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Cover Reveal!

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It’s cover reveal day for Stay with Me, book #1 in my upcoming Misty River Romance series!

After I finished writing my Bradford Sisters series in June of 2018, I began casting around for inspiration for a new series. I’d just finished two family series in a row and I wanted to find a way to link the series characters in a new and different way.

Around that time, a young soccer team was trapped in a cave in Thailand. Remember that? International news outlets covered the story as we waited, hopeful, for the kids to be freed. While following updates on the soccer team, the most powerful two words any novelist can ask herself slipped into my mind. What if?

What if….

More than fifteen years ago, a group of middle schoolers from a small Georgia mountain town called Misty River traveled to El Salvador on a mission trip?  Their goal: to help run a week-long city sports camp.

At the end of the second day of camp, several of the kids were sent to the basement of the nearby ministry building to return equipment.  Thus, those children were separated from the bulk of their group and all the adults when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck.  The building folded in on itself, trapping them below ground beneath slabs of crumbling concrete.

 Two were sisters.  The rest were boys.  Some of them were friends.  Some merely friendly.  One was a foster kid who knew none of the others.  Two were injured.  One had a cell phone.  They called out, clinging to contact as long as they could until the cell phone’s battery died.

Across the next eight days, the best rescue teams, architects, and engineers on the globe collaborated in a race against time to save them.  Their parents rushed to El Salvador.  The media clamored.  The world’s attention focused with desperation on a single building in an earthquake-ravaged city.  Hope rose, even though every expert predicted the structure’s imminent collapse and concluded that there was no scientifically possible way to bring the children out alive. 

People of every nation prayed, asking God to protect and liberate the five.

And, miraculously, He did.

The kids became known as The Miracle Five, all of whom are now in their late twenties and early thirties, all of whom were impacted in different and inescapable ways by the trauma they survived.

Stay with Me features Genevieve, the younger of the two sisters who were trapped by the rubble.

Here’s a glimpse at Stay with Me’s story line:

A mysterious letter alluding to a secret in her parents’ past brings Genevieve Woodward to her hometown in the Blue Ridge mountains.  The morning after arriving, she realizes she’s hit rock bottom when she wakes inside an unfamiliar cottage to find its handsome owner staring down at her. Her career as an acclaimed Bible study author and speaker has left her dangerously burned out and concealing a powerful secret of her own.  
 
Sam Turner has embraced his sorrow and his identity as an outsider.  The solitary, disciplined life he lives on his historic farm is the life he’s chosen for himself.  The last thing he wants is to rent his farm’s cottage to a small, long-haired woman who’s as troubled as she is talkative.  Yet, he can’t force himself to turn her away when she needs him most. 
 
As Genevieve uncovers her family’s history and emotions deepen, Genevieve’s facade will crumble, Sam’s loneliness will grow unbearable, and light will illuminate every hidden truth.  

And here is Stay With Me’s cover….

I LOVE this cover! The colors. The modern and romantic feel. The heroine looks exactly like the Genevieve of my imagination. I think Jennifer Parker (Senior Graphic Designer at Bethany House) nailed this one!

Stay With Me is slated to release May 5th, but you can already place it on your “want to read” shelf at Goodreads or pre-order at Amazon and B&N:

Amazon | Goodreads | Barnes&Noble

To thank you for supporting my writing and for reading my blog posts, I’ve put together a cover-reveal-day giveaway for you!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered and congratulations to the winner, Hannah Gray!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What do you think of the new cover?

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Becky Wade

Author at Bethany House
Becky makes her home in Dallas, Texas with her husband and three children. She absolutely loves writing funny, heartwarming, and inspirational contemporary Christian romance.
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Comments

  1. Excited for your new book! I love reading how authors find inspiration. Thank you for sharing!
    I also entered the giveaway 🤞🏻

  3. I love the premise of your story and the gorgeous cover! I’m very excited for you and your readers.

  5. It’s Just.So.Pretty.
    Kudos to Jennifer Parker and the rest of the BH team for giving us a fabulous cover!

  7. The cover of your new book is inviting! One senses tenderness between the two and sweet longing. I’m eager to read Stay with Me!

    • “One senses tenderness between the two and sweet longing.” Yes! I think that’s what this photo captures so well. The couple in the image are dating in real life.

  8. Wonderful cover! Added to my Goodreads list. Have a blessed day. CONGRATULATIONS 🎈

  10. The story sounds wonderful, and I adore the cover! So happy for you, and me, because a new Becky Wade book is coming!

    • Thanks, Karen! So far, I’ve really enjoyed exploring this series concept. It’s been interesting to ponder how the earthquake impacted each of the five uniquely. The disaster launched some of them into an upward trajectory and dragged another into a downward spiral. Some still haven’t fully dealt with the ramifications of what happened, etc….

    • It’s always a fun (and sometimes scary) challenge to launch a new series! I find the first book the trickiest because it’s not easy to get everything — the setting, backstory, characters, romance — off the ground. In book #2, I can cruise at altitude. In book #3, I simply have to land the thing.

  19. Beautiful cover! I’m just starting “Falling For You” and by chapter 3 you already had me hooked. You are such a good storyteller! Good luck on the new release!

  23. Yes! YES! YYYYYEEEEESSSS!!! This cover is beautiful…***SIGH*** The pastel colors and the models are Spot. On. Is Sam’s name a shout-out to your adorable pup? I know he’s been a big part of your writing/walking/dictating process, so he deserves a mention, right? 🙂

    • Right! Although my dog Sam definitely IS a hero through and through, he didn’t serve as the inspiration for my fictional hero. For one thing, my fictional hero isn’t a foot tall nor especially hairy. 😉

  24. Wow! Love!
    So different from your previous covers, but so gorgeous!Much anticipated read!!!

  26. Oh wow! What a beautiful cover! Looks like such a tender moment between those two! It really is extra-special! Heading over to Amazon now to pre-order! (Though, honestly, Becky, even if your new cover was hideous, I’d still be eager to read it! LOVE your books!)

  31. The cover is perfect: refreshing, encouraging, “clean” 😉, just the right colors! Looking forward to reading it!

  34. Love the new cover and story line for the next series! I am just starting to read the Bradford Sisters series. I try to wait until a series is completed so I can read them all together. It is not always easy to wait!!

    • I hope you enjoy the Bradford Sisters series, Patsy! There’s certainly something lovely about the ability to read all the books in the series in close proximity.:)

  35. It’s a gorgeous cover, and I really want to read your story! I love the premise, and you always write wonderful books! I’ve read all of them so far. 🙂

  42. This cover is another winner! And I love your “what if…” and the trail that you followed from that. Looking forward to this new creative work!

  43. Beautiful cover – gorgeous colors. Story sounds exciting. Congratulations, Becky!

  44. Becky, this is yet again another series from you that I cannot wait to read (the concept sounds so interesting), and another *stunning* cover art that the BHP team designed inspired by the story. Love the colors, the “softness” and best of all, the tender romanticism of the couple; it’s perfect for the genre. Congrats!

    • “Love the colors, the “softness” and best of all, the tender romanticism of the couple; it’s perfect for the genre.” I couldn’t agree more, Rissi. Thanks for stopping by!

  45. I love this cover!! It’s beautiful and the colors and characters go together well. I’m so excited for this new book!

  47. What a fascinating connection! So unique! it sounds like a wonderful premise for a series and I am looking forward to reading it. The cover is beautiful. Fits with the “Misty River” idea. It is kind of like seeing through a clearing in the mist. I’m curious, have you actually spoken with the five rescued kids-turned-adults, or read accounts of their lives since the rescue?

    • Yes! The cover does give one the sense that they’re viewing it through mist. 🙂

      The soccer team in Thailand was real, but the five rescued kids-turned-adults are all a product of my imagination.

  48. This book series sounds amazing! And I love this cover!!! Beautiful in every way. I am so very excited for this.

  50. Beautiful cover, Becky! I’m excited to read this new series and share it with my bookish friends!

  53. Oh. My. Goodness. I do love the cover (It’s gorgeous and something new and different and I am so drawn to it!), but this story!!! What an incredible and unique backstory for the series! I can’t wait to meet each member of The Miracle Five. And I’m already in love with the first story just from reading the book blurb. I truly can’t wait for these!

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