A Reason to Stay ~ Review

A Reason to Stay
A Texas Gold Novel #3
By Kellie Coates Gilbert

Faith Martin appeared to have it all.  A journalist early in her career on a highly motivated upward path, a marriage to a successful, champion sports fisher - what more could she want?  But Faith's life was more than the outer package that she had so carefully crafted for the world to see.

But when a tragic incident occurs, Faith's carefully crafted image is about to crumble and she'll learn that even something broken can be fixed if only she will allow it to take place.

A Reason to Stay starts with the incident that is about to change Faith's life.  We are then taken from the present to the not too distant past - the beginning of Faith's phenomenal career launch, with a few bumps along the way.  Faith's story is then a forward progression that that alternates between both past and present events to tell a story that is both moving and healing.

Faith's story is like that of many others - no we don't all suffer from a traumatic event that has quite the same effect as Faith.  But rather we allow hurts from the past to shape us into whom we are today. The question one must ask one's self is did I allow this hurt to stay broken or did I allow it to heal? Hurts all too often are allowed to twist our thinking so that in trying to prevent future pain we further damage ourselves.  This is Faith's journey to discover which path she chose and a chance to rethink and reexamine her options before she makes a choice that can't be undone.

I have to be honest in some of the instances  where Faith has trouble with her husband Geary's family I can totally see her point.  I also think of her in-laws, Geary's father seems to best see Faith's point of view.  Family can be interesting to say the least and Geary's and Faith's are no exception.

The Texas Gold books are standalone titles. There is no particular order that these books have to be read in as each deals with different people.  Texas and family are the themes that these books have in common.  Each person faces a potentially life-altering situation that could destroy them or make them stronger.  It is how one faces this trial that determines who they will become.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher Revell in exchange for my honest review.

About the Book:
Sometimes the thing that keeps us from making the wrong choice is the one thing we can't control

As an investigative reporter and the host of her own TV talk show, Faith Marin works to expose the truth for her viewers. But in her personal life, she's anchored her world with firm boundaries in order to hide a family history she'd like to forget. By contrast, her husband Geary's life is an open book. An easygoing pro bass fisherman, Geary is the ultimate family man--and his overbearing relatives don't know the meaning of boundaries.

Faith and Geary haven't been married long when their differences start to derail their tender relationship. Surely love shouldn't be this hard. While Faith considers whether divorce is the only answer to their issues, tragedy strikes. With her life in the balance, she finds that the one she has been shutting out may be the very one she cannot bear to lose.

Kellie Coates Gilbert takes you on an emotional roller coaster as she weaves together unexpected trial, self-discovery, and forgiveness in this profoundly honest portrait of the tensions that can break a marriage--and the ultimate healing power of love.


Kellie Coates Gilbert is a former legal investigator and trial paralegal and the author of A Woman of Fortune and Where Rivers Part. Gilbert crafts her emotionally charged stories about women in life-changing circumstances in Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her husband. Learn more at www.kelliecoatesgilbert.com.