Thursday, August 24, 2023

About the Book

Book: Itty Bitty Faith

Author: Jennifer Sienes

Genre: Christian Contemporary Romance, Women’s Fiction, and Southern Fiction

Release Date: July 18, 2023

Sometimes your past comes back to haunt you…

As a single mama, Alyssa Mitchell learned to depend on no one but herself while raising her boy. She never even gave Jared’s daddy a single thought—well, not often anyway. Why would she when he left her behind to go off and save the world? It didn’t matter one little bit that he was unaware she was pregnant, she felt betrayed just the same. But when she overhears Jared lamenting over not even knowing who his daddy was, she tucks her pride away long enough to track him down.

Brandon Jamison spent years bringing clean water to third-world countries. It was downright confounding why God would see fit to bring him back to the states – with no job or clue what to do next. That is until Alyssa Mitchell shows up and drops a bomb – Brandon has a seventeen year old son. All his past failures and shame came to the surface just like the lemon in Mama’s sweet tea.

It’ll take more than itty-bitty faith to put the past behind them.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Jennifer Sienes holds a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s in education but discovered life-experience is the best teacher. She loves Jesus, romance and writing–and puts it altogether in inspirational contemporary fiction. Her daughter’s TBI and brother’s suicide inspired two of her three novels. Although fiction writing is her real love, she’s had several non-fiction pieces published in anthologies–two in Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has two grown children and one very spoiled Maltese. California born and raised, she recently took a step of faith with her real-life hero and relocated to Tennessee.

More from Jennifer

It’s easier for me to write an entire novel (or novella) then to come up with a title. I wasn’t impressed with Itty Bitty Faith, and hoped my publisher might change it. No such luck. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to fit.

I love that the Bible tells us in Matthew 17:20 “…Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Faith as small as a mustard seed is what I’d call itty bitty faith.

Even though I was raised in the church, I didn’t come to truly know Jesus until everything I held dear was taken away, and I had nowhere to go but my knees. Some of us like to think we’re in control—and I was no exception. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”—Proverbs 16:18. And boy, was I proud. But it didn’t keep my children safe, or my marriage intact, or my mother from dying of cancer. And it wasn’t until I acknowledged the goodness and sovereignty of God (yes, that’s sometimes a hard one to reconcile) that I began to truly grow in my faith.

Alyssa Mitchell struggles with a faith-crisis of her own. A single mother to a teenage boy, living under the same roof as her own mama, she thinks her family is a victim of some cruel curse. The high school boy she loved left her alone and pregnant to serve the Lord. It’s enough to make her suspicious of the so-called righteous, and she’s held onto bitterness longer than a body should. It’s not until she hears her son Jared lament over never knowing who his daddy is that she takes a step of faith (although it’s not what she’d call it) to search out Brandon Jamison.

The key theme in this story is how God works in the background to give us the desires of our hearts long before we even know what they are. Isn’t that incredible? We just need to open our hearts and eyes to see His hand in every detail. Bitterness is poison to the soul, but when we can let go of it and trust in Him, life has a way of working out far better than we can hope or imagine.

I pray you will enjoy this journey alongside Alyssa, Brandon, and Jared. And that even if your faith is still itty bitty, the Lord will grow it to gargantuan proportions.

MY REVIEW

I love when I read a story that flows well, has great characters and shares lessons we all can relate to. In this book we have Alyssa who maybe didn’t make a great choice when she was in high school, but she received a blessing from it. Her son is well mannered, respectful and a little curious about who his dad is. It has been seventeen years and Alyssa has not mentioned who Jared’s father is. Funny how a seventeen year old boy is about to change not only his life but others as well.

Alyssa knows it is time to track down Brandon and find out why he never responded to her letter that she was pregnant. I am impressed with Brandon and how he stepped up as soon as he found out he had a son. It is important to note that he never received a letter from Alyssa all those years ago. When the three come together there is a bit of anger and mistrust between the three. It will be a slow process for healing and reconnecting.

The story comes with an emotional journey that captures what a little bit of faith can do. When we ask God to forgive us our slate is clean. Both Brandon and Alyssa walk a path that shows them that second chances can be a blessing.

“When we go our own way, God’s hand isn’t far from us.”

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