A Place to Belong: Josephine’s Story – A Shumard Oak Bend Companion Christmas Novella
by Heidi Gray McGillPublish: Sep 01, 2025Series: Discerning God's BestHistorical Romance Western Romance Christian FictionBook Overview
Some fresh starts begin in silence… others begin with a baby’s cry.Josephine Blake has run out of places to hide. Pregnant and burdened by secrets, she flees the whispers of Philadelphia, clinging to the hope that her former boardinghouse roommate in Shumard Oak Bend will take her in. When a weathered but kind-hearted miner offers her a ride west, she dares to believe she might finally outrun her shame.
But hope comes at a price… and Josephine isn’t sure she can afford it.
Jeremiah Remington lost everything in the war—his family, his home, even one arm. Now a quiet fixture in the growing town, he avoids entanglements, content to live on the edges of community. But when Josephine arrives with wary eyes, an iron will, and a child on the way, Jeremiah is drawn to something he thought he’d given up for good—a second chance at family.
As Christmas nears and the town orphanage opens its doors, Josephine is offered a new beginning—not just for herself, but for her daughter. But when the past threatens to unravel it all, she must decide: keep running… or stay and fight for the place—and the man—God may have prepared for her.
A marriage of convenience. A scandalous past. A baby who changes everything. And the kind of love only a Savior can give.
If your heart longs for stories of quiet redemption, fierce hope, and homes built one act of grace at a time, A Place to Belong will welcome you in. Fans of Misty M. Beller, Liz Tolsma, Karen Witemeyer, and Jody Hedlund will feel right at home in this heartfelt Christmas novella.
A Place to Belong is a standalone Christmas companion novella in the Discerning God’s Best series, following Written on My Heart (Book 5).
A wounded Civil War veteran. An unwed mother with nowhere left to turn. In a town full of second chances, will a marriage of convenience become the love story neither dared hope for?
She came to Shumard Oak Bend to escape her past. He never expected a future. But one quiet act of kindness might give them both a place to belong.
In a town lit by lanterns and lined with pine, a wounded man and a weary woman discover that the truest gifts come wrapped in grace, not ribbons.
