Guest Post (and a Giveaway!): Robin Lee Hatcher & Make You Feel My Love

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Make You Feel My Love by Robin Lee Hatcher, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! I’m honored to host Robin today as she shares about the first book that captivated her!

MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE
Author: Robin Lee Hatcher
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: July 13, 2021
Genre: Christian, Contemporary Romance

One broken woman. One lost man. And the long-buried secrets tying them together.

After escaping an abusive relationship, Chelsea Spencer flees to Chickadee Creek—the town where her great aunt Rosemary owns a quaint little antique shop. There, Chelsea plans to help with the shop as her aunt heals from an accident—and perhaps find some healing of her own.

Liam Chandler was one film away from a leading role when his brother Jacob was stricken with cancer. After spending the last months of Jacob’s life with him in Boise, Liam heads to the vacation home he built outside of Chickadee Creek to get his life and his faith back on track.

While working to clean out a storage room in the antique shop, Chelsea finds an old violin. Aunt Rosemary says she may have the instrument, but they soon learn it is very valuable and once belonged to Cora Chandler, Liam’s great-great-grandmother.

Drawn together by the old violin and stories from the past, Chelsea and Liam begin to find answers for their present and the future God has in store for them.

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the first book that captivated me like no other

by Robin Lee Hatcher, author of Make You Feel My Love

I have loved many books in my life for many reasons.

As a girl, horse books and dog books were my passion. Have you ever read Old Bones, the Wonder Horse? It’s about the great racehorse, Exterminator. Affectionately known as Old Bones, he was born May 30, 1915. Oh, how I loved that story. I lost my original copy and had to buy another. Then there was Irish Red. It made me long for an Irish setter for many years. I loved the Trixie Belden books, too. That girl had spunk!

As a young adult, I devoured the big historical sagas that were popular at that time. I was also a huge fan of Gone with the Wind. The book isn’t as popular today, of course, but Margaret Mitchel was an amazing writer. Here’s one of my favorite descriptions from that book: “Her heavy earbobs with their long gold fringe hung down from loops of tidily netted hair, swinging close to her brown eyes, eyes that had the still gleam of a forest pool in winter when brown leaves shine up through quiet water.” Wow! You can see Scarlett’s eyes so clearly from that one sentence, and I’ve never forgotten the first time I read those words.

But I would have to say that the book that captivated me like no other was Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. It was first published in November 1991 by a general market publisher, and Francine has called it her statement of faith. I didn’t know her personally at that time, but I knew of her. I had read in a magazine about how, after she became a Christian, she was unable to write for a few years until this story, based on the book of Hosea, came to her. I bought the novel as soon as it released, because I had to know more.

I remember the night I finished the book so clearly. It was around midnight, and I was sitting propped up in bed, tears running down my face. In my heart, I knew I wanted to write something with that much power in it, with that much truth in it, with that much faith in it. I remember thinking that I could never do it because I didn’t have enough talent nor was I personally good enough for God to use in that way.

At that time, I wrote historical romances for a general market publisher in New York. There wasn’t much of a market for fiction in CBA (Christian) publishing. In the years that followed, God not only brought Francine Rivers into my life as a good friend but many other Christian writers as well. He did a work of restoration within me, and then He gave me the idea for what would become my first novel in the Christian market, The Forgiving Hour, first published in 1999.

Make You Feel My Love is my 84^th release. All of the books published in the past 22 years exist because I read Redeeming Love, and God saw and honored the desire of my heart.