Lost and Found Faith Blog Tour: Guest Post + Giveaway

 

Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for Lost and Found Faith by Laurel Blount, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

Title: Lost and Found Faith
Author: Laurel Blount
Publisher: Love Inspired
Release Date: August 24, 2021
Genre: Christian, Contemporary Romance 

A terrible tragedy nearly broke him. Can love put him back together again? 

Widowed history teacher Neil Hamilton has lost his way—at work, with people and even with his faith. But Neil's shut-down existence is disrupted when a small toddler and his would-be foster mother, vibrantly pretty Maggie Byrne, come crashing into Neil's yard and his life. Can this absentminded teacher find himself again…and take a chance on love, too? 

From Love Inspired: Uplifting stories of faith, forgiveness and hope. 

PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound | Christianbook | BookBub

ALSO AVAILABLE

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Award-winning author Laurel Blount writes inspirational romances full of grit and grace—with characters who’ll walk right off the page and into your heart! She lives on a farm in Georgia with her husband, their four fabulous kids, and an assortment of ridiculously spoiled animals.

A enthusiastic multi-tasker, Laurel writes for both Berkley/Penguin Random House and Love Inspired/Harlequin. She’s the recipient of ACFW’s Carol Award, The New England Reader’s Choice Award and GRW’s Maggie Award. She’s represented by Jessica Alvarez of Bookends Literary Agency. 

Lost and Found Faith is Laurel’s sixth book—and five more stories are in the works! Stay tuned!

CONNECT WITH LAUREL: Website | Facebook | Instagram

The Magic of a Lopsided Paper-Mache Unicorn: A Real-Life Love Story
by Laurel Blount

I probably wouldn’t be writing books if it weren’t for a guy who never reads them.  

My husband and I met our senior year in high school, when he transferred into my sixth period art class and plunked himself down at my table. We became friends over oil paints and sketch pads and the creation of one rather unfortunate-looking paper-mache unicorn.

He squinted dubiously at our lopsided masterpiece. “Wow. You and I sure make a great team, huh?”

Silly guy. He thought he was teasing.

We were—and are—opposites. I was a studious, shy bookworm with a string of academic awards and a steady college boyfriend. He was careless C student with a farmer’s tan, broad shoulders, and a set of pretty spectacular dimples, who, as near as I could tell, loved two things—classic cars and teasing girls.

On graduation night, I hugged him goodbye on the football field and headed off to college. He enrolled in a technical course to get his electrician’s license. I never expected to see him again.

Fast forward four years. A freshly minted teacher, I’d just signed my first contract to teach Spanish in north Georgia. Since my new apartment wouldn’t be available until August, I came home to spend one last summer in my parents’ house. Missing my college buddies, I called up an old friend from high school and made arrangements to meet her at a Mexican restaurant. She’d been sitting at that art table, too, and she mentioned she’d recently bumped into David Blount. Ask him to come too, I said. I’d love to see him.

He proposed three months later. And almost a year to the day we’d met up at that Mexican restaurant, we were married a tiny country church.

People lifted some eyebrows—on both sides. His friends were dumbfounded. “Wait, what? You’re marrying a teacher? You?” And my friends wondered what we’d find to talk about—I don’t care much about cars (his favorite hobby) and he doesn’t read books (which was like breathing to me).

But my wise mother looked deep into his blue eyes and gave her approval. “Once you married David, I never worried about you again. I knew that boy would do his best to make you happy.”

And so he has—for thirty-three years and counting.

He’s held my hand in two delivery rooms and on two long adoption flights to China. He’s worked extra hours so I could stay home and homeschool. He can fix absolutely anything—which proves God knows what He’s doing, because I can break absolutely anything. I wanted a dairy cow, something his practical, farm-raised mind thought was a little nuts—but he bought me one and built her a barn. I wanted a big garden so I could try my hand at canning, he plowed the ground and put up a double fence to keep out the deer.

Books make me smile. He doesn’t really understand why—like I said, he’s not much of a reader. But he knows they do, and that’s enough for him. So when I run out of room to store my collection, he builds me more bookshelves. Writing makes me happy. So he rolled up his sleeves and built me a tiny writing room so I could shut the door and spin my stories.

People ask me if David reads my books. No, he doesn’t, and he probably never will. But he’s in every single one of them—there’s something of him in every hero I write.  

Recently his eighty-something-year-old mother remarked, “I just don’t know where Laurel gets the ideas for all these romance books!”

 David flashed his dimples and winked. “Come on, Mama. She’s married to me, isn’t she?”

Silly guy. He still thinks he’s teasing. 

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(1) winner will receive an embroidered dishtowel with Maggie’s favorite saying “The kitchen is the heart of the home” and a $25 Amazon gift card!

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight August 23, 2021 and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on August 30, 2021. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

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Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

 

*NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.