What the story is about:

Dr. Rita Garcia is a Clinical Christian Counselor. Her knowledge and passion for helping others provides realistic substance to the counseling woven into her stories. The theme that permeates her hope-filled fiction: Love, lit by the flame of hope. Romance is a big part of her novels. Hope is an even larger element of the stories. Rita and her husband reside in Southern California.

Samantha Forrester has it all together. Deafness at age fifteen has not hampered her success. Life, although predictable, has hit a comfortable stride. Until.

Her world crumbles when secrets of the past are brought to light. She travels to Serenity Cove to settle her birth mother’s estate and search for her true identity. Samantha soon becomes enamored with the town. And then there's police chief Logan Delatorre who startles her pulse, and grandparents who refuse to acknowledge her. More mystery unfolds when an attack is levied against her—someone wants her out of Serenity Cove.

Samantha’s faith is called into question when she stumbles over the need to forgive. Can Dr. Ellie Clarimonde help her connect the pieces of her past and learn the power of forgiveness?

Review

Serenity Cove is a small town where everyone knows each other, the same families have lived there for generations and skeletons are settled nicely into cupboards.

Therefore, when Samantha and her hearing dog Goldie arrive spectacularly in town, she soon becomes the centre of attention, especially when people discover her identity.

Samantha, who became deaf at 15 years of age, is a beautiful, capable, independent woman and soon romance is in the air as she captures the heart of police chief Logan Delatorre. She makes some good friends, especially Logan’s sister Mandy, however, in towns like this, there are always unusual characters and mischief-makers.

We follow her on her rollercoaster journey of discovery, sharing her emotions as she discovers her roots and, with her faith in God, comes to terms with her discoveries.

Anybody who has lived in a small village or community can immediately emphasise with Serenity Cove, its very real characters and the life this book portrays.

A lovely story, which captivated me from page one and kept me guessing throughout with its twists and turns.

Reviewed by Susan Keefe

(May 2013)