Shannon here: Sarah Hanks shares how God orchestrated her real-life romance, plus a chance to win a paperback copy of her split-time novel, A Battle Worth Fighting, US entrants only. Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing. Deadline: July 12th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Sarah:
Insta-love. Some readers love it. Some hate it. As a writer, I find myself gravitating toward it far more than the slow burn. That’s probably because my husband proposed to me two weeks after we met. Yep! From complete strangers to fiancés in two weeks. We were married eight months later, so at least there was a bit more time before the vows. Haha!
Over twenty years later and we are crazy in love. The kind that makes our children cringe because we can’t be in the same room and not touch. My goodness, I love my man!
Insta-love isn’t exactly our trope, though. Of my nine published novels, the beginning of our love story most resembles Sahara and Jaxson’s in A Battle Worth Fighting. In their story, the attraction is there almost from the beginning but not love. Sahara is looking for a way out of a sticky situation with her mother. Jaxon is her life raft. She jumps on and love develops until she feels like she can’t breathe without him.
Right before I met Kevin, I had spent a season wandering away from the Lord. I was saved at the age of 11 and followed the Lord wholeheartedly until my freshman year of college. Some hard things happened, I got offended, and I decided to do things my way instead of His. This left me completely lost and shattered. And addicted to a lifestyle I knew deep down I didn’t want. I cried out to God to save me from myself. To send me a way out.
When Kevin entered my life via an online dating app, I knew that I knew that I knew this was God’s answer to my prayer. I had cried out for help, and God sent me this tall, skinny, goofy guy. It wasn’t insta-love. It was insta-understanding that God’s hand was all over this match. I can’t speak for him, but my love for him grew slowly over time. I say that we had an arranged marriage. It was arranged by God.
Kevin was so gentle with my heart and, little by little, I found myself opening back up. Laughing. Living. Ceasing to care what other people thought about me. He took me by the hand, and we sought the Lord together.
After spitting in God’s face, I deserved wrath. Instead, God showed me such astounding mercy by giving me a gracious husband. Today, I am so crazy in love with him it’s not even funny. He has been the greatest plot twist of my life.
Sahara and Jaxon’s story in A Battle Worth Fighting is actually about fighting for a troubled marriage, so the similarities between the fictional couple and my husband and I end early in the narrative. Still, that book will always have a special place in my heart. When I wrote about Sahara walking down the aisle toward the groom she didn’t quite love yet, I envisioned my own wedding and marveled at how God writes the best stories.
A Battle Worth Fighting is book one of the Sisters in Arms Collection, a three-book collection that can be
read in any order. The unifying thread is that each book has a secret female Civil War soldier in the historical storyline. A Battle Worth Fighting and Whatever It Takes (book 3) have romantic threads. However, if you want to read Sahara and Jaxon’s love story beginning, you can do so for free through the short story prequel A Beginning Worth Remembering, available on the freebie page of my website.
Question for Readers: Married readers, how long did you and your husband know each other before tying the knot? Non-married readers, do you love or hate insta-love stories?
About Sarah: Sarah Hanks is an award-winning author of Christian fiction in both the contemporary and historical genres. After spending over a decade mostly writing and teaching Sunday school curricula for churches in her community, she jumped into writing fiction full-time with her split-time novel Mercy Will Follow Me. She and her husband have nine children, a couple of whom seem to have inherited their mother’s love for playing with words and crafting stories. Though Sarah dreams of a cabin by the beach, the family lives jammed together in beautiful chaos near St. Louis, Missouri. She buys earplugs in bulk. Learn more & connect:
Sarah’s Website Sarah’s Facebook Sara’s Instagram A Beginning Worth Remembering
About the book – A Battle Worth Fighting:
Centuries apart, two strong women fight for the men they love in this inspirational split-time novel.
Sahara Dawn married a man she didn’t fully love, only to find, over a decade later, she can’t breathe without him. The problem is, he seems to have given up on their marriage, having taken a job across the country, and is in no apparent hurry to return to his wife. Desperate to make things right and inspired by a distant relative who fought as a female soldier in the Civil War, Sahara leaves everything familiar behind, learns a new trade, and sets off to win back Jaxon’s heart. But is she too late?
Bernice Reisenfeld loves the life she and her husband Hermann have built together on their sheep farm in rural South Carolina. But when the Civil War breaks out, everything changes. Despite her desperate pleas for Hermann to stay out of the conflict, he enlists. After growing up with a grandfather embittered by war, she can’t stand to see her husband succumb to the same fate. Dressing up like a man, she enlists as well, determined to find Hermann and bring him home. Only she finds far more than she bargained for. Will she make it home with her marriage and her heart intact?
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Get your copy/copies now!
Battle Worth Fighting Sarah Hanks Books
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I’ve been dating my bf, this Friday will be a year. God told me this is the man I am going to marry. But we are nowhere near a proposal. I have an autistic son and he has a spoiled daughter. Not sure when God thinks we’re marrying. I see the rapture happening first.
My husband and I went to church camp together for about 4 years (2003-2006) but didn’t meet until we ended up at a 3 week church school June 2007. He says I stalked him…I like the word pursued. I knew when he walked into the room that I had to meet him. We were married October 2008.
My husband and I met in March, 1990 (he lived in Alberta, I was in Newfoundland); I resigned from my job as a Salvation Army pastor in June of that year and moved to Alberta; got engaged in early January 1991 and this past May 31st we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary.
I like all story tropes!
My husband and I had been best friends all through elemtary school. We lost touch when my family moved. I never stopped thinking about him. I had stepped away from God, I had gone through some terrible relationships, and decided to reach out to him after I graduated. We went out, and I knew the moment I saw him again that this was who I was going to marry. I started attending church with him and his family, we got engaged after 3 months, and another 3 months later we were married. It has now been 24 years together.
We’ve met on my husband’s birthday 🙂 (I joke that I’m his birthday present). Three months later, he asked me to be his girlfriend. Five months after that we got engaged and married three months later. Celebrated 22 years in February and just married off our first son 🙂
I love insta-love stories
Hey Sarah. Glad to have you. I love insta love stories. When I was 14, I saw the new guy at our school across the campus and thought, that’s the guy I’ll marry. 4 years later I did. After 41 years of marriage, I’m still glad I did.
My husband and I met in December. Got engaged in May and married in July. This year we are celebrating 41 years together and are still very much in love.
I am not married unfortunately. But I like instant love stories. It was love at first sight sight for my Grandma and they were married nearly 66 years. So yes, I believe in love at first sight.
We were engaged in about 2 months, married about 18 months the later. This year is 28 yrs dating this summer and will be 26 yrs married in the fall.
For books I prefer more lead-up and time but I have read some where instant love was written well and was enjoyable.
Hi!! My husband and I were together for 5 years before we got married. We are now married 19 years, 24 together.
I met my husband on a blind date set up by mutual friends. We dated for 2 and a half years before we got married. This coming August will be 44 years married.
My husband and I knew each other for one year before we got married, one year to the day! We are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary this month ❤️
We knew and dated each other for about two years before tying the knot.
My husband and I started dating in February and married in December. He was 20 and I was 18. We were married almost 45 years. He passed away in August of 2021. It’s very hard when you been together almost your whole life. I love to read about love both ways, instant love and the courtship.
One night I was going out with friends and they asked why I dressed up, I said I am going meet my husband. That night we talked and he took my number. Our first date was Oct 16 1993 we were engaged Jan 29 1994 and were married Oct 8 1994. Still happily married almost 31 years later
My husband and I knew each other for a little over three years before we got married. I knew on our second date that I wanted to marry him.
My husband and I met in 1966 and were married in 1969.