My website also tells you about my ongoing contests including Shared a Book, which encourages you to tell me when you’ve shared one of my books with someone. Each time you email me about this, you’re entered for the chance to spend a summer weekend with my family. In addition, everyone signed up for my monthly newsletter is automatically entered into an ongoing once-a-month drawing for a free, signed copy of my latest novel. There are links on my website that will help you with matters that are important to you—faith and family, adoption, and ways to reach out to others. Of course, on my site you can also find out a little more about me and my family, my Facebook, and Twitter and my YouTube channel.
Finally, if you gave your life to God during the reading of this book, or if you found your way back to a faith you’d let grow cold, send me a letter at [email protected] and write New Life in the subject line. I would encourage you to connect with a Bible-believing church in your area, and get hold of a Bible. But if you can’t get hold of one, can’t afford one, and don’t already have one, write Bible in the subject line. Tell me how God used this book to change your life, and then include your address in your email. My wonderful publisher Zondervan has supplied me with free copies of the New Testament, so that if you are unable to find a Bible or afford a Bible any other way, I can send you one. I’ll pay for shipping.
One last thing. I’ve started a program where I will donate a book to any high school or middle school librarian who makes a request. Check my website for details.
Again, thanks for journeying with me through the pages of this book. I can’t wait to see you in the fall for Unlocked— the story everyone is talking about! until then, my friends, keep your eyes on the cross, and don’t forget…we’re all missionaries one way or another, called to make a difference in the place where God has placed us.
In His light and love,
Karen Kingsbury
www.KarenKingsbury.com
READER STUDY GUIDE
Whenever I reach the end of a series, I take stock of the lessons learned. What did you learn reading the Above the Line Series? How did God speak to you through the four books?
Keith Ellison had a dream to change the culture through the power of film. How did God make that dream a reality? How was the reality different from what Keith might’ve pictured at the beginning?
What movie have you seen that left you closer to God and your family? Talk about what aspect of the movie was most powerful.
Another theme throughout this series was the struggle our young people face on college campuses across our nation. What personal experience do you have in these struggles? Share an example.
Do you think a series like Above the Line could help educate parents and college kids about the pitfalls of going away to school? Was there anything about the situations depicted in this series that surprised you? Do you think the real atmosphere on college campuses is better or worse than what was depicted?
What were Andi’s struggles during this series? Why do you think she rebelled so completely from the truth she’d been raised with?
Do you personally know of any students who walked away from their faith during their college years? What caused them to rebel? How did their stories end up?
Bailey struggled in ways that were different from Andi Ellison. What were Bailey’s struggles throughout the series, and what caused her to recognize them?
What’s one thing you can do to help a college student in your life? Do you think a group like Campus Crusade is helpful to kids living at school away from home? How can you support such an effort?
Through prayer, Andi decided to give her baby up for adoption. Do you know anyone in your life who has done this? What were their struggles?
How did Andi process her decision? Explain how her feelings sometimes changed in regard to giving up her baby.
The idea that Andi would choose Luke and Reagan Baxter to parent her child was a miracle in the Baxter family. Adoption is often associated with many different types of miracle stories. Share an adoption story you’re familiar with. How has that situation touched your life?
James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” How has this verse personally affected your life?
Bailey realized too late that she hadn’t made an effort to reach out to Cody or his mother. Instead she was too caught up in her own world to take the time to contact them. Is there someone in your life who maybe needs more of your love and time? What could you do to reach out?
Brandon Paul experienced a life-changing transformation in Take Four. What led to his decision years earlier to walk away from his faith in God? What are your thoughts on what Brandon’s parents said to him back then?
Do you know anyone who walked away from God because of something someone said, or because they weren’t treated with love? Tell about this person or this time?
Like Brandon Paul, it’s easy to be angry at God because of something someone else did to hurt us. Read Romans 8:28 – 39. What is the truth about God’s love for us—according to the Bible? What does Romans 8:28 mean to you?
What impact would happen in our culture if a highly visible celebrity chose to become a Christian? What good might come as a result? What risk is there in holding up celebrities for everyone to emulate—even when they have a very real faith?
Can you think of a highly visible celebrity—in any aspect of life (sports, arts, music, etc.)—who has a genuine and active faith? What good has that person done for our culture? What cautions must we keep in place regarding our heroes of the faith?
Explain the victories Keith Ellison realized along the journey of the Above the Line series. Give examples of how he saw God working even in the difficult times. God calls all of us to be missionaries where He has placed us. In what way are you a missionary in your world?
Unlocked
A Love Story
Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author
Holden Harris, 18, is locked in a prison of autism where he’s been since he was a happy, boisterous three-year-old. At school he is bullied by kids who do not understand that despite his quiet ways and quirky behaviors, Holden is very happy and socially normal on the inside, where he lives in a private world all his own.
Then one day the head cheerleader and star of the high school drama production is rehearsing when Holden stops and listens, clearly drawn to the music. Ella Reynolds notices and takes an interest in him, learning about autism and eventually helping Holden win a spot in the school play.
At the same time Ella makes a dramatic discovery. Long ago, her parents and Holden’s parents were good friends, and she and Holden played together until his diagnosis of autism, at which time Ella’s mother distanced herself from the friendship.
Not until a tragedy takes place at the high school does Ella take a public stand against the way the more popular privileged kids treat those who are different. At the same time, Ella continues to be a friend to Holden and in time their mothers realize that something special is happening. Hurts from the past are dealt with and all around Holden miracles begin to happen in various relationships. The greatest miracle is the change in Holden, himself, and everyone is stunned by the transformation they witness. Ultimately, the community comes to understand that many people walk around in a personal prison and that only by love and faith can the doors become unlocked, the way they dramatically do for Holden Harris.
Every Now and Then
Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author
A wall went up around Alex Brady’s heart when his father, a New York firefighter, died in the Twin Towers. Turning his back on the only woman he ever loved, Alex shut out all the people who cared about him to concentrate on fighting crime. He and his trusty K9 partner, Bo, are determined to eliminate evil in the world and prevent tragedies like 9-11.
Then the worst fire season in California’s history erup
ts, and Alex faces the ultimate challenge to protect the community he serves. An environmental terrorist group is targeting the plush Oak Canyon Estates. At the risk of losing his job, and his soul, Alex is determined to infiltrate the group and put an end to their corruption. Only the friendship of Clay and Jamie Michaels—and the love of a dedicated young woman—can help Alex drop the walls around his heart and move forward into the future God has for him.
Between Sundays
Karen Kingsbury,
New York Times Bestselling Author
Aaron Hill has it all—athletic good looks and the many privileges of a star quarterback. His Sundays are spent playing NFL football in front of a televised audience of millions. But Aaron’s about to receive an un-expected handoff, one that will give him a whole new view of his self-centered life.
Derrick Anderson is a family man who volunteers his time with foster kids while sustaining a long career as a pro football player. But now he’s looking for a miracle. He must act as team mentor while still striving for the one thing that matters most this season—keeping a promise he made years ago.
Megan Gunn works two jobs and spends her spare time helping at the youth center. Much of what she does, she does for the one boy for whom she is everything—a foster child whose dying mother left him in Megan’s care. Now she wants to adopt him, but one obstacle stands in the way. Her foster son, Cory, is convinced that 49ers quarterback Aaron Hill is his father.
Two men and the game they love. A woman with a heart for the lonely and lost, and a boy who believes the impossible. Thrown together in a season of self-discovery, they’re about to learn lessons in character and grace, love and sacrifice.
Because in the end, life isn’t defined by what takes place on the first day of the week, but how we live it between Sundays.
One Tuesday Morning
Karen Kingsbury
The last thing Jake Bryan knew was the roar of the World Trade Center collapsing on top of him and his fellow firefighters. The man in the hospital bed remembers nothing. Not rushing with his teammates up the stairway of the South Tower to help trapped victims. Not being blasted from the building. And not the woman sitting by his bedside who says she is his wife.
Jamie Bryan will do anything to help her beloved husband regain his memory. But that means helping Jake rediscover the one thing Jamie has never shared with him: his deep faith in God.
Beyond Tuesday Morning
Karen Kingsbury
Winner of the Silver Medallion book Award
Determined to find meaning in her grief three years after the terrorist attacks on New York City, FDNY widow Jamie Bryan pours her life into volunteer work at a small memorial chapel across from where the Twin Towers once stood. There, unsure and feeling somehow guilty, Jamie opens herself to the possibility of love again.
But in the face of a staggering revelation, only the persistence of a tenacious man, the questions from Jamie’s curious young daughter, and the words from her dead husband’s journal can move Jamie beyond one Tuesday morning…toward life.
Even Now
Karen Kingsbury
Sometimes hope for the future is found in the ashes of yesterday.
A young woman seeking answers to her heart’s deepest questions. A man and woman driven apart by lies and years of separation…who have never forgotten each other.
With hallmark tenderness and power, Karen Kingsbury weaves a tapestry of lives, losses, love, and faith—and the miracle of resurrection.
Ever After
Karen Kingsbury
2007 Christian book of the Year
Two couples torn apart—one by war between countries, and one by a war within.
In this moving sequel to Even Now, Emily Anderson, now twenty, meets the man who changes everything for her: Army reservist Justin Baker. Their tender relationship, founded on a mutual faith in God and nurtured by their trust and love for each other, proves to be a shining inspiration to everyone they know, especially Emily’s reunited birth parents.
But Lauren and Shane still struggle to move past their opposing beliefs about war, politics, and faith. When tragedy strikes, can they set aside their opposing views so that love—God’s love—might win, no matter how great the odds?
Acknowledgments
NO BOOK COMES TOGETHER without a great and talented team of people making it happen. For that reason, a special thanks to my friends at Zondervan who combined efforts to make Take Four all it could be. A special thanks to my dedicated editor, Sue Brower, and to my brilliant publicist Karen Campbell, and to the sales staff, design team, and marketing team whose creative ideas are unrivaled in the publishing business.
Also, thanks to my amazing agent, Rick Christian, president of Alive Communications. Rick, you’ve always believed only the best for me. When we talk about the highest possible goals, you see them as doable, reachable. You are a brilliant manager of my career, and I thank God for you. But even with all you do for my ministry of writing, I am doubly grateful for your encouragement and prayers. Every time I finish a book, you send me a letter that deserves to be framed, and when something big happens, yours is the first call I receive. Thank you for that. But even more, the fact that you and Debbie pray for me and my family keeps me confident every morning that God will continue to breathe life into the stories in my heart. Thank you for being so much more than a brilliant agent.
A special thank-you to my husband, Donald, who puts up with me on deadlines and doesn’t mind driving through Taco Bell after a baseball game if I’ve been editing all day. This wild ride wouldn’t be possible without you. Your love keeps me writing; your prayers keep me believing God has a plan in this ministry of Life-Changing Fiction™. And thanks for the hours you put in working with the guestbook entries on my website. It’s a full-time job, and I am grateful for your concern for my reader friends. I look forward to that time every day when you read through them, sharing them with me and releasing them to the public, lifting up the prayer requests. Thank you, honey, and thanks to all my kids, who pull together, bringing me iced green tea, and understanding my sometimes crazy schedule. I love that you know you’re still first, before any deadline.
Thank you also to my mom, Anne Kingsbury, and to my sisters, Tricia, Sue, and Lynne. Mom, you are amazing as my assistant—working day and night sorting through the mail from my readers. I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know. Traveling with you these past years for my Extraordinary Women events has given us times together we will always treasure.
Tricia, you are the best executive assistant I could ever hope to have. I treasure your loyalty and honesty, the way you include me in every decision and the daily exciting website changes. My site has been a different place since you stepped in, and the hits have grown tenfold. Along the way, the readers have so much more to help them in their faith, so much more than a story. Please know I pray for God’s blessings on you always, for your dedication to helping me in this season of writing, and for your wonderful son, Andrew. And aren’t we having such a good time too? God works all things to the good!
Sue, I believe you should’ve been a counselor! From your home far from mine, you get batches of reader letters every day, and you diligently answer them using God’s wisdom and His Word. When readers get a response from “Karen’s sister Susan,” I hope they know how carefully you’ve prayed for them and for the responses you give. Thank you for truly loving what you do, Sue. You’re gifted with people, and I’m blessed to have you aboard.
A special thanks also to Tom McCorquodale, my road manager and marketing assistant. You are young, but I am amazed by your creative knack for marketing and your diligence to our mission statement—to love and serve the reader. Thank you for stepping in and taking this position very seriously. I know you care deeply. Keep on—as I’m sure God has tremendous plans for you. I’m glad that, for now, those plans have you here with our team. You are a friend of our family and a very valuable part of this team. You are loyal and kind and fiercely protective
of me, my family, and the work God has me doing. Thank you for everything you’ve done, and continue to do.
Thanks too, to Olga Kalachik, my office assistant, who helps organize my supplies and storage areas, and who prepares our home for the marketing events and research gatherings that take place here on a regular basis. I appreciate all you’re doing to make sure I have time to write. You’re wonderful, Olga, and I pray God continues to bless you and your precious family.
And to the newest member of our team, Randy Graves, a very special thank you as well. Randy, you and your family have been a part of our family for more than a decade. You were a friend to my father and my brother, and you were a pall bearer when it came time to say goodbye to them. You understand the ministry of Life-Changing Fiction™, and now as my business manager and the executive director of my One Chance Foundation, you are an integral part of all we do. What a blessing to call you my friend and coworker. I pray that God always allows us to continue working together this way.
I also want to thank my friends at Extraordinary Women—Roy Morgan, Tim and Julie Clinton, Beth Cleveland, Charles Billingsley, Angela Thomas, Matthew West, Chonda Pierce, and so many others. How wonderful to be a part of what God is doing through all of you. Thank you for including me in your family.
Thanks also to my forever friends and family, the ones who have been there and continue to be there. Your love has been a tangible source of comfort, pulling us through the tough times and making us know how very blessed we are to have you in our lives.
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