"A Slow Burn" by Mary DeMuth

I have yet to personally meet Mary DeMuth although I know of her through my work with Hearts at Home where Mary contributes to the organization's blog. But I don't have to know her personally to enjoy the pleasure of reading an advanced copy of her newest book, A Slow Burn due to release on October 1. I devoured, Daisy Chain, the first book in the trilogy on my way home from the Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference this past July where Mary was a speaker. And not being one who waits patiently I was ecstatic to learn I could get an early copy of book two by participating in Mary's Social Media tour. I quickly signed up!

So here I am having read books one and two and now not-so-patiently waiting for the final book. I'm also pondering what Mary has captured within my conscience in A Slow Burn. Though there is much to take in throughout the book, it was near the end where a key insight leapt off the page. A main character is seeking answers to happiness and turns to a drug dealer friend asking for insight. Ironic yet poignant. Are kids do this all the time! Well, they hopefully don't ask drug dealers, but they're turning to friends as they wrestle with big issues.

The dealer's response regarding happiness already being within us is a perspective I've been trying to give feet to for some time now. The main characters response was similar to my own understanding, happiness does not come from circumstances. How many, like me, have spent a lifetime searching for happiness when all along it has been ours to own? This series has certainly made me stop and count my blessings with renewed joy! I hope you read the book for yourself and I pray you allow the story to reach places in your heart and mind where God is desiring to own.

If you want to know what others like me who are participating on this tour have learned from the book take time to check out their blogs. Now read on to learn why Mary chose to write the book and what she hope's readers will take away from it.

Where did you get the idea for the book?
I wrote the series of stories based on hearing friends of mine talk about their Christian homes that appeared great on the outside, only to hide abuse on the inside. This really bothered me. Daisy became the inciting incident to explore three people’s stories relating to authenticity and hiding. In book one, Daisy Chain, I explore a teenage boy’s perspective to a family in crisis. In book two, A Slow Burn, I examine what would it be like to have deep, deep mommy regrets enough to want to be free from them. In book three, Life in Defiance, I tell the conclusion of the story through a battered wife’s perspective.

I am not a teenage boy. Nor am I a neglectful mother. And I’m not a battered wife. But I’ve interacted with folks who are. It’s for them that I wrote these stories.

What are the major themes of the book?
You’re never too far from God’s grace and love and forgiveness. That God is a pursuing, redemptive, relentless God. He loves His children, even when they run far, far away. That Jesus comes to us in surprising packages, and sometimes we’re so bothered by appearances that we miss Him.

What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

That God is bigger than our sin, our regret, our hopelessness. He takes delight in intersecting the darkest of circumstances. He is there, available.