparks of Hope, the story’s central theme is purpose. Have you ever wondered what God’s plan was for your life? That question weighs heavily on Willow’s mind after a disaster ruins all her carefully laid plans. She finds herself needing to choose a new path and pursue a different dream…although achieving it may not be quite as simple as she hopes.

In honor of the upcoming release of Sparks of Hope, I thought it would be fun to do a “this or that” game featuring some elements from the book. Which options do you prefer? Pick your favorites and then head over to my Instagram (@avrieswanwrites) or website (avrieswan.com) to share your choices!

Scarf or shawl
Griddlecakes or fresh bread
Cottage or townhouse
Sleigh ride or autumn walk
Frozen harbor or snowy forest

Blessings,

Avrie Swan

MY THOUGHTS

Give me a historical fiction book that sends me down a rabbit hole wanting to learn more, and I’m happy! That was one of the things I really enjoyed about Sparks of Hope by Avrie Swan. I love when I can enjoy a good story and walk away having learned something along the way. Swan captures the historical setting beautifully, and the writing made it easy to picture the time, place, and circumstances surrounding the characters.

I also really enjoyed getting to know the characters. There’s plenty of hardship in their stories, but there’s also that thread of hope running through everything, which made me want to keep reading and see where their journeys would take them. I found myself becoming more invested in them the further I got into the book.

Overall, this was a beautifully written historical read that gave me more than just a good story. I love books that entertain me while also introducing me to pieces of history that make me curious enough to go learn more on my own. Avrie Swan did a wonderful job blending the history, characters, and emotion together in Sparks of Hope, and I’m glad I had the chance to read it.

Blog Stops

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, September 12

Books Less Travelled, September 13

lakesidelivingsite, September 14

She Lives to Read, September 15

Simple Harvest Reads, September 15 (Guest Review from Marilyn)

For Him and My Family, September 16

Texas Book-aholic, September 17

Betti Mace, September 18

Holly’s Book Corner, September 18

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, September 19

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, September 20

Cover Lover Book Review, September 21

Pause for Tales, September 21

Devoted To Hope, September 22

Life on Chickadee Lane, September 23

Connie’s History Classroom , September 24

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, September 24

Blossoms and Blessings, September 25

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Avrie is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/qaNE5/sparks-of-hope-celebration-tour-giveaway

Monday, September 21, 2026

MY THOUGHTS - Secrets of the Desert Rose Author: Marilyn Turk

About the Book

Book: Secrets of the Desert Rose

Author: Marilyn Turk

Genre: Dual Timeline

Release Date: February 24, 2026

Three Women. Two generations. Their friendship survived the war. Their secret survived even longer.

Monique and Audrey, one French and one British, grow up in French Algiers on the coast of the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. Best friends, they keep each other’s secrets into adulthood when World War II changes their world and Algiers sides with the Hitler-based Vichy government. Audrey joins Charles DeGaulle’s resistance army, the French Foreign Legion, while Monique stays to work in the underground resistance aiding the Allied invasion of North Africa.

In present day, American born great-granddaughter Nicole, a graduate student in archaeology, goes to North Africa for an internship. The now centenarian Monique (Mimi), debilitated by a stroke, urges her to find the Desert Rose. Nicole finds different types of desert roses, but none are the right one until she stumbles onto information that hints the desert rose might not be a flower after all. While Sami, her instructor in Algiers, helps her find the desert rose, he also has to protect her from people who want the heirloom ring Nicole wears which has its own secret.

Will Nicole find the secret before it’s too late?

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Award-winning author Marilyn Turk has written over twenty historical and contemporary novels and novellas laced with suspense and romance. She especially likes writing World War II era books, and loves to discover information not widely known for her stories. In addition to fiction, Marilyn is also an annual contributor to Guideposts’ Walking in Grace and other Guideposts anthologies.

Marilyn enjoys helping other writers and founded the Blue Lake Christian Writers Conference. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Faith, Hope and Love Christian Writers, AWSA, Word Weavers International and the United States Lighthouse Society.

Marilyn’s most recent books have been Secrets of the Desert Rose, The Escape Game set in World War II, and a novella, The Gilding of Minnie Tucker, set in The Gilded Age..

She and her husband Chuck have a blended family of four sons, one daughter and four grandsons whom they enjoy spending time with. Marilyn and Chuck are lighthouse enthusiasts and have visited over 100 lighthouses in the United States and other countries. They also served as volunteer lighthouse caretakers at Little River Light off the coast of Maine. As a result of her interest in lighthouses, Marilyn wrote Lighthouse Devotions, 52 Inspiring Lighthouse Stories.

More from Marilyn

Why did I write Secrets of the Desert Rose by Marilyn Turk

Because I enjoy reading novels set during World War II, I also enjoy writing them. Most of the novels I’ve read are set in Europe – England, France, and surrounding countries. But we know the war impacted the whole world, so I look for stories set in places we don’t know much about.

Why did I set this book in North Africa? My sister-in-law’s mother was French and was born and lived in Algiers until sometime during World War II. Unfortunately, I waited too long to ask her about it, even though she lived to the age of 94. However, she left journals which gave insight into her life in Algiers and opened my eyes to what happened there before and during World War II. Monique is modeled on her stories.

While researching Algiers though, I came across another woman who was British and also played a role in North Africa during the war. Her name was Susan Travers, and her autobiography provided more interesting information. Although the two real women may have never met, her life was the basis for Audrey’s character.

I always find historical surprises when I research a novel and discovering the story of Cleopatra Selene was fascinating to me, so I had to include her in the book as well. And since there was so much secrecy involved in the true stories, I thought my characters needed secrets of their own, and my present-day character, Nicole, would have to discover them.

MY THOUGHTS

There’s something about Marilyn Turk’s writing that just works for me. I really love this author because she doesn’t simply tell you a story—she builds it piece by piece until you realize you’re completely caught up in it. Secrets of the Desert Rose had that same quality, and before long I was invested in the characters and curious about where the story was going to take me.

I especially loved that this is a dual timeline story. Sometimes those can feel a little disjointed to me, but Marilyn Turk weaves the two timelines together so seamlessly that I enjoyed moving back and forth between them. I loved seeing the connections slowly come together while still getting the history, mystery, romance, and danger that kept me interested. She gives her characters enough depth that I cared about what was happening in both timelines, which made the story even better for me.

Secrets of the Desert Rose is exactly why I continue picking up Marilyn Turk’s books. She knows how to craft a story with heart while still giving me the mystery and suspense I love. Add in two timelines that are beautifully woven together, and this was definitely my kind of read. Marilyn Turk has absolutely earned a spot on my “I’ll read whatever she writes” list.