title: Standing Strong
author: Lee, Summer
description: Four women, four friends, and four very different lives that intertwine through time and space...
  
   In this coming-of-age novel, the faith and friendship of four young women is tested when they face decisions that will change their lives forever. Love and romance is never easy, especially for Christian friends who struggle to live spiritual lives when real-life issues conflict with everything that they have ever believed is right.
  
   As Susie struggles with a decision that may tear apart her heart and harm her physically, Jennie struggles to keep a secret promise that threatens her developing love relationship. As each young woman tries to find herself, her happiness, and her calling, they each discover that only one thing remains true: God's love.
  
   Elizabeth has had a lot of emotional pain in her life. She leaves Colorado behind and finds a safe place in a Southern California Christian mission station that ministers to the downtrodden of the community. A strong Christian, she still struggles with her painful past, which followed her to Southern California as a rejected guy from her high school days stalks her and taunts her for being overweight - worse, he does it in front of the handsome Pastor Sam.
  
   Humiliated and downcast at the names she is called, and at her past history revealed to Sam, she struggles to lose weight with desperate measures. Pastor Sam struggles to understand why it is so important to her. Luckily, she finds a Christian counselor who helps others overcome their addictions. Together with some women of the neighborhood, they must unravel their pasts to heal their futures.
  
   Annie Duncan leaves her abusive boyfriend and hops on a plane to anywhere, just to get away from him. The next plane is headed for Southern California and in the seat next to her is Joseph, a hunky modern-day missionary who is about to change her life with wisdom, promises from the Bible, and compassion.
  
   The man of her dreams is a hero of Biblical proportions and strength. To her surprise, he’s never been intimate with anyone. But she loves him passionately. How can a woman with a past show her love to a man who has kept himself pure for a lifetime while he searches for his God-given true love? It's going to take a miracle for these two to come together...and to find true love.