Dancing with Fireflies

Denise Hunter is one of my favorite Christian fiction authors so I was thrilled to get ahold of the second book in her Chapel Springs Series which will be available March 11. I think the draw of Hunter’s books for me is her character development. She lets readers see into the minds and hearts of her male and female protagonists and they come across as real people with real problems, real fears and real emotions.

In Dancing with Fireflies, Jade McKinley returns home to Chapel Springs, Indiana after a year away. She hasn’t spoken to her family much in a year but when she becomes pregnant without money, she returns to the place she planned never to return to because she needed her family. At the same time, she’s terrified of telling her family what has happened to her.

Daniel Dawson, an honorary McKinley, has been in love with Jade for years but the time has never been right for him to tell her. When she returns to town she is suddenly inserted in his life and he struggles with feelings that he believes should have died over the year she had been gone and never once contacted her. Instead his feelings continue to grow as he spends even more time with Jade and she confides in him.

Jade feels like her life is out of control and is terrified of loving and losing someone again. She has a plan for what she needs to raise her baby but when things keep getting thrown her way, all of her strategy is thrown out the window.

Readers will be happy to get a glimpse of Madison and Beckett’s (from Barefoot Summer) wedding although it is short and the focus is on Jade. While Madison is a regular in Dancing with Fireflies, Beckett is mainly mentioned in passing. The love story of Jade and Daniel is one that will grab your heartstrings and twist. You feel for Daniel and his longing for Jade and you feel for Jade and her desire to do what is right for her baby no matter the cost to herself.

*****BookLook Bloggers and Thomas Nelson Publishing provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I was not compensated in any way for either a negative or a positive review.