Teresa Mathews' Reviews Stealing the Preacher by Karen Witemeyer

Stealing the Preacher

Stealing the Preacher
By Karen Witemeyer

Bethany House Publishers

Reviewed by Teresa Mathews
5 stars *****

In this amazing Texas tale Karen Witemeyer re-introduces us to Crockett Archer. If you read Short Straw Bride you will remember the lovable brothers that had to take care of themselves from a very young age when their parents passed away. Since the age of fifteen Crockett took on the spiritual responsibility of the family. For the past three years he has been an apprentice under the local preacher and now he is on a train bound for an interview at what just may be his first church.

Crockett is not prepared for what happens next, several men dressed as robbers stop the train and instead of robbing everyone, they ask for the preacher. After a moment of debating whether he wants to step forward Crockett does so and finds himself being forced off the train at gunpoint. What will happen if he can't get to his interview at the church?

Silas Robbins has no use for God or those hypocrites that call themselves preachers but he loves his only child more than anything in the world. So when she said she needed to talk to a preacher he was determined he would find one no matter the cost. When he hears there is a preacher coming to a nearby church to try out to be the pastor his plan comes together. Won't Joanna be surprised when he brings home a preacher for her birthday?

Joanna Robbins has been praying for God to send a new preacher to the area so they can once again have church services. She wants more than anything to see her father give up his sinful ways, she promised her mother before she passed away she wouldn't give up praying for him. When her father kidnaps a preacher as a present for her twenty-first birthday Joanna is more than a little shocked. She prayed for a preacher to come but not like this, not by the hand of her father holding a gun on him!

Crockett is quite taken by Joanna and her godly ways, so when he misses his interview he sees it as God wanting him to take up the challenge to be the preacher Joanna wants for her town and possibly the man for her life. Joanna talks her father into hiring Crockett to work on the ranch but Silas tells him there will be no talking about the things of God. Will the life that Crockett lives speak louder than words and touch Silas' hard heart?

Once again Karen has written an amazing story that had me excitedly flipping pages into the night. When you read of the resurrection of an abandoned church, the softening of an old criminal's heart and watching the love grow between a man with a true heart for God and a beautiful selfless young woman. It certainly makes for a book you do not want to put down and long for the next adventure Karen has in store for us.  

You can find this book and others by Karen at Amazon, CBD, and Barnes and Noble and other bookstores.


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