To Bring You Back by Emily Conrad | Review

I’m excited to review my friend Emily Conrad’s novel To Bring You Back. One thing I love about Emily’s books—she’s not afraid to hit hard issues. You can take a look at my review of her debut novel, Justice, here (if you read The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers, you need to get your hands on Justice by Emily Conrad).

Let’s look at the back cover for To Bring You Back.

Back Cover

He’s determined to confront the past she’s desperate to forget.

When Adeline Green’s now-famous high school crush descends on her quiet life, a public spotlight threatens to expose her deepest regret. After eight years of trying to bury her mistakes under a life of service, she’s broke financially and spiritually. The last thing she can afford is feelings for the man who took center stage in her past—even if he does claim to know the secret to her redemption.

Gannon Vaughn and his rock band, Awestruck, have conquered the music industry, but he can’t overcome his feelings for Adeline. When he hears she’s struggling, he sets out to turn her life around and win back the love he lost to poor choices eight years ago.

But when Gannon’s fame and their mutual regrets jeopardize their relationship anew, will grace be enough to bring them back to God and each other?

To Bring You Back is the first of the Rhythms of Redemption Romances, a series of Christian, rock star romances.

If ever a book had a solid theme, To Bring You Back does—and it’s redemption. If you like a novel with imperfect characters on a journey to finding grace, forgiveness, redemption . . . and learning to let go of the past . . . you have to add To Bring You Back to your TBR pile.

To Bring You Back is a clean Christian romance that deals with a lot of mature themes, so I’d recommend it to adult audiences. This novel deals with addiction and suicide, and I say that so that if either of these things are a trigger for some readers, that won’t come as a surprise.

In order to find redemption, you need to have a need to be redeemed. Sorry if that’s wordy, but Adeline and Gannon are not at all the same people in their late twenties (when this novel takes place) as the late-teens they were when their lives took a drastic change. They made some rough choices, and paid high consequences. Yet, eight years later, one of them has embraced the grace of God and the other doesn’t know how to get there without works—and works is all it is, but yet never enough.

To Bring You Back is an edgy, turn-paging story of love, redemption, faith, grief and healing. If you love contemporary Christian romance that brings characters from brokenness to restoration, I highly recommend this novel. Emily Conrad has a way of gripping her readers with emotion, tension and descriptions that make her stories tangible and provoke her readers to cheer for her characters from their first introductions.

5 stars from me—Karen Kingsbury fans, you’ll love this one.

I can’t help but want to know what secondary character, John’s, story might hold. Might his story be next?

Get your copy of To Bring You Back:
USA: amazon.com for kindle or paperback
Canada: amazon.ca for kindle and paperback

About the Author

Emily Conrad writes contemporary Christian romance that explores life’s relevant questions. Though she likes to think some of her characters are pretty great, the ultimate hero of her stories (including the one she’s living) is Jesus. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their energetic coonhound rescue. She is the author of the stand alone novel Justice and the Rhythms of Redemption Romance series, as well as a series of short stories, which she emails in installments to subscribers. Learn more about her and her books at emilyconradauthor.com.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the author for an honest review.