by Robin Jones Gunn
COME TO GLENBROOKE...
A QUIET PLACE WHERE SOULS ARE REFRESHED.
SECRETS Glenbrooke Series #1 Beginning her new life in a small Oregon town, high school English teacher Jessica Morgan tries desperately to hide the details of her past. 978-1-59052-240-0 WHISPERS Glenbrooke Series #2 Teri went to Maui hoping to start a relationship with one special man. But romance becomes much more complicated when she finds herself pursued by three. 978-1-59052-192-2 ECHOES Glenbrooke Series #3 Lauren Phillips "connects" on the Internet with a man known only as "K.C." Is she willing to risk everything...including another broken heart? 978-1-59052-193-9 SUNSETS Glenbrooke Series #4 Alissa loves her new job as a Pasadena travel agent. Will an abrupt meeting with a stranger in an espresso shop leave her feeling that all men are like the one she's been hurt by recently? 978-1-59052-238-7 CLOUDS Glenbrooke Series #5 After Shelly Graham and her old boyfriend cross paths in Germany, both must face the truth about their feelings. 978-1-59052-230-1 WATERFALLS Glenbrooke Series #6 Meri thinks she's finally met the man of her dreams...until she finds out he's movie star Jacob Wilde, promptly puts her foot in her mouth, and ruins everything. 978-1-59052-231-8 WOODLANDS Glenbrooke Series #7 Leah Hudson has the gift of giving, but questions her own motives, and God's purposes, when she meets a man she prays will love her just for herself. 978-1-59052-237-0 WILDFLOWERS Glenbrooke Series #8 Gena Ahrens has invested lots of time and money in renovating the Wallflower Restaurant. Now her heart needs the same attention. 978-1-59052-239-4 You already know Christy.
Now meet her friend Sierra!
The Sierra Jensen Collection
Excerpt from book 1-
Only You, Sierra
Sierra Jensen gazed out the train window at the cold, wet English countryside. In an hour she and her friends would be back at Carnforth Hall with the other ministry teams that had spent the past week in various European countries. Endless pastures, frosted with winters ice, flashed past her window. Sierra sighed.
"What are you thinking?" Katie asked, uncurling from her comfy position on the train seat next to Sierra. Even though Katie was two years older than Sierra and they had met only two weeks ago, they had become close during the week they had just spent together in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
"About going back to the States." Sierra smiled her wide, easy smile at Katie, but she was really looking past her. Across the aisle from them, their team leader, Doug, was sitting next to his girlfriend, Tracy.
Katie folded her arms and settled back against the upholstered seat. "I'm not ready to go home yet. I'd like to come back. Maybe next summer."
Sierra noticed Tracy tilt her heart-shaped faced toward Doug's, giving him a delicate smile that, by the look on his face, melted him to the core.
Katie looked over her shoulder to see what had distracted Sierra. Turning back to Sierra, Katie leaned forward and whispered, "Don't they just make you sick?"
"Katie," Sierra said in a hushed voice. "I thought you guys were all best friends. Why would it make you sick to see those two together?"
"It's just... well, look at them! They're totally in love."
"I know." Sierra cast another glance at the couple, now talking softly and looking deeply into each other's eyes. "I can't imagine ever being in Tracy's place and having a guy look at me like that."
"Are you kidding?" Katie's bright green eyes did a quick head-to-toe scan of Sierra. "Have you ever looked in a mirror, girl? First, you have the hair going for you. You have great hair! Wild, blond, curly. Very exotic."
"Haven't you noticed?" Sierra tugged at a curly loop of her long hair. "Straight, sleek hair happens to be in right now."
"Oh sure, this week. Wait a few days. Everyone will be running out for perms so they can look just like you. And your smile happens to be award-winning. Fantastic clothes. And I don't ever want to hear you complain about your body."
"What body? I'm shaped like a tomboy."
"Better to be shaped like a tomboy than a fullback."
"You're not shaped like a fullback," Sierra protested.
"Okay, a halfback."
"You're both beautiful," Stephen, the German guy on their team, inserted into the conversation. He was sitting directly across from them and had appeared to be sleeping.
Sierra blushed. He was the oldest one of their group, and his beard added to his older appearance.
"Why do women find it a sport to criticize themselves to their friends?" Stephen leaned forward. "You both are gorgeous young women on the outside and fantastically beautiful here-" he patted his heart- "where it really counts."
"Then you tell us why all the guys aren't falling at our feet."
"Is that what you want, Katie?" In an uncharacteristic move, Stephen tumbled to the floor and bowed at their feet.
Sierra burst out laughing.
"Get out of here!" Katie said. "You're making this a joke, and I'm serious."
Stephen returned to his seat, a satisfied little grin across his usually serious face.
"You're a guy. Tell us what you're attracted to in a girl," Katie said.
Stephen glanced at Tracy, then back at Sierra and Katie. "Well," he began, but it was too late. His unspoken message seemed clear.
Katie threw her hands up in the air. "I knew it! You don't have to say anything. You men are all alike! You all say it's the personality and what's on the inside that counts. But the truth is, your first choice every time is the Tracy type- the sweet, helpful, cute ones. Admit it! There's little hope in this world for the few individualists like Sierra and me."
"On the contrary. You're both very attractive. To the right man, you will be a treasure. You just need to wait on God."
"I know, I know," Katie said. "And until then, we have our own little club, don't we, Sierra?"
She and Katie had formed the Pals Only Club at the beginning of their trip. She slapped Katie a high five and said, "P.O. forever!"
"That's right," Katie said. "We may have lost Tracy, but it's you, me, and Christy from here on out."
"You women do not need a little club," Stephen said. "Perhaps a caveman with a big club might be helpful..."
Instead of laughing at his joke, the girls gave Stephen a tandem groan and twisted their expressions into unappreciative scowls. He folded his arms against his chest, closed his eyes, and pretended to go back to sleep. But a crooked grin was on his lips.
"Come on," Katie said. "Let's get something to drink."
Sierra followed her down the rocking aisle that led to the back of the train car. They passed through the sliding doors and headed for the compact snack bar at the end of next car. After buying Cokes, they stood to the side by the closed windows.
"Guys like Stephen really bug me," Katie said. "First they're all sweet and full of compliment, and then they make stupid jokes. You never know if they're serious about all the nice stuff or not. Enough talk about guys. Let's talk about something else."
"It'll be great to see all the other teams tonight and hear about everything that happened to them."
"Yeah." Katie agreed. "I can't wait to hear about Christy's week in Spain."
"I still can't believe they pulled her off our team at the last minute and sent her all the way to Spain after the rest of the Spanish team had already left. I don't think I could have done what she did, traveling all by herself for two days and then joining up with a team of people she barely knew."
"It's like I kept saying," Katie said, making a muscle-man pose, "she is Missionary Woman."
Sierra smiled. "I felt as if I was just getting closer to her, and then they shipped her off on a moment's notice. It must have been even harder for you to see her leave like that, since you guys have been best friends for so long."
"I'm sure it was a God-thing." Katie finished her drink and tossed her can into the trash can.
Sierra thought about how much had happened during their week of ministry at the church in Belfast. Sierra and Katie had worked with the children, had performed in a drama group, had gone out street witnessing, had prayed with teenagers when they said they wanted to give their lives God, and had visited some elderly women of the church who treated them to tea and cakes. It had been a life-changing experience for Sierra, and she was glad Katie had buddied up with her.
"You know," Katie said as they headed back to their seats, "I'm sure God had a reason for taking Christy off our team. If nothing else, it let me get to know you, and I'm really glad for that."
"I am too," said Sierra. "I'm just starting to feel depressed now that it's almost over."
"Not so fast! We have two more days before we have to leave," Katie pointed out.
"Next stop is ours," Stephen said when they reached their seats.
Sierra fought off the sadness that crept in when she realized the next time she boarded a train in England it would be to go home. Something caught in her throat every time she thought about returning to the States.
She hadn't been able to talk about it to Katie or anyone else. Maybe she should. Whenever she mentioned her situation, it had been with her usually cheerful, adventuresome spirit. No one knew that deep down she was nervous, knowing that everything in her life was going to be different when she returned home.
About the Author.
Just like Christy, Robin Jones Gunn was born in Wisconsin and lived on a dairy farm. Her father was a school teacher and moved his family to southern California when Robin was five years old. She grew up in Orange County with one older sister and one younger brother. The three Jones kids graduated from Santa Ana High School and spent their summers on the beach with a bunch of wonderful "God-lover" friends. Robin didn't meet her "Todd" until after she'd gone to Biola University for two years and had an unforgettable season in Europe, which included transporting Bibles to underground churches in the former Soviet Union and attending Capernwray Bible School in Austria.
As her passion for ministering to teenagers grew, Robin assisted more with the youth group at her church. It was on a bike ride for middle schoolers that Robin met Ross. After they married, they spent the next two decades working together in youth ministry. God blessed them with a son and then a daughter. When her children were young, Robin would rise at 3 a.m. when the house was quiet, make a pot of tea, and write pages and pages about Christy and Todd. She then read those pages to the girls in the youth group, and they gave her advice on what needed to be changed. It took two years and ten rejections before Summer Promise was accepted for publication. Since its release in 1988, Summer Promise along with the rest of the Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen series have sold over 2-3 million copies and can be found in a dozen translations all over the world.
Now that her children are grown and Robin's husband has a new career as a counselor, Robin continues to travel and tell stories about best friends and God-lovers. Her popular Glenbrooke series tracks the love stories of some of Christy Miller's friends. Her books Gentle Passages and The Fine China Plate are dearly appreciated by mothers everywhere. Robin's bestselling Sisterchicks novels hatched a whole trend of lighthearted books about friendship and midlife adventures. Who knows what stories she'll write next?
You are warmly invited to visit Robin's websites at: www.robingunn.com and www.sisterchicks.com. And to all the Peculiar Treasures everywhere, Robin sends you an invisible Philippians 1:7 coconut and says, "I hold you in my heart."
TEEN NOVELS BY ROBIN JONES GUNN.
THE CHRISTY MILLER SERIES.
Volume 1.
Book 1: Summer Promise.
Book 2: A Whisper and a Wish.
Book 3: Tours Forever.
Volume 2.
Book 4: Surprise Endings.
Book 5: Island Dreamer.
Book 6: A Head Full of Hope.
Volume 3.
Book 7: True Friends.