title: Then Came Love
author: Gouge, Louise M.
description: In Then Came Love, Louise M. Gouge has masterfully woven unforgettable characters into a tale of forgiveness and grace that will touch your heart and keep you thinking long after you have turned the final page. Set during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, the message of this story remains significant today. Judith Miller, best-selling author of the Home to Amana series and The Brickmaker’s Bride. Louise M. Gouge made me care deeply about all her characters from the first page. I began reading Then Came Love and was pulled in and couldn’t look away as the story unfolded with Gouge’s trademark captivating, heart-wrenching human drama. So wonderful, gripping, and engrossing! Mary Connealy, author of Tried and True. Love does not seek what it can get but what it can give, which is everything. “And now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13 (KJV) Louisa Maria Downs has waited three long years for her soldier-sweetheart’s homecoming. But when he returns, John Jacobs stands aloof, his deep blue eyes revealing his longing for her, but his lips strangely silent. Convinced it is God’s will for them to marry, Louisa defies decorum and pursues the man who has owned her heart since she was twelve years old. John Jacobs has spent three years fighting to keep the Union intact. Now back home, he longs to marry the young woman he has admired since boyhood. But shattering memories of what he did during the war magnify the bloodstains on his hands. He awakens each day more certain than ever that he is not worthy of the love of a decent woman, much less the love of God. Torn apart by the Civil War, two young couples find restoration through love, grace, and forgiveness.