Delia Latham's Yesterday's Promise Review and Contest!

Today marks the first day of Delia Latham's blog tour for her book Yesterday's Promise, and I'm honored to kick it off when one of my therapeutic reviews.

Here's a blurb about the book from Delia's website:

A whirlwind romance amidst the natural splendor of Yosemite National Park. A spur-of-the-moment wedding near Bridalveil Fall. A young bride who awakens the morning after to find her new husband gone with the mountain wind.

Songbird Hannah Johns supports the child born of that ill-fated union by singing in a dinner lounge. Her dream of someday owning the elite establishment and turning it into a venue more suited to her Christian values is shattered when an unexpected transaction places it in the hands of Brock Ellis, the handsome biker who abandoned her in their honeymoon suite.

Ensuing sparks fly high, revealing buried secrets and forgotten pasts. Seeking to find peace with her painful past, Hannah returns to Yosemite, and Brock follows hard on her heels. Back where it all began, she finds herself in danger of losing her heart yet again to the man who shattered it the first time around.

Any good therapist knows to start digging in a person's past to uncover reasons for present-day hurts, and both Brock and Hannah have doozies for backstories. Read: it's the type of past history that could (or should) land them both in a therapist's office.

Hannah's story is intriguing (besides the fact that she's from the Pacific Northwest where I live). Being a preacher's daughter, she had a certain standard to live up to. The first time she breaks out of that mold, and opens herself up both verbally and emotionally, disastrous consequences result. Now she's faced with the instigator, and showing Christ's love and forgiveness has never been harder. That, and protecting herself and her son has never been more important.

Haven't we all felt that way before? Crushed from all sides, as our buried past finally catches up with us? What would you do, how would you act, if you were faced with the one person who married you one day and left you the next? WHOA.

Then there's Brock, a guy who doesn't quite grasp all the facts, just one thing he knows for sure: something about Hannah draws him like a kid to an ice cream truck. He's intrigued by her, and his increasing mental jolts since meeting her are so disturbing.

One of the best parts to me was at the end. You think you know exactly how it's going to end....and then BOOM. You step on a mine in a minefield and have yet one more hurdle to conquer before you get a happily ever after, but that makes the HEA that much sweeter.

After reading this book, I got to thinking about that old question: Why does God allow bad things happen to good people? The answer is illusive, other than to say that it is all a part of God's overall scheme to work good in our lives, and to bring us to a point of fully trusting him. He wants to grow us, refine us, and those are reasons to find joy in our suffering.

On June 1st, Delia will award two (2) $10 gift certificates to White Rose Publishing at the end of her tour. Leave your email address to be entered, and be sure to follow Delia along her tour, as chances of winning can be increased by touring with her and leaving comments at each blog stop. You can find Delia's blogtour info here.

Thanks for stopping by, and best of luck toward winning the gift certificates!