Beauty for Ashes

Thirty-two-year-old Rebecca Ivy escapes a church, where sin abounds even more than she realizes. Betrayed and broken, the ugliness of her past prevents her from recognizing the beauty in the mirror. She soon catches the watchful eye of her Jewish co-worker, Ted Margolin, who sees a woman worthy of his protection. As an unexpected romance blooms, Rebecca struggles to reconcile all she's been, taught with the golden sparkle in the mighty Margolin's eyes. Old family secrets, come to light, and Rebecca battles rumors and threats designed to keep her silent. Meanwhile, Ted must fight for Rebecca and against his own doubts about God. Rebecca's unwavering faith in Jesus confounds and intrigues Ted, but will it be enough to give them a tabula rasa (blank slate) to erase the past and create a new story of their own?

Devastated from loss and a broken marriage, Taylor Ross had closed off her heart in order to survive. All of that changes when the infamous Kyle Goldstein challenges Taylor to see the man beyond the office gossip. At the same time, Ian Horner has never hidden his admiration for Taylor. Even after their awkward first meeting at church, his steady faithfulness cannot be ignored. As Taylor allows her heart to beat again, feel again, and break again, she must also confront the pain of her father's abandonment twenty years earlier. Threats both old and new press in, and ancient family secrets refuse to remain hidden any longer. Taylor knows that God can make something beautiful out of nothing (ex nihilo), but can she set aside her past in order to embrace everything her heart has ever wanted?

Former lead soprano at the Haarlem Opera, Margot Van Ormer, is the closest thing to an enemy Tamar Feldman has ever known. But when Tamar discovers Margot's four-year-old son has been mistreated in an orphanage, she rescues him and endeavors to keep him in her home until Margot is released from prison. Will her enemy become her friend, or is it true that no good deed goes unpunished?Ilse Bergman knows that her husband, former Nazi officer, Erich Bergman, is too smart and too mean to be dead. She also knows of his penchant for pretty sopranos. It's time to make Erich pay for abandoning her. Will a certain soprano lead Ilse to her husband?

Poppy Berman gave her heart to Jared Levine at sixteen years-old, but twenty years later, Jared crushes her dreams and their marriage with the mention of just one name. Two years after their separation, Jared swoops back in spouting new religious beliefs and says he wants his family back. At the same time, the pale green eyes of Joe Trautweig urge Poppy toward a future free from Jared. Poppy has always used medieval fiction and its tales of courtly love as an escape from real life, but she suddenly finds herself as the heroine in her own story of romance, intrigue, betrayal, and redemption. Either man Poppy chooses brings her toward a holy book she's never understood, and it challenges her own beliefs about God. Ultimately, Poppy must decide if repairing what's been broken (tikkun olam) means restoration of the past or the creation of something completely new.

Carly Miller loves reading the triumphant memoirs of her friend and co-worker, Poppy Levine. Having survived a tumultuous upbringing with her hyper-religious mother, Carly is happy for Poppy's story of healing and faith, but she believes her own sin is unforgivable. Equally inaccessible to Carly is Poppy's former suitor, Joe Trautweig, whose story from Poppy's book captivates Carly. When she encounters those jade green eyes in real life, the lines between the printed page and the man himself begin to blur. Joe has his own painful secrets, but Carly fears her past will be too much for their mutual attraction to overcome. Can Carly accept the idea her own heart could be made clean (lev tahor) and that both she and Joe can embrace what forgiveness truly means?

Following a miserable, fifteen-year marriage, Charlotte Williams slogs through the world of online dating. Her ex-husband, Rick, has poisoned her spiritual support system and now parades his hasty remarriage amongst their former friends. Despite the rejection, Charlotte refuses to dim her hilariously unfiltered honesty. She captivates the attention of Jonathan Roseman, an old friend, who sees Charlotte as the breath of fresh air missing from his life. The silver fox insists his feelings are genuine, but Charlotte struggles against the spiritual life she left behind. When new layers of betrayal threaten both Charlotte and her daughters, can Jonathan convince her they have a future together where Charlotte is protected by God and 'beloved' (ani l'dodi) by him?