It has been almost two years since I completed the previous book in this series, Ryder's Salvation. While I was putting finishing touches on a book in another series, the heroine of Joy's Return began talking to me about her frustration of feeling trapped by a life dictated to women by society. She was desperate to make me understand that she wants to travel and paint, just as her father, Jake Ryder, had done at her age. So, I decided to listen.
But then, another voice, a male one, began conveying the sadness he felt over losing his wife to a freak accident. When he told me about his five-year-old daughter who hadn't spoken since her mother's death, I began to wonder if a woman who wants to experience the world, might possibly feel a greater calling to help a brokenhearted child. And what would happen if she fell in love with the child's father. I also wondered if Joy was that special woman who could return joyful hearts to this family.
You've probably already guessed the outcome of this story, but it's the journey of arriving there that makes one laugh and weep.
Oh, yes, I also tied this series to the Finding Home series to catch up with Cooper and Hallie Jerome, now in their eighties. I just couldn't help myself. And lest I forget, I created a genealogy chart so readers (and me, too) could keep track of this enlarging family.
Verna Clay