Prolific Christian Romance author June Foster has a new release out this month. Her work focuses on the power of love to effect change in even the most unlikely situations, and I wanted my blog to focus this month to her new novel, A Harvest of Blessings, which is based on a real couple she met while on the road. A Harvest of Blessing is creative and full of complexity of character and of the possibility for renewal.
Here, in June’s own words, is a brief synopsis of her new novel and, as well, background on where her ideas for it originated.
A Harvest of Blessings: The Story of Nadia Maguire
If there’s one thing Nadia Maguire knows, Jon Maguire robbed her of a godly marriage and left her in financial ruin. The night he was killed in an accident, guilt threatened to suffocate her. She wasn’t sorry he died.
When Nadia accidentally sits on a stranger’s lap in the graveyard where Jon is buried, she’s horrified to learn the good-looking guy with salt and pepper hair is her new boss.
Jared Abrams is a widower who longs to move on. He’s intrigued by the beautiful woman who puts God first in her life. But as their friendship grows, an unexpected obstacle separates them—his daughter Sarah. No one can replace her mother. Especially not Nadia Maguire whose son harmed her in high school.
If Nadia can’t find the funds to get her house ready to sell, she’ll have to balance two jobs with no time left to nurture a relationship with the man she loves. Will she and Jared find a Harvest of Blessings, or a season of drought?
A Harvest of Blessing: An Author’s Perspective
In A Harvest of Blessing, the two main characters, both in their fifties, meet in a graveyard where they are visiting their dead spouses’ graves. The meeting is based on the lives of a real couple my husband and I met in Pensacola, Florida. It was a second marriage for them, and they first encountered each other when they paid their spouses’ gravesites a visit.
Since it was quite a few years ago that we were in Pensacola, I don’t remember the exact details of how the couple met. But never fear. A fictional author is allowed to make up things. So I had to think of a unique way for the two people in my story to meet. This picture inspired me.
See that bench over there amidst the trees? Well, what if the hero was sitting there, eyes closed, perhaps praying or remembering his wife. The heroine is kneeling at the first marker, distraught that her marriage had ended so badly. She backs up a few steps to sit on the bench, eyes glued on the grave marker, and falls right into the lap of the hero.
Of course, I’m prejudiced, but I thought it would be a cool way for them to meet. I hope you’ll agree.
June Foster is an award-winning author who began her writing career in an RV roaming around the USA with her 
husband, Joe. She brags about visiting a location before it becomes the setting in her contemporary romances. June’s characters find themselves in precarious circumstances where only God can offer redemption and ultimately freedom. Find June at junefoster.com.
Tom, thank you so much for having me today on your blog. I know that A Harvest of Blessing likely stands in stark contrast to apocalyptic literature. I’ll confess, before I began writing romance, I enjoyed reading end time prophesy books. In fact that’s about all I read. Well, God steered me in another direction.
Thanks again for offering me the opportunity to share my new novel with your readers. The Lord’s blessings.
So good to have you here today, June. I think it is a relief to shift from focusing on thoughts of the end of the world to something brighter and more encouraging that helps with us right now, in the present. The story of your novel–both the story of where you got your idea, and the story the novel tells–sound engaging. It should be of real interest.