About The Gambler’s Wife

When Secrets Lead to Tragedy, Lauren must gamble on faith in order to search for the truth.

Lauren Westbrook may be a pastor’s wife, but she knows a thing or two about fool’s gold. Her husband is the poster perfect minister of a prosperous Salem church, but their ministry together is underscored by a shameful secret: Marcus is a recovering gambler. Lauren believes after years of therapy and countless counseling programs her husband’s addiction is ancient history, but one morning her eyes are opened to a living nightmare. Marcus Westbrook is dead. A tragic accident uncovers a shady, hidden life, one of continued addiction and embezzlement. Ridden with guilt, Lauren is left holding the bag. In order to support her daughter she is forced into the most desperate gamble of her life.

Lauren rolls the dice on faith by taking a job as a pastor in a remote Oregon town, the only bet on the table. The dilapidated church and its ancient congregation are known for “chewing and spitting out pastors like chicken bones,” but she is determined to make lemonade from lemons. Steeped in the challenges of a rotting church building and a near empty treasury, Lauren meets Luke, a skilled carpenter and divorcee with his own demons. Together, with a host of colorful, enigmatic parishioners, they must uncover the dark secrets of a church never fully healed from the sins of its past while also mending their own wounds.

About House on Sand

Ellie Gold did not know her house was built on sand until the storm arrived.

The rhythm of family life has lulled Ellie Gold into a sense of false security, allowing her to ignore the tremors beneath the surface of her marriage. She may not have a perfect life, but certainly a blessed one: two beautiful boys, a successful teaching career and a marriage to a charming minister. But a brutal collision with the truth will destroy her reality.

When Davis, her husband of fifteen years and the pastor of South Hills Church confesses his affair with her nineteen-year-old niece, Mariah, he is not motivated by repentance. He needs Ellie to manage his out of control, emotionally unstable mistress because she now threatens suicide. Ellie, summoned by a sense of Christian duty stands on the pedestrian bridge and begs Mariah not to jump into the frigid water below. "He never loved you!" Her niece's words echo in her ear on automatic replay. Maybe she should just let her jump? In her moment of deepest humiliation, Ellie cannot help but wonder, where is God now? Ellie's pride lies in her identity as a responsible and mature Christian, yet this is her reward? When the secret of Mariah and Davis' affair is finally revealed to Ellie's family, her life will never be the same. Like a sparrow struck by lightning, Ellie Gold falls from the sky.

Only through the promise of new love with her neighbor Levi and a growing friendship with a sisterhood of prayer warriors will Ellie find her way back on the road to recovery. With the help of a coterie of unusual friends, she is empowered to face those who have hurt her with the lessons learned in the quest to find healing.