A Light in the Darkness — Staci Stallings

Holly Jacobs can run from her mother's past no longer when she is unceremoniously summoned to her mother's new fiance's home in Napa Valley. The place is wonderful, but Holly can't enjoy it because she knows that just like all the others, it can't last. When her mother begins pushing Holly to make permanent plans with a young man Holly has no interest in, Holly takes off, never expecting to find a light in all of her darkness.

Gabriel Cabrales knows what he wants out of life. The problem is, life is just not cooperating with his plans. Every time he thinks he knows where things are going, they jerk out from under his control -- especially when he meets his boss's new daughter. Can Gabriel learn to be God's light in the storm of darkness swirling around her, or will the storms take both of them down forever?

The final chapter of the Faith Series begins...

A new adult contemporary Christian romance, A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS will leave you amazed at the awesome power of God. While Gabriel confronts the demons surrounding Holly, you will begin to understand the true power and real peace that God desires for each of us if we can only learn to rest and rely solely on Him. This is Christian romance at its finest, blending the trials of new adults in college with the hope and power found in Jesus Christ. This romance will easily find its way into your most inspirational books collection.

*~* EXCERPT *~*

Shrugging the rain off his shoulders and the fear from his spirit, Gabe ducked inside the carriage house. Dark as usual. He reached over and pulled on the little light, illuminating the stairs. The single bulb blinked on, and he stood for a moment, looking, waiting, watching. But nothing moved. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he started up the stairs. Which book should he get? The one he was reading but was only marginally interested in or the new one he'd gotten from Marvin over the weekend? It was funny how even now at odd times he would receive a package from his former mentor and how those packages always had a way of turning his life at just the right moment. It was a pattern Gabriel had learned to trust.

Then, seven steps up, he heard it, and his steps stopped instantly. He turned to look back down the stairs. Something wasn't right. It wasn't a definite sound or even movement. More a feeling. His movements slid into slow motion. Concern slipped into his spirit. “Is somebody here?”

The sound of his voice ricocheted off the rounded, stone walls around him. His gaze darted side to side, back and forth, searching for the unseen. The little light overhead swung, sending the shadows ducking and weaving through each other. Foreboding slid through him. Something wasn't right. Then he heard it, for real this time. A small, soft intake of air.

His steps turned, and he headed back down the stairs, one at a time, slowly. Listening. Senses taking in everything. At the bottom, he let his hand stay on the railing one more moment. He stopped again to listen. It took a moment, but there it was again. Soft, but definitely there. “Who's here?”

On the hard stone floor, he moved along the staircase toward the sound. When he got to the arch of the stairs over his head, he stooped down and gazed into the shadows slicing the cobblestone under the stairs. He squinted to see better. Indistinct and shadowed, he saw it nonetheless. A figure, huddling there, hiding, not moving.

Gabe's mind raced with the possibilities. A vagabond seeking shelter from the storm? A criminal hiding out from the authorities? Before he could get all the possibilities reasoned out, his eyes adjusted to the dim light. What told him first what he was looking at -- his head or his heart -- he would never have been able to say for sure. But in one giant sweep, he knew this was no vagabond. It was a woman. Wet, crumpled, and terrified, with wide, terrified eyes looking right at him.