Christmas Extravaganza: Christmas 'Couragement

About Christmas 'Couragement

Liam once approved of helping others, but not anymore. He lost his mother due to a crazed street person, and he's hardened his heart. Now a successful photographer, he’s returned to set up shop in his hometown—directly across the courtyard from his sister’s best friend.

Zoe runs an outreach center and encourages the homeless and needy, especially at Christmas. Nursing a soft spot for Liam that started as a girlhood crush, she sets out to help him by creating her unique brand of encouragement cards. Her hope is to reignite the fire and love for Christmas and God, which Liam once had.

The cards and ornaments countdown to Christmas, but what if Liam doesn’t want to be one of Zoe’s projects? What happens when her crush grows into something more? What if they both receive more than expected?

About LoRee Peery

Inspirational romance author LoRee Peery strives to remember the Lord’s redeeming grace each day when she surveys her sense of place in Him and where He has placed her. Often that gift comes from nature, when the call of a cardinal draws her to look for the distinctive flash of crimson (especially against a backdrop of snow). A meadowlark’s melody always transports her to the farm where she grew up. She clings to I John 5:4 and prays her blended family and dozen grandchildren see that faith. Her Frivolities Series and other publications are available at:

Pelican Book Group          Amazon author page

Website                             Twitter

Facebook

Review

Love, love, love this beautiful, sweet story of reunion, forgiveness, and compassion. Zoe is a wonderfully captivating heroine with a heart for the hurting, and a reason to be eternally grateful for God's grace. Liam is the quintessential strong, uncompromising gentleman who finds it hard to look past a person's station in life to the heart and soul—the story—beneath. These two characters seem, at first glance, to be polar opposites, and completely incompatible, despite their shared childhoods. But, much like the grimy, downtrodden men and women who sleep in alleyways and cardboard boxes, they each have a story beneath the story...and God is the Master Planner who makes parallel pathways meet and converge to become one. Christmas 'Couragement is a bright spot of cheer for any time of year. Without question, my favorite LoRee Peery work to date.


Mini-interview

What inspired you to write Christmas ‘Couragement?

I noted several ideas or concepts that kind of piled on top of each other. The renovation, or I should say the expansion of downtown Lincoln’s historic Haymarket area incorporating the old railyard to the west, is impressive beyond words. Thus, the setting.

Like Zoe in the story, I cannot pass a red kettle without putting in something, even if I’m down to a quarter of change in my wallet. My heart always goes out to the homeless. I’d like to say I pray for the individual whenever I see a man loitering on a corner, but I don’t. “He,” or the homeless in general, comes to mind later.

Christmas is an emotional time for most of us, no matter where we are in life. Each and every one of us needs encouragement. In the years preceding so much of my life in front of a computer screen, I tried to send encouraging cards through the mail as often as I could.

Reunion stories are the ones I connect with the most, especially as God pulls two hurting people together through reconciliation. The title was one of the first things that came to me, based on an encouraging email message sent by Nicola Martinez, Pelican Book Group’s editor-in-chief.

What household task do you most dislike? Which do you most enjoy?

There is no elaborated answer when it comes to housekeeping and me. I don’t like to dust because country dirt is pervasive and returns three hours after a surface gleams. I most enjoy the fragrance of fresh laundry.

Please share a verse of scripture that is especially meaningful to you, and why it is special.

First John 5:4-5:  “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (NASB)

Whatever, used in the text, equals whomever to me. I am born again because I recognized my sinfulness, placed my faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and asked Him into my life.

Overcomer is an awesome word to me that says so much more than survivor. Without details, I’ll say I’ve overcome several knocks in life that have strengthened my faith and made me a stronger woman. No grandiose accomplishment is to be placed on my shoulders. I pray each day that what I do and say is for His glory.

Victory resonates with me because the literal meaning of the root of my name is a crown of laurel leaves. The character quality is victorious spirit.