Love in God's Timing
(2026)(The fourth book in the Serenity Crossing: The Hartwells series)
A novel by Tara Baisden
She spent a decade helping everyone else find love. Now he’s back—and hope is the one thing she can’t afford.
Rebecca Hartwell is Serenity Crossing’s sunshine girl—the salon owner who knows everyone'''s secrets, the matchmaker who’s celebrated a hundred happily-ever-afters from the third pew. But behind her bright smile is a heart she stopped trusting ten years ago, when the boy she loved chose ministry over her. Now she’s built a life on giving love, not receiving it. When Conner Delaney walks back into town as the new youth pastor, Rebecca tells herself she’s fine. She’s moved on. She definitely isn’t hoping. Because hope is what broke her the first time.
Conner never stopped carrying Rebecca in his heart—or the guilt of leaving her behind. He believed following God meant sacrificing the girl who felt like home, and he’s spent a decade trying to prove that choice was worth it. But returning to Serenity Crossing shatters everything he thought he knew. Rebecca is more beautiful, more guarded, and more out of reach than ever. And Conner is terrified that pursuing her now would only prove he hasn’t changed—that he’ll always put calling before the woman he loves.
When they’re thrown together to plan the church’s new mentorship program, neither can escape the pull of what they once had—or the watchful eyes of a small town with long memories. The whole congregation has opinions. The gossip at Rebecca’s salon never stops. And when a struggling teenager’s crisis forces them to work side by side, Conner and Rebecca discover that the wounds they’ve been hiding aren’t so different after all. But just as walls begin to fall, an opportunity from Conner’s past threatens to prove Rebecca’s deepest fear: that she’ll never be anyone’s first choice.
In the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, two people who once broke each other’s hearts must decide if ten years of waiting was punishment—or providence. And whether love and calling were ever meant to be an either/or choice at all.
Tropes:
Rebecca Hartwell is Serenity Crossing’s sunshine girl—the salon owner who knows everyone'''s secrets, the matchmaker who’s celebrated a hundred happily-ever-afters from the third pew. But behind her bright smile is a heart she stopped trusting ten years ago, when the boy she loved chose ministry over her. Now she’s built a life on giving love, not receiving it. When Conner Delaney walks back into town as the new youth pastor, Rebecca tells herself she’s fine. She’s moved on. She definitely isn’t hoping. Because hope is what broke her the first time.
Conner never stopped carrying Rebecca in his heart—or the guilt of leaving her behind. He believed following God meant sacrificing the girl who felt like home, and he’s spent a decade trying to prove that choice was worth it. But returning to Serenity Crossing shatters everything he thought he knew. Rebecca is more beautiful, more guarded, and more out of reach than ever. And Conner is terrified that pursuing her now would only prove he hasn’t changed—that he’ll always put calling before the woman he loves.
When they’re thrown together to plan the church’s new mentorship program, neither can escape the pull of what they once had—or the watchful eyes of a small town with long memories. The whole congregation has opinions. The gossip at Rebecca’s salon never stops. And when a struggling teenager’s crisis forces them to work side by side, Conner and Rebecca discover that the wounds they’ve been hiding aren’t so different after all. But just as walls begin to fall, an opportunity from Conner’s past threatens to prove Rebecca’s deepest fear: that she’ll never be anyone’s first choice.
In the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, two people who once broke each other’s hearts must decide if ten years of waiting was punishment—or providence. And whether love and calling were ever meant to be an either/or choice at all.
Tropes:
- Second-chance romance
First love reunion
Pastor/preacher romance
Return to hometown
Small-town fishbowl
Slow burn
Reader Promise: This faith-filled, small-town Christian contemporary romance features a slow-burn second chance at love, no explicit content, and a deeply satisfying happily-ever-after that will leave your heart full.
Genre: Romance