"Angel Song" by Sheila Walsh and Kathryn Cushman

A young career woman struggling with parental abandonment issues returns to her childhood home after a tragedy with one purpose in mind – to repair the house, sell it, and return to her life. Complications arise when she falls in love with the handsome handyman.

This isn’t a unique plotline. In fact, it describes another book by the same publisher I read only a few weeks ago.

But in Angel Song, authors Sheila Walsh and Kathryn Cushman up the stakes for protagonist Anne Fletcher, an accomplished interior decorator for an upscale staging company who is devastated by the tragic death of her sister. An unearthly melody haunts Anne and strange events occur that can’t be explained away by mere coincidence. The neighbor boy, who has Down Syndrome, cheerfully tells Anne that angels surround her.

Anne prepares to sell the home where she grew up and she wonders if she’s going crazy. While still coming to terms with her grief, she also faces career challenges that require her to make important ethical decisions.

As the story unfolds, the house becomes a metaphor for Anne’s own authenticity, and her fascination with the Biblical story of Hagar opens her eyes to spiritual truths.

And that handsome handyman? He may not be an angel in disguise, but he is virtuous and heroic.

(NOTE: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson, Inc.)