About the Book
Book: What You Said to Me
Author: Olivia Newport
Genre: Christian Fiction
Release Date: November 2020
Book 4 in the Tree of Life Series: A Father-Daughter Genealogy Team Link Faith Journeys on Family Trees
When 15-year-old Tisha Crowder gets caught shoplifting, attorney Nolan Duffy tries to protect her from consequences that could rattle her already troubled life. His daughter, Jillian, feels like she’s the one being punished instead—by having Tisha assigned to work with her on a backlog of genealogy files. Tisha doesn’t seem interested in taking the job seriously, and Jillian’s patience wears thin. Besides, everyone in Canyon Mines knows the Crowder family has experienced generations of brokenness. Then a sliver of hope turns up in long-ago words in plain sight, challenging shrouded assumptions about Tisha’s family. Now Jillian is the one who can walk with Tisha back to 1893 and uncover where everything went wrong in the first place—and save her from the past.
What You Said to Me is the fourth book in the Tree of Life series by Olivia Newport. You’ll want to return to the lovely Colorado mountain town of Canyon Mines again and again to explore and celebrate unforgettable family stories that will inspire you to connect with your own family histories and unique faith journeys.
Click here to get your copy!
In My Opinion
Readers of The Tree of Life series by Olivia Newport have gotten to know many of the Canyon Mines, Colorado residents through the first three books. In What You Said to Me, Newport unveils some more of the town’s history as well as some new (only to the reader) residents.
While this final book in the series continues a few threads from previous books, it can stand alone. Once again Newport weaves threads of past and present while hitting on the topic of bitterness—how one person’s acerbic attitude and words can create the same in another and be passed down through generations.
The addition of Tisha adds a lot to this story as the teenager deals with her family, her emotions, and stretches Jillian and Nolan as they reach out to her. It doesn’t always turn out as they hoped, but I believe their words and encouragement helped change Tisha.
There are a few small unresolved areas in the end, but it made the story that much more real. After all, we don’t get the answers to everything in our lives. It’s fitting conclusion to a series that leaves the reader with hope for what’s to come.
Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
About the Author
Olivia Newport’s novels twist through time to find where faith and passions meet. Her husband and twentysomething children provide welcome distraction from the people stomping through her head on their way into her books. She chases joy in stunning Colorado at the foot of Pikes Peak.
More from Olivia
Careful Words
“You didn’t just say that.” Or, “I can’t believe you said that.”
Have you ever said that in retort to someone whose comment offended or wounded? I know I have. But what cuts me even more deeply is when I say to myself, “I can’t believe I just said that.”
The words of a parent at wit’s end, a spouse harboring hurt, a friend saddened by misunderstanding, an employee feeling undercut—they have all been my words. And they came out too fast to swallow back before they did their damage.
I hope I have also had the words of a parent who set aside busyness to listen, a spouse offering loving encouragement, a friend checking in with someone going through a tough patch, a coworker curious to see how I could help rather than compete. Those are the kinds of words I’ve never regretted, never had to repent of, never had to do rebuild from.
I certainly didn’t write What You Said to Me because I think I get it right all the time or even most of the time. Far from it! In our culture of rushing and achieving and—let’s face it, sometimes just getting through the demands of the day—sometimes our words are the last thing we are careful with. Yet they have the longest lasting consequence in our relationships and families—sometimes for generations. The dual-timeline story traces how words that injure became a pattern in one family line until one girl finally fought back to find healing for her future.
My challenge for myself, and all who read What You Said to Me, is to be the person who speaks healing words of hope so that “I can’t believe you said that” becomes “Thank you for saying that.”
If you have a particularly poignant experience of how another’s words impacted you, I’d love to hear from you.
Olivia Newport
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Olivia is giving away the grand prize package of a $25 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of the book!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/103f1/what-you-said-to-me-celebration-tour-giveaway
Blog Stops
Visit the tour landing page to read more reviews and some author interviews.
Can’t wait to read this!
Thank you for the review. Sounds like a good book.
This sounds like a really good read.
Wonderful review, Suzie! Sounds like a series not to miss. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing!
I haven’t read any of this series, but this book sounds good!
Thank you for sharing your review and the book and author details, this sounds like a wonderful book and series.
Life events rarely come with endings all wrapped up with a bow, so it is nice to know that this book is realistic I like happy endings, but some stories need a more real-life conclusion to them. Those are the ones that teach me something, not just entertain.