Welcome back to Bridgeview, a (fictional) neighborhood in Spokane, Washington, where we explore an urban farming community where love is in the air!
Dancing at Daybreak picks up the story of Dixie Wayling and Dan Ranta, who were living together in Butterflies on Breezes, the second book in the series. Dan is the brother of that heroine, Linnea, and I honestly thought he and his live-in girlfriend were throw-away characters at the time. However, their situation wouldn’t let me go, and I began to envision a story of redemption for the two of them.
Way back when Jim and I were first newlyweds, we were invited to the pastor’s house for Sunday dinner along with a young (unmarried) family from the church. The man had been previously divorced, and they’d been living together for a while and had a couple of children together. They were new believers and planning a wedding.
The circumstances fascinated me even then. You have to understand, I grew up in a very black-and-white world. Divorced people did not remarry. It was sin.* That day introduced me to gray. Were their young kids to be denied a unified family living under one roof because their dad had been divorced before he was a believer? That didn’t make sense to me. It challenged my thinking… which needed challenging!
That long-ago situation stuck with me and somehow helped inform Dixie and Dan’s history in Dancing at Daybreak. Dixie was definitely a less upstanding person than the woman I once met. She had many issues that peeked out in books four through six. By now, book 7, I was more than ready to address their relationship and give them, not only a happily-ever-after of their own, but a true redemption story!
About Dancing at Daybreak
Dixie Wayling thought she’d found love with her third child’s father until the guy found Jesus. Right. Like she wanted anything to do with killjoy religion, especially when Dan issues his ultimatum: get married… or one of them moves out. Wasn’t going to be her.
Dan Ranta can’t give up his newfound faith to keep Dixie, but after she leaves the kids to go drinking with friends, he turns the tables and boots her out of the house he’s paying rent on. She declares her own conditions: give up Jesus and she’ll take him back.
What will it take for Dixie to overcome her past and find a deep faith of her own? How can Dan stand strong? Sorrow has certainly come for the night, but will there truly be joy in the morning?
Dancing at Daybreak is currently available only on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited for the foreseeable future.
Enjoy the Pinterest board for this novel here.
*I’m still not a proponent of divorce in general. I think many times people are just too lazy to put the effort in. BUT there definitely are valid, biblical reasons for divorce, and I no longer believe that remarriage after divorce is automatically “sinful.”
