Someone Like You

March 28, 2016
Bylin’s (Until I Found You) latest novel is another winsome inspirational romance. When Zeke Monroe and Julia Dare dated in college, Zeke was the missionaries’ kid with a fervent faith, and Julia an unbeliever who merely tolerated Zeke’s Bible thumping. Six years later, Zeke manages a struggling resort, and Julia is an event planner who arrives to scope out Caliente Springs, Cali., for a client. Now an unwed mother, Julia has become a devout Christian, and Zeke has abandoned his convictions. Their stances on faith may have flip-flopped, but their mutual attraction remains strong. As romance blossoms, Julia fears Zeke’s reaction when he discovers the identity of her son’s father—and with good reason. Driven by a desire to be the man Julia wants, Zeke seeks to reconnect with God. With a strong supporting cast of characters, including a wily goat, the journey is anything but uneventful. In the final chapters, Bylin ties up loose ends perhaps a little too perfectly to be relatable, but the struggles of faith, relationships, and personal guilt are sure to be familiar to many readers. Agent: Pattie Steele Perkins

May 1, 2016
As manager of a historic California resort on the verge of bankruptcy, the last thing Zeke Monroe needs is to revisit past heartbreaks and soul-shaking questions. But when his excollege girlfriend, Julia Dare, an event planner, arrives at Caliente Springs with business that could save the resort, Zeke is forced to face the faith he lost when he felt that he was never good enough for God or for his preacher father. Harboring secrets and wounds of her own, Julia must work with Zeke to pull off an important wedding, or they will lose the resort and a second chance with one another. The third in her series of contemporary inspirational-romance novels with you in the title (Together with You, 2015), this stand-alone novel features Bylin's signature relatable characters and Christian relationships. She is immeasurably tender in her treatment of grief and healing, and she does not shy away from the complexities of shame, loss of faith, and coparenting. Readers will immediately fall into the story and its compelling reflections on faith by circumstance versus choice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)