What Dreams May Come (Alana Terry) – Review

~ About the Book ~

She’s got her heart set on becoming a missionary. He’s determined to recruit her for the job.

But is it possible to fall in love with someone you’ve never even met?

Susannah’s convinced that God has called her to the mission field. That’s why she’s serving him with single-minded focus in Orchard Grove, waiting for the day when she can leave her small town to take the gospel to the nations. Is falling in love with her missionary recruiter part of God’s plan for her life or a distraction from the real goal?

Scott loves his life. Traveling the globe, offering spiritual support to missionaries around the world offers enough excitement that the loneliness hardly ever gets to him …

Until he receives an application from a young girl with a heart for the mission field as large as his own, a young girl he finds himself falling for even before they get the chance to meet face-to-face.

Unfortunately, a promise Susannah made to her family may tear her and Scott even farther apart than the miles that separate them.

Series:  #1 Sweet Dreams Christian Romance
Genre:  Contemporary Christian Romance
Release date:  24 October 2017
Pages:  200
Publisher:  Firstfruits Publishing

Amazon US  //  Amazon AU  //  iBooks  //  Goodreads

~ Excerpt ~

So many questions. So much silence.
That was all she’d encountered during the past four months. Four trying, exhausting, torturous months.
The din from the foyer increased. Almost everybody at Orchard Grove Bible Church arrived exactly five minutes early. Any sooner and it looked like you were trying too hard. Any later, you’d be glared at as you made your way to find an empty space in the pews. Not that Orchard Grove was overly crowded. There were as many empty seats as filled ones, but they were interspersed so inconveniently across the sanctuary that you would have to step over five or seven or ten different pairs of legs before you could sit.
Orchard Grove’s self-imposed punishment for those guilty of tardiness.
Susannah inhaled deeply. Well, Lord, I’m here. It’s been such a long week, but you know how much I’m craving to connect with you today. Please show up, Lord.
That had been her prayer so often lately. Just asking God to show up.
Crying softly in her room, unable to accept the reality of what had happened. Please show up, Lord.
Stroking Kitty’s forehead, wishing for some kind of breakthrough. Please show up, Lord.
Staring at her phone, knowing she would never hear his voice again, still holding onto some sort of senseless hope that he might call. 
Please show up, Lord.
Pastor Greg made his way up front. He and his wife were new to Orchard Grove, but he had already learned that the retired orchardists’ and farmers’ wives here appreciated—no, demanded—punctuality. Each week he opened the service at 10:29 and ended at 11:44 without fail. This morning, with about thirty seconds to spare, he smiled at the congregation, and Susannah ran her fingers over her name embossed on her Bible.
Susannah Wesley Peters. A play on words. An homage to some great-uncle or other distant ancestor named Wesley as well as a tribute to Susannah Wesley, the mother of John and Charles. The original Susannah Wesley had never traveled to foreign countries spreading the gospel, never preached to crowds of thousands, never penned hymns or sermons that survived to this day. But she interceded for her sons, who rose up to serve foundational roles in the enlightenment movement on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Susannah had lost track of how many times her mother had told her about Mrs. Wesley’s commitment to God, how she would flip the skirt of her apron over her head in order to create a mobile prayer closet. How she devoted several hours a day to interceding for her family and maintained regular times of fasting to ask God to use her children to advance his kingdom.
Susannah was grateful for the prayerful example of her namesake, but on days like this, she wondered if praying was the only work for God she’d ever accomplish.
Father, don’t you see I want to do so much more?
Sometimes the hunger to move from Orchard Grove, to be God’s agent of revival and salvation to distant shores was so great it was like a tidal wave ready to surge through her spirit. And when it came crashing down, she couldn’t be held responsible for whatever damage was caused by the tsunami of her passion.
And other times, she felt like Orchard Grove’s dried-up riverbed, its smooth and rounded rocks the only indication of the rushing waters that had once flowed so powerfully through her.

~ Review ~

Those who are familiar with Alana Terry’s Kennedy Stern suspense series will find this new contemporary romance series sets a different pace. In fact, this first book is a bit different to most other contemporary romances too, because the hero and heroine don’t meet until the end of the book! And yet, as odd as that might sound . . . it works. As well as being a sweet romance, it’s the story of two people who are struggling to (a) understand why the path they believed God had for them has suddenly been blocked; and (b) accept this new direction in spite of their hearts.

The book actually begins in the middle of Scott and Susannah’s story. At the opening, it has been four months since the event that set Susannah’s life on a new course—away from Scott and her dream of overseas missions—and the story looks both forwards and backwards from this point, showing Scott and Susannah trying to move on and surrender their hopes and dreams to God, but also filling in the story of how their relationship grew without them ever having met face to face and what happened to change everything. I thought this was a strange way to tell the story at first, but as it progressed, I became convinced it was also the most effective way to tell the story.

The plot develops at a gentle pace that suits the characters and the tone of the story. There were a few times I felt the story was moving a little too gently in the early stages, but in way, that added to the experience. I was restless—wanting things to move on, wanting answers—in exactly the same way as Scott and Susannah, and their disappointment and confusion was palpable. I couldn’t help but want to know the rest of their story.

I’m not going to say anything else about the plot, because I think it needs to unfold in its own way, but if you’re looking for a sweet contemporary romance that’s a little outside the normal mould, this is for you.

I received a copy of this novel from the author. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.

~ About the Author ~

Alana is a pastor’s wife, homeschooling mom, self-diagnosed chicken lady, and Christian suspense author. Her novels have won awards from Women of Faith, Book Club Network, Grace Awards, Readers’ Favorite, and more. Alana’s passion for social justice, human rights, and religious freedom shines through her writing, and her books are known for raising tough questions without preaching. She and her family live in rural Alaska where the northern lights in the winter and midnight sun in the summer make hauling water, surviving the annual mosquito apocalypse, and cleaning goat stalls in negative forty degrees worth every second.

Connect with Alana:  Website  //  Facebook  //  Twitter