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CrossReads Short Takes

Returning to Amanda

(Aloevale Book 1)

by Shirley Corder

Amanda “Mandy” Kirkpatrick was once a rising star in the art world. But when she fell in love with pastor Owen Douglas, she put her dreams on hold and her paints to one side. Mandy focused all her energies on supporting her husband and creating for their children the loving, stable home-life she herself had lacked. She planned to return to her career when the kids started school, but as the years passed her brushes remained dry. Then came a move that changed everything.

Owen’s new congregation has rigid ideas of how their pastor and wife should behave. He throws himself into the work and expects the same of Mandy. The congregants swamp her with expectations beyond her abilities or desires. With a precocious teenager, two mischievous twins, a workaholic husband, and an interfering elderly neighbor, life becomes progressively stressful.

As a pandemic begins to advance around the globe, relationships come to a head, and Mandy makes the life-changing decision to run away in search of the woman she once was. But if she rediscovers Amanda Kirkpatrick, will she regret leaving Mandy, the pastor’s wife, behind? Or is there a way that she can be both artist and pastor’s wife?

Christmas Morning

A Collection of Short Stories and Poems

by Arlessa R. Douglass

This Christmas a family shares their talents and a piece of their heart to you. An inspirational read for the Holidays. Amelia is in danger of losing her home and all hope this Christmas. Does Santa really exist? Perhaps, the answer is prayer and kindness.