Shannon here: Melanie Campbell shares the inspiration behind her Women’s Fiction title, One Last Stand. Comment or answers the question in any post dated Sept 1st – 29th to enter the drawing for a print copy. Deadline: Oct 10th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Melanie:
My Second-Chance Romance: The True Story Behind One Last Stand
Some situations in life are ones we hope we never have to face. Yet those are often the very places where God shows up in the most amazing and unexpected ways.
I found myself in one of those places just over twenty years ago. I was a divorced mother of two young girls and a relatively new Christian. Dating as a single mom was complicated enough. Dating as a woman who loved Jesus but was still learning what it meant to follow Him brought an entirely different set of challenges.
There was comfort in believing that God could work all things together for good, but I was also learning not to approach dating the way the world did. I didn’t simply want to find someone or go out for a good time. I wanted to trust God with whether I should marry again, and whom I should marry.
A friend had been trying to set me up with a man she knew. He was successful, outdoorsy, fun, and, according to her, quite good-looking. I resisted because I had recently ended a relationship and wasn’t ready to try again.
Eventually, I decided I was ready and told her so.
But I had waited too long. The eligible bachelor had met someone else.
“Well, there is this other guy,” my friend said.
She told me a little about him. Unlike the first man, he didn’t own a business or a home. But he was funny, loved God, and devoted much of his time to serving at church—especially working with the youth.
I agreed to meet him for dinner with my friend and her husband.
The date was set, but before it could happen, my friend called.
“He can’t make it,” she said, sadness softening her normally upbeat voice. “His brother died in a hunting accident.”
“That’s terrible.”
My heart hurt for this man I had never met. Still, the jaded single woman in me couldn’t help wondering whether it was a made-up excuse to avoid a blind date. After praying about it, I decided to send him a sympathy card.
The holidays were approaching, and I was facing another season as a single mom. I wondered if I would always be alone. Did God even want me to remarry? Some people believed it would be unbiblical for me to do so, but I struggled to reconcile that view with the God I was coming to know—the God who restores, redeems, and loves broken people.
Then my friend called again.
“He said he wants to go on the date.”
I was surprised. It had been only a few weeks since his brother’s death. My friend explained that he needed to get out of the house and that the card I sent had touched him.
And so, just a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I met my future husband for the first time.
We had dinner with our mutual friends at a restaurant overlooking the Willamette River. I was shy and quiet. He was goofy and boisterous. After dinner, he walked me to my car and asked for my phone number.
The rest, as they say, is history.
We have now been married for twenty years. He adopted my two daughters from my first marriage, and we have a daughter together who is a senior in high school. We have built a business together, then sold it to move 2000 miles away and start all over again. Our marriage hasn’t been easy. Not even close. But through every difficult season, we have continued to choose each other, again and again, while leaning on God to carry us through.
Our story isn’t exactly the same as Cassie and Matt’s story in One Last Stand, but many of the emotions behind it are.
As a divorced mom, I struggled with low self-esteem and self-doubt. I questioned whether I was worthy of becoming the wife of a Christian man. I worried about how we would become a cohesive family when we were both in our late thirties, and he had never been a parent.
Those fears found their way into Cassie’s story.
Like Cassie, I discovered that God’s grace was bigger than my doubts, my past, and other people’s expectations. I have watched Him work miracle after miracle in our lives—even when others expected our marriage to fail.
Looking back twenty years later, I can see that what may have seemed like a second-choice introduction was never second best. God was writing a story I couldn’t yet see. It was a story of love, adoption, perseverance, restoration and grace.
And He is still writing it today!
Reader Question: Do you have a second-chance story of your own?
September 2026 Book Bundle
Braving Red Waters by Sarah Hanks, Time-Travel Science Fiction, e-book
Treading Water: Barely Above Water by Gail Pallotta, Contemporary Romance, Kindle e-book
One Last Stand by Melanie Campbell, Contemporary Women’s Fiction, print.
Escape to Whispering Creek by Barbara M. Britton, Contemporary Romance, print
Waterfall by Linda Rodante, Romantic Mystery Suspense, print
About Melanie: Melanie Campbell wrote her first story when she was eight years old and has been in love with the power of storytelling ever since. Her debut novel, One Woman Falling, won the 2020 Oregon Christian Writer’s Cascade Award for contemporary fiction. Melanie is passionate about social issues and holds a degree in Sociology from the University of Oregon, which she obtained during her stint as a single mom. She’s now married and lives in Texas with her family and several spoiled pets. When not writing, Melanie enjoys hiking, sightseeing, and finding great places to eat. In less-than-favorable weather conditions, you will find her enjoying an intriguing book and a cup of good coffee. Learn more and connect:
Melanie’s Facebook Melanie’s Instagram Melanie’s Website
About the book – One Last Stand:
Cassie’s reclaimed her life and Sharon has recovered from alcoholism.
They can finally rebuild their lives. . .or can they?
Cassie Peterson is a busy single mom excited about her future. She feels confident at work, her seven-year-old daughter is thriving, and the college education she longs for is on the horizon. Then there’s Matt, the youth pastor of her church, where both Cassie and her mother attend. Matt and Cassie have been dating for nearly a year, and he’s more than she ever hoped for in a man. It looks like all her dreams are coming true—until a startling letter arrives in the mail.
Cassie’s mom, Sharon, never thought she’d be a ministry leader, but that’s exactly what she’s doing at her church. Frank, her co-leader in the Higher Focus Recovery group, is passionate about his faith, recovery and helping others—he might even help Sharon forget about the man she can’t stop loving no matter how hard she tries.
When a scandal rocks their church leadership, Cassie and Sharon are caught up in the middle of the collateral damage. Can their family stand against the forces intent on destroying them? Or will their dreams crumble, piece by piece?
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One Last Stand Melanie’s Books
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