May 23, 2022
The endearing third entry in Gray’s State of Grace series (after Love and the Silver Lining) follows a struggling musician as he rediscovers his faith and falls for a childhood acquaintance. Rock singer Cameron Lee, plagued by panic attacks and writer’s block, returns to his Texas hometown for his sister Cassie’s wedding. There, he reconnects with Cassie’s friend Lexie Walters, a superfan of his, and finds himself drawn to her irrepressible positivity. Meanwhile, Cameron discovers that his band’s most famous song—written by his former bandmate, Bryson, who quit before the group found success and married Cameron’s crush Darcy—is an ode to the man who introduced Bryson to Christ, not a love song for Darcy, as Cameron had long assumed. He also learns what true love feels like while falling for Lexie and realizes he had only loved Darcy as a friend. These twin revelations clear Cameron’s mental block and lead him back to his music and faith. Cameron and Lexie’s chemistry is palpable, and readers will root for their happily ever after. This tender tale hits all the right notes.
July 29, 2022
Cameron Lee is a failing musician on the brink of losing everything: his career, his music, and his mind. Fixated on perfection but plagued by his past, he returns home to Midlothian, Texas, only to reconnect with unlikely inspiration. Lexie Walter has harbored a schoolgirl crush on Cam for as long as she can remember, but she is no longer just his little sister's best friend. Her own losses have fostered resilience that Cam finds both enviable and irresistible. When resurrected betrayals threaten the tenuous spark between them, Cam and Lexie must accept that they must first heal their own wounds in order to find love together. Gray concludes her State of Grace trilogy with a modern story of reconciliation through the tried-and-true tale of a superstar's return home and rediscovery of love. Gray writes with deep understanding of the vulnerability of the creative process, exposing the intensely critical nature and fickle scale of self-worth intrinsic to the artistic life. The duality of success and discontent gives this Christian romance a welcome refrain of realism and wholeness.
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