Tag: Tari Faris

13 September 2021

Book Review | Since You’ve Been Gone (Restoring Heritage #3) by Tari Faris

Leah Williams is the last of her group of friends still unmarried (and this is a romance novel, so we all know what that means). For now, she wants to reopen her grandfather’s store, the WIFI (Want It, Find It … not what we now think of as WiFi) in her hometown of Heritage, Michigan. And that means working with her high school nemesis and now building co-owner, Jon Kensington.

Jon has returned to Heritage both to take over the family business, and to help his sister, Abby, get through school after being expelled from boarding school. He’s always liked Leah so wants to help … but convincing her his feelings are genuine might take some work.

Since You’ve Been Gone also had a secondary romance, and I have to admit I found this one more compelling. Madison Westmore is the daughter of the now-deceased town drunk, so she’s back in town to spruce up and sell her childhood home, then get on with life with her unborn daughter. She needs help so hires new-in-town Colby to paint.

Christian music start Colby Marc has escaped the collapse of his music career and is hiding with his old friend Nate. He quickly falls for Madison, but has to convince his friends that she’s not the mean girl they remember from high school, and convince her she’s worth loving.

Yes, I’m always a sucker for a bad-girl-turned-good story, because it’s a picture of redemption.

I found the Leah/Jon romance a little annoying. Jon knew trust was one of Leah’s issues, yet kept breaking her trust by not telling her important things. The other reason I found it slightly annoying is kind of my fault—I thought her central issue was going to be her belief that she’d been living someone else’s life and needed to live her own. But it was more that she kept quitting, and that didn’t resonate with me as much (maybe she kept quitting because she realised she was living someone else’s dreams, not her own. That could have worked. But that’s not what I saw).

But I really enjoyed the Madison/Colby romance. Madison is a very new Christian who is still living with the consequences of her old life. I love a good redemption story, and this one definitely appealed to me. I found Madison a much more relatable character than Leah.

Since You've Been Gone by Tari Faris (@FarisTari) is the third book in her excellent Restoring Heritage contemporary Christian romance series. #ChristianRomance #BookReview Share on X

This book is part of the Restoring Heritage series, and readers who have read the earlier books will recognise several of the characters. In fact, this is one series it’s best to read all of and read in order (yes, this is a standalone). Series readers will also remember Otis, the hippo statue that’s the town mascot … and which mysteriously moves around the town square.

Spoiler: one of the highlights of Since You’ve Been Gone is finding out Otis’s secret.

All in all, this is a solid contemporary Christian romance, and definitely recommended for fans of Tari Faris’s Restoring Heritage series.

Thanks to Baker Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Tari Faris

I have been writing fiction for more than twelve years. It has been an exciting journey for this math-loving-dyslexic girl. I had read less than a handful of novels by the time I graduated from college and I thought I would end up in the field of science or math. But God had other plans and I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything. As someone told me once, God’s plans may not be easy, and they may not always make sense but they are never boring.

When I am not writing or working, I spend time with my amazing husband. We have been married for fifteen wonderful years and have three sweet children. In my free time, I love coffee, rock hounding with my husband and kids, and distracting myself from housework.

Find Tari Faris online at:

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About Since You’ve Been Gone

Leah Williams is back in the quaint town of Heritage, Michigan, and ready to try again to make her business a success. But blank slates are hard to come by, and a piece of her past is waiting for her there. Heir to the Heritage Fruits company, Jonathan Kensington is the guy who not only made Leah’s past difficult, he also seems determined to complicate her present as well.

Jon is trying to prove to the Heritage Fruits board that he, not his manipulative uncle, should be running the business. The board insists Jon find a new owner for the building that will house Leah’s business. To avoid forcing a buyout of Leah’s part of the building, Jon strikes a compromise with Leah, and the two go into business together. With her vision and his know-how, it might work. And Leah might realize he’s loved her since high school. If only he didn’t keep on shooting himself in the foot by boxing her out of important decisions.

Sparks fly in this romantic story of two people who must learn to trust both each other and the one who called them to this journey.

Find Since You’ve Been Gone online at:

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5 March 2021

First Line Friday | Week 175 | PS Goodbye by Tari Faris

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from P.S. Goodbye by Tari Faris, the prequel novella to the Restoring Heritage series. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About P.S. Goodbye

What if a woman who’s all about the goals and plans falls in love with man who no longer believes his life has a purpose? A novice life coach needs to cement her reputation with one great success story. When a wounded former Special Forces operator walks back into her life looking for a job, she decides to work with him—a win-win for them both.

If Caroline Williams had her way, she’d help everyone in town find their purpose in life—unfortunately, no one seems to want her help. But she refuses to give up, and her new status as a certified life coach should provide her with some badly needed credibility. All she needs is her first client. When Grant Quinn walks in looking for a job, Caroline knows he needs more than that—he needs a new plan for his life. But when Grant refuses to be honest about his dreams and his struggles, Caroline’s business might come crashing down before it starts.

Wounded former Special Forces operator Grant Quinn understood the cost when he enlisted and served his country with pride. The scars on his face are reminders of what he lost, but he is moving on—now if he could just convince his family that he’s fine. When Caroline steps back into his life and offers to help find him a job in exchange for being her Guinea pig in her new life coaching business, he agrees. After all, what better way to show his family he’s okay than with a new, stable job? But when the anxiety he’s been running from ruins his one interview, his plans come crashing down. Can he trust Caroline enough to be honest about everything?

You can find P.S. Goodbye online at:

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Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

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17 August 2020

Book Review | Until I Met You (Restoring Heritage #2) by Tari Faris

I didn’t get a chance to read and review Tari Faris’s debut novel, but reading the reviews left me with high expectations for Until I Met You. And, I have to admit, it took a while to see what everyone else saw.

Until I Met You starts with Libby and Austin meeting when Libby’s dog escapes and makes friends with Austin’s dog. She’s a purebred he was hoping to breed, so is less than pleased. As such, it’s not a great introduction to him as a character, and I did find him hard to warm to.

But it’s not just Libby and Austin’s story.

It’s also Nate and Olivia’s story, and that’s something that confused me at first—Libby and Olivia had similar character voices, and I mixed them up a couple of times.

Nate is Austin’s younger brother, the prodigal. Austin has always done everything right, and picked up the pieces after Nate’s mistakes. Nate, now a pastor, is all too aware of his past mistakes and can’t get over them—to the point he keeps brushing off Olivia, who is interested in him.

I found Nate a much more engaging character than Austin. It did make me wonder what happened to the Biblical Prodigal Son after his father threw the party. Was he able to accept his inheritance, or was he more like Nate? I could totally see what Olivia saw in Nate, and why she kept pursuing him even after all the rebuffs.

Austin, on the other had, was somewhere between difficult and insufferable, and I had trouble working out what Libby saw in him. Yes, he’s loyal and hardworking and puts others first, but he is, frankly, self-righteous about it. And that makes him somewhat tiresome. The first half of Until I Met You had a lot of Austin being insufferable, and it got a little tired.

But the story picked up pace and interest in the second half.

That’s when the spiritual aspects started to come through more strongly, and that was the real strength of the novel. Until I Met You is Christian fiction where the characters actually find the answers to their problems in the truths of the Christian faith. It’s refreshing, and I can now see why everyone raved about You Belong With Me.

I didn’t realise when I started reading, but Until I Met You is a sequel to You Belong With Me. The beginning of Until I Met You might also have been an easier read if I had read the earlier book, as then I would have known some of the characters—-Until I Met You introduced a lot of characters early on, and it wasn’t always easy to see how they fitted together. I guess that was covered in the first book.

Yes, read You Belong With Me first if you can, but don’t worry if you can’t.

The strength of Until I Met You isn’t in the series characters, but in the relationship between the brothers. Like all relationships, it can be hard going but it’s worth the effort.

Thanks to Revell and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Tari Faris

Find Tari Faris online at:

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About Until I Met You

When she hears that the small town of Heritage, Michigan, is looking for a new librarian, Libby Kingsley jumps at the opportunity. Little did she know the library is barely more than a storage closet stuffed with dusty, outdated books. What the community really needs is a new building. But the only funds available are those being channeled into the new town square, and the landscape architect in charge of the project wants nothing to do with her plans.

All Austin Williams wants to do is get the town square project finished so he can do right by the family business and then extricate himself from the town that reveres the brother who cost him so much. But the local media and the town’s new librarian seem to be conspiring against him at every turn. Will the determined bookworm find her way into his blueprints–and possibly even his heart?

Find Until I Met You online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong