Aqua

With more than a score of heartwarming novels to her credit, Karen Kingsbury is a best-selling inspirational author who captivates fans with her tales of triumph over personal tragedy. Halfway to Forever continues the story of Hannah Ryan, the grieving widow who found her way back to God in Waiting for Morning. As Hannah and her new husband, Matthew, confront obstacles while waiting to adopt a child, their best friends must cope with a devastating illness.

Years ago, the day before Ellie moved from Georgia to California, she and her best friend, Nolan, sat beneath the Spanish moss of an ancient oak tree where they wrote letters to each other, and sealed them in a rusty old metal box. The plan was to return 11 years later and read them. But now, as that date arrives, much has changed. Ellie, bereft of the faith she grew up with, is a single mom living in a tired apartment trying to make ends meet. Sometimes she watches television to catch a glimpse of her old friend - Nolan, now an NBA star, whose terrible personal tragedies fueled his faith and athletic drive in equal measure.

Sean O’Brien is a new Garda Officer assigned alongside his brother to work the streets of Dublin. With strong ties to their family and native homeland, they begin to carve their place in the world. Sorcha Mullen is a midwifery student facing the challenges of a young Catholic woman living in West Belfast. Fiercely independent, she is consumed with her career, refusing to let the political turmoil and conflicts in her city interfere with her dreams of being a midwife. They come from two vastly different Irelands, sharing a border but living worlds apart.

Caitlyn O’Brien left for Brazil in the aftermath of a heartbreaking loss. As much as she loves her husband, he can’t help her with the grief and disappointment that plague her life in Dublin. When she discovers that St. Clare’s charity mission, in Manaus, Brazil, needs a primary school teacher, she takes the opportunity to bury herself in missionary work, as her dreams of being a mother slowly vanish.

Liam O’Brien fled from Ireland in the wake of unspeakable loss. Fresh out of medical school, he’s accepted a position with a medical mission in Brazil as their infectious disease specialist. But as he entrenches himself in his work at St. Clare’s Charity Mission, along the banks of the Amazon River, he grows more disconnected from the family who loves him. He also learns more about being a doctor than he ever thought was possible.

An Garda Síochána have patrolled the cobbled streets of their storied capital for nearly a century. Within the heart of their headquarters, a bloody secret is revealed. The tortured, brutalized bodies of young women are being discovered in the shadowed corners of the city. Detective Tadgh O’Brien has spent three years working his way into the Special Detectives Unit of the Dublin Garda. When he’s assigned to a task force to investigate a series of murders of young American women, he finds himself unlikely allies with a US FBI agent.

Captain Aidan O’Brien is a decorated officer of the Royal Irish Regiment. While on a personal mission with his brother to retrieve Michael’s would-be mate, Aidan visits an old friend on the local Marine Corps base. Aidan accepts an opportunity to return, to train with the infantry Marines at Camp Lejeune. Alanna Falk is a grad student, working with PTSD patients in a nearby recovery clinic. A few months after the unexpected visit from the O’Brien brothers, Alanna can’t seem to get the eldest O’Brien out of her mind.

Joan Sample is not living the life she expected. Now a widow and an empty-nester, she has become by her own admission something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she is finally inclined to listen to her sister, who has been begging Joan to reengage with the world. With Emmie’s support, Joan gathers the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting out a room to a local college student. Before long Joan is starting to feel a little like herself again.

With the full realization of her inheritance before her, Georgia Carpenter is overwhelmed by the generosity of her late great aunt. What lays ahead of Georgia, however, is more work than she’s ever done in her life. Then another family member arrives unexpectedly, and things change in a way she never imagined possible. But what’s another curveball in the crazy game of life? She thinks she can handle everything being thrown at her, along with the help of Travis Taylor, the handsome handyman she inherited from aunt.

Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. Here, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams.