The Heart Leads Home — Sydell Voeller

Sarah Pendleton, a grade school teacher in Portland, Oregon returns to her small hometown in the country and is forced to face the conflicted feelings from her past. When growing up in Mistletoe Valley, raised by her grandparents, Sarah resented being the perfect preacher's kid and living up to the townpeople's expectations of her. During high school, she fell for a stereotypical bad boy and when she learned she was pregnant, he left her. Sarah gave up the baby for adoption, but ever since she has been steeped in guilt. Now ten years later, she inherits her grandparents' estate. She must make the bittersweet choice whether to sell the property and return to Portland or stay in Mistletoe Valley. Meanwhile, she meets a handsome real estate agent, Rich Stevens, who is also the youth pastor of the church where her grandfather once served. Her attraction to him is powerful, but she is faced with escalating conflict: He is a grieving widower who still loves his late wife, and his young daughter is grieving too. Further, Rich's daughter reminds her of the baby she gave up. And if she were to commit to a future with Rich, a man of the collar, would she be right back to struggling in vain to live up to others' expectations? Can she and Rich overcome their personal demons and start a new life together?