Saturday, September 11, 2021

long shadows

About the Book

Book: Long Shadows

Author: Cathe Swanson

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release date: April 6, 2021

Long Shadows Digital Cover reduced Old sins cast long shadows.

Mona Vickers is forging a new life, building a safe and loving home for her girls far away from the ghosts of the past. She’ll do whatever it takes to make it work, including sending her girls to the Christian-based after school program despite her own lack of faith.

Roy Strough, Director of the Unity Plenkiss Community Center, wants to help the hardworking mother who’s captured his heart, but he’s already offended her pride once. Asking Mona to teach a class at the community center in exchange for tuition seems like the perfect solution.

Mona’s growing faith is put to the test by the shadows of her past. One of her students is caught up in an all-too-familiar human trafficking scheme, and a vengeance-bent stalker pushes Mona into hiding. She’s forced to decide if she can trust the powerful God she’s only beginning to know—as well as the charming man she’s beginning to love.

Dive into this gripping romantic suspense with compelling characters, intriguing twists, and an inspiring happily ever after.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

6-20-2016-1000 After 40 years of wandering (but always in lovely places and not in a desert), Cathe Swanson has recently returned to her childhood home and family in Minnesota. In the summer, she and her husband enjoy spending time with their grandchildren and being outdoors, gardening, hiking, birdwatching, and kayaking. The long winters are perfect for writing books, playing games, reading, and indoor hobbies. Cathe’s been a quilter and teacher of quiltmaking for over 25 years and enjoys just about any kind of creative work, especially those involving fiber or paper.

Everything inspires new books! A lifelong love of quilting, Cathe’s Swedish heritage and an interest in genealogy led to The Glory Quilts series, and The Hope Again series is inspired by her life in the Midwest and experiences with the elderly, the military, and inner-city ministry. As a child of the sixties, she’s having fun writing about hippies and the Jesus People movement in the Serenity Hill series.

Cathe writes books with creative plots and engaging characters of all ages, to glorify God and entertain and bless readers. Her heartwarming stories will make you laugh and make you cry – and then make you laugh again.

More from Cathe

One of the best parts of being an author is that I’m able to create happy endings! I can right wrongs and fix a few of the world’s problems. I can rescue people (of course, I’m the one who puts them into danger in the first place, but…) and I can talk about hard topics in a third-person kind of way, with a fictional resolution. Happy endings don’t always happen in this world, but I try to make them work out in my stories.

We all need hope – especially those who find themselves in ongoing difficult situations – and that’s what I want to write into my Hope Again series. Long Shadows is Book 3 in the series. (It’s a standalone book, so you’ll enjoy it even if you’ve never read the others.) Except for the first one, Baggage Claim, all the Hope Again books are about the people – staff and guests – of the Unity Plenkiss Community Center.

The UPCC is a fictional Christian ministry – a composite of several real ones, all working hard to meet overwhelming needs with limited resources. It serves an older (fictional) Chicago neighborhood. Writing these books has let me bring awareness to that population – families in crisis, homeless and aging veterans, lonely elderly people, troubled youth… so many needs!

Roy Strough, the dashing hero of Long Shadows, is the director of food services, but he has big dreams – he’d like to expand the ministry of the UPCC to meet every need, heal every wound, fill every stomach, and tell everyone the Gospel. He wants it to be a real daytime homeless shelter, with laundry facilities, beds for nightshift workers, lockers, and more. (Me, too!)

Mona, the lovely heroine, is a more complex character. I put that poor woman through the wringer! She never got a break. The people she trusted – the only people she had – turned out to be evil betrayers, leaving her alone to raise four little girls without any support at all. She’s the hardest-working woman I’ve ever met! She’s strong, but being strong in our own strength isn’t enough. Mona needs Jesus. She needs hope.

Human trafficking isn’t the kind of problem I can solve and tack a happy ending onto, but I wanted to bring awareness to the way criminals use the Internet to recruit and groom their victims. Young, smart girls who’ve been using computers since they were toddlers often fail to see the dangers in their ordinary online world.

Book 4, Home Run, releases on September 21, and the last Unity Plenkiss book will be included in the 2021 Christmas Lights collection in October. You won’t want to miss them! Despite all the serious themes in the Hope Again books, they are also funny, heart-warming, and encouraging stories. They’ll make you laugh and make you cry… and then make you laugh again. I hope you enjoy Long Shadows and the rest of the Hope Again series.

MY REVIEW

Reading this book is like reading the front page news where the headline grabs your attention. Human trafficking has become more prevalent lately and I’m glad that we are becoming more aware of this dire situation. The author tackles this subject head on with realistic characters that make you want to join them in the fight against this crime. I applaud the author for her authentic look at what has become a crime that cannot be solved without everyone working together. I thought about this phrase as I read the story, “See something, say something.”

I really liked how the author gave us great information about how human trafficking can be done on dating sites and how they are pretty savvy about the computer in general. Mona is the perfect one to teach the class for the girls at the after school program. I won’t give out much info about her past since it is a very vital part of the story. I was surprised about something and had no idea that her girls were extra special to her for a reason. Mona is not one to take charity and I wanted her to learn to swallow her pride. It is a hard road she travels and she is very relatable. Some of you readers can understand how hard it is to raise children on your own while dealing with a past traumatic experience. I admired her for her attitude of never giving up and through her own experience helping others not to be victims.

I really liked how the author takes us inside a community center to see how it is run. There are children there that need someone to accept them and guide them. Mona finds herself volunteering at the center and begins to feel like maybe her and the girls will be safe. I loved how the girls learn scriptures and tell Mona all about God. Her slow desire to know more is encouraging and brings hope to Mona and the children.

The author also addresses PTSD in a way that emphasis the need for more help and understanding for people who deal with it on a daily basis. Not many places are available to get help and this story demonstrates how important it is to reach out to everyone with grace. I was very happy to see the story focus on many people who come and go from the center and the church. God knew Mona was ready and placed someone in her pathway to minister to her.

I appreciate an author who tackles hard subjects and shows readers the ugly side of them. Our youth are vulnerable and if we don’t reach out to them they could easily fall victim to a crime that is sweeping our nation. The story is powerful and emotional as we follow Mona on her journey to be free from her past.

For me this story is a wake up to all of us. Don’t let an opportunity pass you by if you can help someone. Share God with everyone and always show compassion to those who need it. I kept thinking about all the people who enter our lives even if it is for a brief moment. Have we missed a chance to share Jesus with someone? We all want to feel safe and loved, so again I will emphasis, “See something, say something.”

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion