Here are a few more novels to whet your appetite for 2009! I love how Waterbrook Multnomah have tried a few different ideas with the covers of some of these books.

As always, click on the links for more 🙂

Stealing Home by Allison Pittman

A larger-than-life hero and the small town that awakens his soul.

It’s 1905 and the Chicago Cubs are banking on superstar Donald “Duke” Dennison’s golden arm to help them win the pennant. Only one thing stands between Duke and an unprecedented ten-thousand-dollar contract: alcohol. Duke’s love for the sauce is starting to affect his performance on field and off—and fans are beginning to notice. That’s when a sportswriter whisks Duke to the tiny town of Picksville, Missouri, so he can sober up in anonymity.

Stealing Home takes readers on a nostalgic, spellbinding romp to a one-horse town where the lives of four unique individuals providentially intersect. Each lives in haunted isolation and harbors a secret passion. Together, they discover a transforming love that heals wounds, mends shattered spirits, and may even give them the strength they need to weather unexpected tragedy when its harsh reality steps into their lives— and the town they love.

Allison Pittman has written a powerful and gratifying book that will make readers laugh aloud, shed a tear, and latch on to God’s transforming love, perhaps as they never have before.

Saints in Limbo by River Jordan

When a stranger’s mysterious gift brings her memories to life, a lonely widow must decide whether to cling to the past or embrace the future.

Ever since her husband, Joe, died, Velma True’s world has been limited to what she can see while clinging to one of the multicolored threads tied to the porch railing of her rural home outside Echo, Florida. Then one day a stranger appears at her door. Without knowing why, the cautious widow welcomes him into her kitchen for coffee, and she tells him stories of how life used to be, before her purposes were “all dried up.” Just before disappearing as suddenly as he came, the man presents Velma with a special gift, one that allows her to literally step back into the past through her own memories to a place where Joe still lives and the beginning is closer than the end.

While Velma is consumed with the man’s gift, her son Rudy is also being presented with a challenge to his self-centered, complacent lifestyle. And a teenage girl wends her way to Echo, determined to unravel the mysteries her dead mother left behind. As secrets old and new come to light, Velma finds herself unmoored from the fears of the past and feeling her way toward freedom.

This lyrical novel weaves mystical elements with tangible touches of God’s redemptive grace to reveal a pattern of irresistible hope.

Rose House by Tina Ann Forkner

A vivid story of a private grief, a secret painting, and one woman’s search for hope.

Four years after a tragic accident has destroyed her family, Lillian Diamon returns to the nearby Rose House, a cottage in the lush Sonoma Valley where she once poured out her anguish among the tangle of vines and fragrant blossoms. Wandering in the nearby town of La Rosaleda, Lillian stumbles into a small art gallery and comes face-to-face with that heartbroken moment. The painting renders every detail of her grief, from the sorrow etched across her face to the sandals on her feet. Stunned, Lillian wonders who watched her private lament, and who would dare to capture on canvas such a personal scene. As she searches for the painter, a mystery surrounding the portrait entangles not only the artist, Truman Clark, but also Lillian’s sister, Geena, whom she believes was instrumental in the accident that claimed the lives of her husband and children.

A captivating novel rich in detail, Rose House explores how our lives are like a canvas capturing shadow and pain, but also light and transcendence—and how, like a work of art, a master can work wonders in a creation.

The Night Watchman by Mark Mynheir

Ray Quinn is a tough, quick-witted homicide detective in love with his partner, Trisha Willis. She gives Ray something to live for—something to hope in—until a barrage of bullets leaves Trisha murdered and Ray crippled.

Struggling with his new physical disability and severe depression, Quinn turns to whiskey, scorn, and a job as a night watchman to numb the pain. But when a pastor and dancer are found dead in an apparent murder-suicide, the pastor’s sister approaches Quinn for help. Reluctantly, Quinn agrees to investigate and plunges into the underbelly of Orlando’s nightlife. Soon he discovers that not only was the pastor murdered, but the case may also be linked to Trisha’s death.

As the pieces of the investigation come together, Quinn finds himself torn between exacting revenge to answer his pain and responding to a greater will.

Never the Bride by Cheryl McKay & Rene Gutteridge

When God asks Jessie to let Him author her love story, can she turn over her pen?

Jessie Stone has spent thirty-five years fantasizing about marriage proposals, wedding dresses, and falling in love. She’s been a bridesmaid eleven times, waved dozens of couples off to sunny honeymoons, and shopped in more department stores for half-price fondue pots than she cares to remember. But her own love life hasn’t been quite as productive. The man she thought she would marry cheated on her. The crush she has on her best friend Blake is at very best…well, crushing. And speed dating has only churned out memorable horror stories.

So when God shows up one day, in the flesh, and becomes a walking, talking part of her life, Jessie is skeptical. After all, He hasn’t stood at countless reception tables alone. What will it take to convince her that God has a better love story than one of the thousands she’s cooked up in her journals?

A romantic comedy with a spiritual twist, Never the Bride reveals what it means to lose control—in order to find more than a girl could ever imagine.

The Confidential Life of Eugenia Cooper by Kathleen Y’Barbo

In this creative twist on popular western romance, an unlikely heroine plunges into heart-pounding adventure with hilarious results.

The future is clearly mapped out for New York socialite Eugenia “Gennie” Cooper. She’ll marry Chandler Dodd, the dapper banker her father has chosen as the ideal husband. But Gennie secretly longs to slip into the boots of her favorite dime-novel heroine and experience just one adventure before settling down to the predictable life of a gentleman’s wife.

When a servant confides the details of a family predicament centered in Denver, Gennie jumps at the opportunity to combine a kind deed with her longed-for Wild West adventure. But her plans go awry when silver baron Daniel Beck and his daughter mistake Gennie for their new governess, and she is caught up in a dangerous mystery.

As Gennie struggles to maintain a veneer of confidence amid the rough-and-tumble world of 1880s Colorado, she must decide whether her future lies with the enigmatic Daniel Beck or back home with Chandler and the life planned for her since birth.

North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson

The Fangs of Dang just got meaner…and closer!

Readers thrilled to the phantasmagorical adventures in On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, book one of the Wingfeather Saga. Now in book two, Janner, Tink, and Leeli Igiby, mom Nia, ex-pirate grandfather Podo, Peet the Sock Man, and trusty dog Nugget flee north to rebel headquarters. Their escape brings readers to the very brink of Fingap Falls, over the Stony Mountains, and across the Ice Prairies, while villains galore try to stop the Igibys permanently. Fearsome toothy cows and horned hounds return, along with new creatures: a mad man running a fork factory, a den of rock roaches, and majestic talking sea dragons.

More original songs, sidesplitting asides, eye-candy illustrations, and hand-drawn maps throughout keep kids (and kids at heart) turning pages.