Thursday, June 28, 2018

Breath of Heaven by Alana Terry Blog Tour

About the Book

Title: Breath of Heaven
Author: Alana Terry
Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction
Release Date: December 9, 2017

She hasn’t fallen out of love with her husband. She just can’t stand his church. Nobody told Katrina being a pastor’s wife would be easy. But she never imagined that the stress she and her husband would face from his new job could so easily destroy their marriage. In spite of her mother’s disapproval, Katrina marries a pastor whose job immediately plucks her away from her music, her symphony, and the city life she loves and plants her in the small town of Orchard Grove, Washington. If she knew going into her new life that she’d be sacrificing her music career for a congregation full of gossips and backbiters and that the pressure of her husband’s new job would turn him into someone she hardly recognizes anymore, she might have reconsidered marrying him in the first place. Unfortunately, it’s too late to do anything about that now. Or is it?

Click here to purchase your copy!

My review:

Every novel I have read by Terry has been hard hitting fiction. She is not afraid to write about serious issues. She tackles the difficult task of being a pastor's wife here. She holds nothing back. We get a pretty clear picture of what an insecure woman might experience as a newly wed wife in a new town full of, well, not so nice church members.

Terry concentrates heavily on the inner turmoil of Katrina. She struggled with leaving behind her participation in a symphony, something that gave her great meaning in life. She struggled with the emotional remnants of her controlling mother. She struggled with feeling like she lived in a fish bowl. “Appearances mean a lot here,” her husband says. (1438/3735) She struggled with wanting to feel loved when her husband was so demanding and busy.

Much of the text consists of Katrina's thoughts about all of those struggles. At times I almost felt overwhelmed with lengthy exploration of her turmoil. I was disappointed that Katrina did not rely on her faith more for the strength she needed. I found it hard to embrace the characters of Katrina and her husband. I know being a ministering couple in a small town can be hard, but I would have liked them to be stronger characters, especially at the end.

This novel is a portrait of a new pastor's wife written by a seasoned pastor's wife. I do recommend this novel to those who want to understand what couples in ministry really go through in trying to pastor a small church.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author

Alana is a pastor’s wife, homeschooling mom, self-diagnosed chicken lady, and Christian suspense author. Her novels have won awards from Women of Faith, Book Club Network, Grace Awards, Readers’ Favorite, and more. Alana’s passion for social justice, human rights, and religious freedom shines through her writing, and her books are known for raising tough questions without preaching. She and her family live in rural Alaska where the northern lights in the winter and midnight sun in the summer make hauling water, surviving the annual mosquito apocalypse, and cleaning goat stalls in negative forty degrees worth every second.

Guest Post from Alana Terry

I used to think being a pastor’s wife would be glamorous. Now I know better!

Although I’ve loved the different churches where my husband has been called to serve, being a couple in full-time ministry can definitely take its toll on a marriage.

Breath of Heaven is a novel in my Orchard Grove Christian women’s fiction series, which deals with real-life couples facing real-life issues. In Breath of Heaven, two newlyweds are thrown into the world of church politics, and the honeymoon period is quickly over.

I wrote this novel to give an inside peek at what it’s like if you’ve never been a pastor’s wife as well as to offer some hope and encouragement to women who know the stress of being married to someone in full-time ministry.