Stars Shine After Dark takes romance past the wedding and into
the conflicts that lie ahead.
Stars Shine After Dark, by Paula Hrbacek is a sweet love story
that has faith woven through the plot and used as a means of making
decisions. Faith is the compass that guides them through their
problems.
Mona is an actress who grew up in Hollywood. She is trying
to revamp her image from a child actor to a mature woman. She decides to
go to college, and makes friends with her agent’s niece. The niece
introduces her to Tim, a football star for UCLA.
They are both stars, both successful. It should be a fairy
tale romance, but someone is leaking stories to the press that aren’t
true. Mona intends to find out who is leaking the stories, and stop it.
Tim is offered a contract to play professional ball, but before
he can sign the contract, his career is ended by a car crash. Mona reacts
by being strong, and kicking her own career into high gear. Tim goes into
real estate, and hates his job. He is jealous of her success. He
thinks about divorce, and comes up with a plan that will let them separate
without harming Mona’s image in the eyes of her conservative fans. He
still loves her, he just isn’t happy with his life. He discusses his
problems with a friend, a woman who also has broken dreams and unfulfilled
ambitions. Because of her insights, Tim turns to meditation and examines
his heart.
Mona finds her answer by reading the book of Hosea. She
realizes that she has lost sight of what is really important to her, and
decides to change her relationship with Tim. They may have been going
through a dark period, but if they are stars, they will find a way to keep
their love shining.
On Higher Ground features angels and divine intervention
The story features three humans and two angels. The angels have been assigned to help the
humans find God’s will for their lives.
They offer inspiration, good luck, divine intervention, and at times,
appear in human form.
“One review of the book didn’t like the angels,” comments
the author. “She said that everything I
had to say about a “still small voice” should have been attributed to the Holy
Spirit, instead. She’s right. It could have been the Holy Spirit, but I had
to use angels in order to create a dialogue.
Characters speak when they don’t understand or don’t know
something. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need
to explain anything to the rest of the Trinity, because they already agree with
each other. So, instead, I made one
angel an apprentice, and one a supervisor, so that they would have something to
talk about.”
At the end of each chapter, the angels discuss why God has
answered one prayer with a no, and another with a yes. The angels take a look at why bad things
happen to nice people. It also discusses
why good things happen to not so nice people and why bad things happen to bad
people.
The main character is a young adult woman, Melanie Worlds,
who has run out of luck; no job, no friends, no future. Desperately wanting to replace the
middleclass life she once knew up on “the Hill”, her faith is being tested to
the limits. JT, her newest friend, is up
to something, but Melanie isn’t sure what it is. And then Brad, her high school crush, comes
back to town. She can’t let him know how
bad it is, or he’ll lose all respect for her.
And, to make matters worse, someone is trying to break into her
apartment.
None of her prayers are getting answered, and she feels all
alone. But she’s not. Two guardian angels have been assigned to
help these three humans. The angels know
God’s plan, and it’s going to take everything they’ve got to pull it off. To battle temptation, the angels will need to
instill courage; courage to dare, courage to dream, and most of all, courage to
love one another.
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