It is terribly difficult to anticipate the light of dawn when your life has been turned upside down and inside out to the point of utter despair. Such was Sarah's Drayton's existence. She had naively imagined that leaving a rather drab existence as a quasi-housekeeper for an ungrateful aunt and uncle would be an adventure. Instead she had been misled into signing a contract of marriage to the local rogue, James Langley, whose own woes had succumbed to the trickery of his father.
Scorned by members of the household staff and snubbed by the local peerage, Sarah tries to make the best of her situation by reaching out to the poor and needy in the local community. After all, her new husband had conveniently returned to the battlefront, spending only one drunken night in Sarah's presence following their nuptials. But it's when James returns home in an entirely different state of mind that the challenges truly begin.
"'Bless the Lord, O my soul, forget not all His benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities . . . Who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness' . . . How she longed to know she was loved. To know she was wanted. To know she belonged." And if she was? . . . maybe their story could be re-written.
Perhaps, like me, you will find these characters a bit off-putting in the early stages of this story, but as that changes (and it does!), dare to embrace the message of hope and forgiveness they proclaim, for we serve a God who is "mighty to save", Who flings our iniquities as "far as the east is from the west", and Who assures us that "His mercies are new every morning".
*I purchased this book and was under no obligation to provide a positive review. 3.5 stars
BackCover Blurb:
Can real love grow between a wallflower and an unrepentant rogue?
Sarah
Drayton is eager to spend time with her best friend at her crumbling
Northumberland castle estate. Matrimony is the last thing on her mind
and the last thing she expects to be faced with on a holiday. Yet she
finds herself being inveigled into a marriage of convenience with her
friend’s rakish brother.
When James Langley returns to his
family's estate, he can't be bothered to pay attention to his
responsibilities as the heir. War is raging and he wants only
distraction, not serious tethers. But his roguish ways have backed him
into a corner, and he has little choice but to obey his father's
stunning decree: marry before returning to war, or else. Suddenly he
finds himself wedded to a clever and capable woman he does not love.
Sarah craves love and a place to belong, neither of which James offered
before returning to the battlefront. Now everyone around her thinks she
married above her station, and they have no intention of rewarding her
for such impertinence. It isn't until her husband returns from war
seemingly changed that she begins to hope they may find real happiness.
But can she trust that this rake has truly reformed?
When tragedy
strikes, this pair must learn to trust God and his plans. Will they be
destroyed . . . or will they discover that even in the darkest depths of
night, the morning still holds hope?
Available in digital ebook, paperback, and audiobook:
Buy MIDNIGHT'S BUDDING MORROW at Amazon, Christianbook .com, or Baker Book House
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