Anna’s Books

Parker Wilson has nothing to worry about beyond his marketing job and donating bone marrow to his nephew, who is fighting leukemia. Then he meets Marcus, a little boy dying of a brain tumor who spends most days alone in a hospital room. Because of this child's life and then death, Parker is forced to step outside his suburban comfort zone and confront the struggles, not only of one family, but of an entire community.

Then Parker and four other people are each given $10,000 with the stipulation it is invested in their community and, in a year, report what they did with it. The needs in the community far outpace this gift, and Parker is stretched to the limit of his ability to make the money go as far as possible.

Beatrice feels insignificant and useless since her husband died, until she's invited to invest in a new restaurant—and the lives of the young people who work there. Collin loves his cushy lawyer job but decides to invest his money in the Lincoln Square Community Center, even when it means getting his hands dirty to make the money go as far as it can. Ed feels as though life has handed him some rotten deals. When his $10,000 practically lands in his lap, he thinks his luck has turned—until he loses it all and must decide whether he's willing to put forth the effort to change.

How will each of these people use the talents God has given them to be an influence for good in their struggling community?

Carly and her mom have never gotten along. Now, thirty-six, jobless, and living back at home, Carly feels like she will never get out from under her mom’s thumb. When her elderly grandma’s health takes a turn for the worst, the family asks Carly to help. Grandma’s gentle love brings Carly out of her depression. She makes friends, sets goals, and dares to hope her dreams could come true — including her hopes for marriage and a family. Then one cruel act by her mom threatens to destroy all the progress she has made.

Can Carly fight her way through loneliness and depression to find love and hope?

Revisit the characters introduced in Talents in this second book of the Lincoln Square series!

Continue the story that began in Door of Hope (Book 2 of the Lincoln Square Series)

Richard knew he’d met the future Mrs. Warren the moment he laid eyes on Susan Terrell the first day of 10th grade. They marry straight out of college, dreaming of their ‘happily ever after.’

When Richard’s company lands a huge contract, Susan feels neglected—and runs right into the arms of the man who organized the contract, Mark Tripton. Now Richard must choose: stay with Susan and have the specter of her unfaithfulness hanging over them or leave and abandon the only woman he’s ever loved.

Will Susan ever leave Mark and fully invest in her marriage? Will Richard be able to show his wife the love of Christ in spite of her unfaithfulness?

Will Richard and Susan ever find their way back to ‘happily ever after’?

Fall 1918. The Great War is raging in Europe.

American soldier, Jack Collins, is burned when he drags a dying friend into a mustard gas-filled trench. He spends the next agonizing weeks in one army hospital after another. As day after painful day passes, he loses hope that he’ll ever lead a normal life.

In New England, Meg longs to do her part to help in the war effort, but caring for her elderly grandmother takes up all her time. Then her aunt and uncle make arrangements for her to volunteer in a nearby hospital where she meets Jack. Jack doesn’t think he will ever walk again - but he isn’t counting on Meg’s determination to help him, or on falling in love with this remarkable woman.

The day finally comes when Jack can go home. Meg fears he’ll leave her forever. Will Jack follow through on all he has been promising Meg?

Nellie has been jilted. Twice. Now, living in Boston with her aunt and uncle, she can't seem to get out from under the stigma of those rejections. Desperate for something to give meaning and purpose to her life, she takes a job as a companion to a rich, elderly lady. But when she meets Louellen McGowen, Nellie comes face to face with the type of angry, hateful woman she will become if she doesn't make some drastic changes in her attitude and outlook on life.

Mrs. McGowen’s nephew, Warren Burke, is a wealthy businessman whose import/export business requires he travel the world. He’s never taken time to settle down with a home or family of his own. Warren is relieved when Nellie agrees to be his aunt’s companion and he can focus on his work responsibilities. But when he watches her interaction with his difficult aunt, he realizes he may have met a woman with whom he could spend the rest of his life.

Warren is everything Nellie has ever dreamed of in a husband, but she is sure he couldn’t be interested in her. What will it take for Warren to convince everyone he is choosing Nellie?

Fall 1929.

The entire world is shaken when the Stock Market crashes and America is plunged into the Great Depression.

In Portland, Maine, Emily Stuart thinks her biggest struggle is to pass her history class. She wants to graduate with her teaching certification and teach school in the American West. But no matter how hard she studies, she’s still failing.

Carl Gordon travels halfway across the country, using the last of his money, only to find out his teaching position has been given to another man. He’s stuck in an unfulfilling job as school librarian. He reluctantly takes on the challenge of helping Emily Stuart raise her history grade so she can graduate.

The more he gets to know this stubborn, feisty woman, the more determined he is to help her fulfill her dream — because it means they’d be thrown together teaching in his hometown in Oklahoma.

Emily can’t comprehend the joy and intense heartache awaiting her as she moves closer to achieving her goals. Nor can Carl understand how carefully he’s going to have to guard the secret of how much he’s admiring Emily.

Annie Petit has finally earned her teaching certificate, but it took two years longer than expected. With the Great Depression in full swing, Annie knows she has little chance of finding a teaching position. She answers an advertisement for the position of governess and discovers five children in need of a mother. Every day she spends with them, she grows to love them more.

Dr. Coren Winslow lost his wife in childbirth. Now he has become domineering and overprotective, refusing to chance losing anyone else. The governess his sister hired to teach his children challenges his rules at every turn. Little by little, as Coren relaxes control, he finds he needs Annie as much as his children do. When his sister leaves for home, he asks Annie to marry him.

Annie agrees to marry Coren, knowing full well he may never learn to love her. She also knows she is falling in love with him. Dare she hope that Coren is beginning to feel the same for her? Or is she doomed to spend the rest of her life in a loveless marriage? Is there any way Coren will ever learn to love Annie?

Fall, 1941

Agatha Stuart is 30 years old, well established in Old Maid territory with no prospects on the horizon. She wants to be content with her life as it is — job as postmistress and living at home with her parents, but she isn’t. She longs for more.

Wyatt Morrison took over as lighthouse keeper from his father, Bart. Now, with war looming on the horizon, his responsibilities are expanding. Meanwhile, he’s watching his father’s health decline and he has no one to help him look after the aging man.

Agatha has known Wyatt all her life, but hasn’t given him the time of day since she gave him a bloody nose as a kid. Agatha and Bart form an unlikely bond over stories he shares with her from his past. Meanwhile, Wyatt and Agatha are forced to spend time together and Agatha finds she’s been too quick to judge this quiet, gentle man.

Will war destroy their budding relationship? Or will Wyatt be able to tell Agatha how much he cherishes their relationship — before it’s too late?

Levi Collins farms with his father, Jack, in Indiana. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, he joins the Marines and finds himself in the middle of the worst fighting in the Pacific. After the Battle of Tarawa, he and his fellow Marines are sent to Hawaii for some rest and recuperation. But even the tropical paradise can’t erase the effects of the battles he’s faced in the Pacific.

Ava Winslow has always planned to be a nurse and help her father, Coren, in his private practice. As soon as World War II begins, she changes her plans, hoping to help injured soldiers on the battlefield. Instead, she’s sent to a hospital in Hawaii, where the wounded come to finish their recovery before they return home or to the front lines.

When Jack meets quiet, reserved Ava, he’s drawn to her calm strength and fierce determination to help injured soldiers, even if it means facing danger near the front lines of battle in the Pacific.

Will their love survive the wounds they receive, both seen and unseen? Will Levi be able to help Ava feel loved and treasured, even after the horrors they’ve each experienced on the battlefront?

War has changed Jack in more ways than one, and not for the better. He returns from Vietnam, a shell of his former self — struggling to simply exist, burdened by events that were outside his control.

Evie, with her shiny new college diploma and fixer-upper house, finds she can’t do everything on her own if she intends the house to be livable by the time school starts. She needs help, but as the new girl in town, she doesn’t know where to get it.

Against his better judgment, Jack volunteers to help Evie fix her house. As their friendship blossoms, he finds himself sharing things with her that he never intended to tell anyone. But there are still some things he feels he can’t disclose.

When a confrontation reveals something Jack put off telling Evie, he thinks their relationship is finished as soon as it began. He’s fallen in love with her. But it’s too late, and she seems to want nothing to do with him. What will it take for Jack to realize the truth everyone around him knows — that he is worth loving and saving, and that Evie is eager for the chance to do both?

Revisit the characters from the rest of the series in this final book of the Love in Time Series.

Nothing exciting ever happens in Palmer. Except that one time the biker gang came to town, and they turned out to be a bunch of middle aged doctors and lawyers reliving their glory days. But Aunt Lorinda insists the man they saw beside the interstate is an escaped convict. It doesn’t help that someone really did escape from the penitentiary up the road.

When a handsome stranger walks into town hours later, Sheriff Callen Steiner has a choice: believe the old woman who owns the diner, or believe the well-dressed stranger whose luxury car was stolen.

Hayley Beasley can’t stand the way the newcomer, Brice, mocks their small town, so she challenges him to give Palmer a chance and let her show him around. Both Aunt Lorinda and Callen have a problem with all the time Hayley is spending with Brice — Aunt Lorinda because she’s sure he’s the escaped convict, and Callen because he’d rather be the one getting all Hayley’s attention.

Who will Hayley choose: Brice, the rich, handsome newcomer, or Callen, the man she’s known her whole life? Will Callen catch the convict and prove to Aunt Lorinda once and for all that Brice isn’t the escaped inmate?

Or is he…?