Redemption
Since she was a teenager, Mary Grantham has held herself solely responsible for the deaths of her parents and, for fifteen years, has lived with the guilt, becoming a dispirited idealist who can hold on to a job no better than she can hold on to a man. Following the death of her grandmother, whose singular remaining desire was to get her granddaughter married, Mary meets Jonathan Shepherd.
For years, Jonathan has carried guilt of his own in the form of a seven-year-old daughter born with mental and physical disabilities. He has been unable to shake the belief that she was sent in punishment from God for the years that he and his now ex-wife abused drugs and alcohol. But Jonathan is haunted by a secret more terrible than God's wrath that threatens not only his burgeoning relationship with Mary but also his newfound sobriety and his very sanity.
As their demons tear them apart, they find solace in each other, but the past will not loosen its hold on them. Will they find happiness with each other, or will the past exact its revenge? Can Mary find forgiveness for herself? Can Jonathan forgive himself, his ex-wife, or the daughter in the presence of whom he feels God's unrelenting retribution? And in the end, can either of them find any form of redemption?
-- Daniel Dick