The Pastor Takes a Wife

by Anna Schmidt

Everyone in Singing Springs, Wisconsin, is talking about the handsome new pastor. Except single mother Megan Osbourne. With a checkered past, she knows not to speculate about others. Or think for one dreamy minute that Jeb Matthews would even notice her. Yet there she is, telling him about her life and not feeling judged. Soon she's even helping him set up a church youth center and becoming more a part of the community than ever. And when Jeb slowly opens up to her about why he gave up his former life, she hopes the pastor will soon take a loving wife— her.

Genres: Love Inspired, Christian, Contemporary Romance, Romance

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Anna Schmidt's historical novel, THE WINTERKEEPER, received a Five Star rating from Reader's Favorites. Reviews for the story have been strong including one from the Historical Novel Society that raved: "The storytelling and scene building are masterful and create an immediacy that keeps the reader turning pages. This is a writer who feels words as well as thinking them." Anna is a three-time finalist for the coveted RITA award presented annually by Romance Writers of America. In addition she has been a four-time finalist for the Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times magazine—an award she has won twice. Her latest novel RENEGADE is the second in her new series: Cowboys and Harvey Girls and is available now. Publisher's Weekly hails the series as: "Easygoing western romance readers will cheer for this good-hearted heroine to achieve all her dreams." Anna splits her time between Wisconsin and Florida, noting that, “I am blessed to have a career that travels well!”

Reviews

[Marianne Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was heart-touching, and very well developed. I enjoyed getting to know Pastor Jeb and Megan. Their story was engaging, and I eagerly looked forward to my reading time each day so I could see what happens next. Well done!!!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice and clean. I would have probably gave it a 3 1/2. I would recommend it for a light reading - I'll look a little bit more into these "Love Inspired" books.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy read, learned alot about forgiving others, ourselves, and looking for bright side--a good story

[Nancynova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Inspired; the new pastor in town in a bachelor & Megan doesn't believe that he has an interest in HER, the unwed single Mom of a teen that the town is still gossiping about.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs. Schmidt is a gifted author. This book was a “Love Inspired” paperback, which I usually stay FAR away from, but I’m glad I didn’t this time! It’s published by Steeple Hills, 2010. The book has good discussion questions for book clubs, too.
It is a fresh, unblemished romance, focusing more on the stories of the characters than on some rhapsodic flirtations nonsense. You can trust this book to actually reflect Christian values and morals.
This clean Christian novel completely outshines any contemporary romance novel I’ve read, for several reasons:
1. There is good character development and relationship development that has a definite Christian focus.
2. Every sentence is important, and adds to the novel. I’m not kidding, every sentence adds something
that builds on the stories.
3. The romance between Megan and Reverend Jeb is so subtle and pure, that you can relax and know
Mrs. Schmidt has no intentions of taking the cheap and easy way out, so to speak, by writing paragraphs
of tripe and fluff that insults the Christian reader.
4. The problems are resolved in a logical, real-life way, the reader can easily believe the solutions are
credible and could happen in real life.

Allow me to digress just a bit here.
So MANY contemporary Christian romance novels, and even modern Christian historical fiction books are pure junk, not worthy of the name of Christian, and not worth your time to read them. Anna Schmidt’s book
is so much above almost all of the Christian fiction available today that you’d be doing yourself a huge favor
by reading it. Satisfying, original, believable, and refreshingly intelligent writing is what this book is all about. This book should have won a RITA award.

The main characters are Megan and Jeb. Megan was an unwed teen mother years ago, and has worked hard to give a good life to her daughter, Faith, and she has, with the help of Reba, the owner of an Inn, and Reba’s husband, now deceased. Jeb is a widower, a former manager of a global company, who became a
pastor after his wife’s death. They all live in a small town, where gossip is rampant, and the pecking order is rarely changed. They slowly begin a relationship with Jeb and Megan as friends, and they become close as events in the community give them new perspectives.

Anna Schmidt is a three-time finalist for the coveted RITA award presented annually by Romance Writers of America (RWA). Her novel A SISTER’S FORGIVENESS gave Anna her fourth finalist honor for the Reviewers’ Choice Awards from Romantic Times magazine. She has won that award twice before. In 2013 she was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by her local Wisconsin chapter of RWA.

[Jeanne (love2cook) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Single mother Megan Osbourne is insecure about almost everything. The new pastor Jeb Matthews has piqued her interest. With her checkered past, she knows not to speculate about others, or think for a minute that Jeb Matthews would even notice her. The story will prove to her just how wrong she is. A good little romance story.

[Sarah TheAromaofBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read with a good story, but no real chemistry between the characters. A nice, sweet story, but not one I want to keep and read time and again.

[Julie Kearbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet read with just enough action and relatability to keep you coming back.

[Maleah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was a little slow for me, but the last 3 chapter were totally worth the wait.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Love Inspired easy read.