This is what Christian fiction is all about!

IN EVERY HEARTBEAT by Kim Vogel Sawyer

When I received this book from Bethany House to review, I expected an enjoyable read. What I didn’t expect was how gripping and engaging the story is. The story is about three orphans, friends, who are given the opportunity to go to college. The year is 1914. They all have their “baggage” from being orphans and all are looking for love and acceptance in some form or another. Pete wants to be a minister. Libby wants to be a writer and Bennett just wants to be the big man on campus. As they work through their wants and needs they each find unexpected twists and turns along the way and each find some closure to the issues that have plagued them. Libby find a relationship with God and this opens the way for her and her best friend Pete to share some common goals. This is what Christian fiction ought to be. There is plenty of action and suspense and logical resolution of very real feelings and problems. There are even some humorous moments. I felt almost as if Kim Vogel Sawyer was putting herself into the character Libby and the writer Libby was becoming was the writer Kim Vogel Sawyer already is. Maybe just fanciful on my part but I felt like the character traits that Libby developed as her relationship with God grew were ones already belonging to Ms. Sawyer. This story has all the elements required to keep you glued to the pages to the very end and then leave you wanting more.