Angela Breidenbach – The Story Behind the Story & Romantic Excerpt – Part 1 of 1

Shannon here: Angela Breidenbach shares the inspiration for her novella, Bridal Whispers, which is included in The Lassoed by Marriage Romance Collection. Comment or answer the question at the end of this post for a chance to win a copy of her audiobook – Eleven Pipers Piping. Deadline: Jan 16th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Angela:

I Believe in 77 Chances by Angela Breidenbach

My grandparents married in 1930, one year after my grandpa’s first wife passed away during an influenza epidemic. Much of the facts of the situation are in the fictionalized version I wrote as Bridal Whispers. But the reason I wrote it is I realized how blessed I am to be a result of a strong, Christian marriage example that proved people could love for a lifetime even against all expectations. God loves us with a redeeming love of second, third, and seventy-seven times seven chances. (I do thank Him that I didn’t have to make the same mistake seventy-seven times, just saying, but God gave me another chance too.


My great-grandparents divorced. My own parents divorced. I had a hard time believing love could last when I also experienced divorce. But God had different plans in mind for me with a second marriage. When I thought of my grandparents marrying because of gossip, and that it was my grandfather’s second marriage, and that I had such a stack of reasons against believing I could be loved or that it would last…it was the recognition that if they could do it, so could we. I’ll count it a great success if I make it to 54 years of marriage — my grandparents did because Grandpa lived to 99 1/2! Coming up on 18 years of marriage in April, I only have to live to 88 😉
Excerpt from Bridal Whispers by Angela Breidenbach, a novella in The Lassoed by Marriage Romance Collection:
After examining her sister, niece, and nephew Maila left them sipping on chicken broth Mama brought in on a tray. “Krya på dig,” Maila said before closing the bedroom door. She laid her hand against the white wood and leaned into it, eyes closed. “God, please do help them get well soon.”
“He will.” Burton’s low baritone responded.
Maila popped her eyes open and turned. This sense of faith from the man who’d lost two loved ones? She tipped her head back looking into his compassionate face. “I hope so.”
He scrunched his brows and scrutinized Maila’s eyes closely. “They’re not blue!”
“What?”
“You’re eyes. They’re…hazel?”
She giggled. “Yes? This is a surprise?”
He didn’t stop staring. “They’re…lovely.”
“Um,” Maila dropped her chin to her chest. “Thank you.” When had she last received a genuine compliment like that? Benjamin complimented her hair. Such thick brown hair. He’d asked her to take it down once to see the full length. But no one had ever used the word lovely about any part of Maila Holmes. Rooted like trees, her legs wouldn’t move. So why did it feel like squirrels raced up her spine?
“What’s this, you two blocking up the hall?” Mama said in Swedish as she pushed between them, hands full of bowls and spoons. She stopped, looked up into Burton’s face, and then swiveled to peruse May’s.
A flush crept over Maila under her mother’s inspection. “Nothing, Mama.” She switched to English. “Burton came to see if we needed anything.”
Her mother’s eyes squinted and she slanted her head ever so slightly. She took one longer look between the two before saying, “Ja, come eat now.”
Maila skirted Burton on her way to the table. She could feel his gaze following her movements. That little squirrel wreaked havoc in her ribcage.
About Angela: Angela Breidenbach is a #1 bestselling author and the host of Grace Under Pressure Radio: Becoming a woman of courage, confidence, and candor on iTunes. Angela serves as the Christian Author Network’s president. She has some pretty awesome family history from Swedish, Scottish, Irish, and English ancestors. Look for more stories about their fascinating antics and experiences in the future. Her other titles include: A Healing Heart (and on Audible), The Debutante Queen, also on Audible, Eleven Pipers Piping, also on Audible.

Learn more and connect:

Angela’s website                Grace Under Pressure Radio               Christian Authors Network  (President)

About the novella collection – Lassoed by Marriage: Come along on a romantic journey jam-packed with all the angst of marriages founded upon practical choices as well as coercion. Meet nine couples who barely know each other before they find themselves suddenly married to please family, to stem the tide of gossip, to save the land and joined for life. But can love grow when duty comes before romance?

Purchase Link: Lassoed by Marriage

About the giveaway – Eleven Pipers Piping: What would you do if you were given 11 rowdy street newsies and told either you turn them into model citizens or they get sold into indenture or sent to the military? Of course, start a pipe and drum corps! Eleven Pipers Piping is the story of a sweet music teacher and 11 boys given one chance or else, but one boy doesn’t seem like the others. And just who is his father?

Can’t wait for the drawing? Purchase now: Eleven Pipers Piping

Question for readers: How many years was the longest marriage in your family?

Come back Jan 11th for Jennifer Slattery!