HURTS & HEALING: Faith, Hope, and Love Vol 1 + SIGNUPS!

Hey everyone! Today I'm writing a little bit about Faith, Hope, and Love Vol. 1, which releases in a month and a couple of weeks (I'm trying to ignore the fact that October is coming SO. QUICKLY. Yikes.) 

Before I get into the content/purpose of this post, I'm pleased to announce that positions for the eARC team are NOW OPEN!  I'm working on proofreading edits this week, and hope to send out eARC copies soon.  If you'd like to be on the team, I'd love to have you! Click HERE to sign up. And if you've already read the books (nothing much has changed) and would like to review them, click HERE! I'd so appreciate it. 

Finally, if you'd like to participate in a super laid-back social media tour for release week, click HERE to check out some of the options and sign up! You can always email me with any questions (or comment below). 

Now, moving into the meat of this blog post: the mental health discussions in the collection.

When I wrote the book series originally, the mental health aspects/topics evolved as I learned more through college as a psychology minor (nearly a double-major).  For example, the early symptoms of PTSD suffered by some of the former-soldiers in the series shaped up much more in the last two books, which is another thing that I tweaked in Welcome Home.  While reading through the book, I realized something I had unintentionally done originally: Lucy's character actually complements Spencer's with C-PTSD, a variation caused by chronic stress over an extended period of time, common in abusive situations or relationships.  However, their attitudes are the big contrast: Lucy is bound and determined to turn her back on that part of her life, which causes a massive disruption when she backslides. On the contrary, Spencer has never gotten out of that rut yet, and in some ways, Lucy shows him how to get started.  It's a really interesting harmony that I didn't pick up the first time I wrote the book/series, but it was something that I really enjoyed drawing out a bit more in the new edition.  It's a topic that I'm still a passionate advocate for, and it's always my hope and prayer that it strikes a chord with readers who need that theme of healing and recovery. 

What are some of your favorite books that advocate for healing?