Tabor Heights, Year 1 Series

Welcome to Tabor Heights: A friendly little town on Ohio's North Coast, where sweet romance is always in the air.   Here you'll be able to explore the lives of the members of the congregation of Tabor Christian Church in the space of two years. The stories overlap, and there's no one right place to start.   Just like any small town, you come in, you meet someone, you hear their story and get to know them. As you get to know these new friends, they introduce you to other people, and tell you about other interesting stories in town.   It's the same way with Tabor Heights. Start with the story that interests you the most, and then branch out.   Settle back and enjoy your visit. Welcome!   THE SECOND TIME AROUND   Daniel Morgan's past returns to haunt him when a freshman girl shows up for class wearing his college sweetheart's face.   Lynette Tyler is determined not to face her past, even when she learns her daughter's favorite new teacher is the man she had forced out of her life when she got pregnant.   When Daniel learns that Kat is his daughter, he dares to ask God for the dream he had let go years before... to finally be a family. He pursues Lynette's love through tragedy and shame, learning to forgive each other and themselves. The biggest hurdle isn't whether Kat would forgive them when she finally finds out the truth, but whether Lynette can let go of the past long enough to let them have a future together.

Welcome to Tabor Heights: A friendly little town on Ohio's North Coast, where sweet romance is always in the air. Here you'll be able to explore the lives of the members of the congregation of Tabor Christian Church in the space of two years. The stories overlap, and there's no one right place to start. Just like any small town, you come in, you meet someone, you hear their story and get to know them, and they introduce you to their friends, tell you something about them, and you learn those stories. As you get to know these new friends, they introduce you to other people, and tell you about other interesting stories in town. It's the same way with Tabor Heights. Start with the story that interests you the most, and then branch out.  Settle back and enjoy your visit. Welcome! DETOURS A year in the life… Roommates Bekka, Kat, and Amy have a lot in common: Theater students, pursuing writing careers, supporting each other in crises and heartaches. Amy keeps breaking up with her boyfriend. Kat never dates a boy more than twice. Bekka is too busy with part-time jobs and writing to even want a relationship. Especially seeing how miserable her roommates are in their love lives. All that changes when Shane shows up. Bekka lets herself dream, even through the turmoil of Amy's boyfriend following his dreams and the effect on Amy, and the damage done by Kat's stepfather, and the destruction of her mother's marriage and dreams. Life is hectic -- especially when a con man tries to steal Bekka's chance at making her own dreams come true. Can't she have at least one miracle? The problem is that she and Shane never seem to meet up -- and then somehow Kat and Shane start dating, and once she dumps a guy, he never comes back. Bekka can't help hoping, though…

Hannah Blake has given up on being anything more to Xander Finley than his Gal Friday and partner in running Common Grounds legal clinic. Other than attending the same church, what else do they have in common?   Then the process of opening up a branch office in Tabor Heights becomes ... complicated. First they face resistance from a local judge and another lawyer who is a member of their church, and doesn't seem to have gotten the memo that he should be supporting them. Then they find the body of the 3rd victim of the White Rose Killer in their new office.   When the White Rose Killer seems to have chosen Hannah as his next 'true love', Xander's attentions become warmer and more personal. Hannah knows better than to hope this improvement in their relationship will last beyond the crisis. Foxhole love isn't any more real than foxhole religion, right? Xander, on the other hand, is glad his eyes have finally been opened.   The problem is convincing Hannah that he's for real. It's time to pray for more than her safety. After all, in the final analysis, what good is his life without Hannah in every part of it?  

Toni returns to Tabor Heights to help identify the White Rose Killer. He stalks young women who look like her sister, murdered twenty years ago. Is he the same boy, grown up, who left white roses on Angel's grave? Curt found Angel's body, and he doesn't want Toni to be the White Rose's next victim. He reluctantly partners with her at the newspaper, to find the killer before he strikes again. To protect her, they pretend to have a relationship that slowly becomes real. Their hunt becomes a race against time: find love and the White Rose before the killer targets them.

Everything is going right for Lisa. Her comic strip about a pastor's family has gone national, and she has a contract for a series of books. Even better, she is pregnant. Finally, her critical father-in-law will stop mocking her for wasting time with her "scribbles" and "pretensions of being an artist," and admit she is a good wife.   Then her husband, Todd, comes home from another business trip in a foul mood and destroys her happy announcement with: "Is it mine?"   He tries to make things right, but he has never learned to simply apologize. Even more important, he has never learned that if he is truly sorry, he needs to change. As communication disintegrates and suspicions and pain increase, their marriage disintegrates, until his own sisters urge Lisa to leave him, to protect her heart, her mind, her baby, and even her life.   Family secrets, and patterns of suspicion and accusations and abuse slowly come to light. Can Lisa and Todd regain their first love and forgive each other, and break free of a family tradition that could destroy them both?

The hardest thing Nikki has ever done is go home to Tabor Heights, to the people who know how far she fell, and the hearts she broke. Four years after she ran away with Brock Pierson, she has turned her life around, getting right with her family and with God. Now, working for the Arc Foundation, she is sent to assess the Mission for funding. She refuses to fail the God who has forgiven her, and let down her home church.   Turning against his drug-runner boss and working for the DEA was just the first step for Brock to pay for his crimes. Released from prison, he follows Nikki home. Now that he has given his life to God, he wants more than anything to win her back, and make sure their love is the right kind. Shadows from his past might prevent that, just when redemption is within reach.   Nikki knows she won't find full healing until she forgives Brock, but she discovers she has to forgive herself, first.

Dani has known all her life that God called her to ministry and music, even before her parents died during a short stint in missionary work. Her life revolves around her brother and the band they formed with their three cousins, Firesong. On the brink of breaking out in their career, Dani goes through several testing situations that confirm her in her path she has chosen, with no room for dating or marriage. Kurt returns to Tabor to prepare for a crusade and reunite with old friends. He never expects Dani to capture his imagination, and then his heart. How can he convince the girl who once disdained him as an arrogant jerk to open her heart to him? Conflict with their worldly manager forces Firesong to make some choices that could destroy everything they've worked for. Between the crusade, concerts, a new CD, and her brother marrying her best friend, Dani doesn't have time for Kurt's nonsense … but sometimes he gives her those looks that make her doubt everything she knows and believes.

Tony and Max are best friends. Writing partners. People swear he doesn't know she's a girl and she doesn't know he's a boy. When Tony goes away for a few months as a teacher, he realizes that empty place inside is Max-shaped. His revelation isn't something he can tell her over the phone. Every idea to tell her how he feels sounds like the plot for a book they would never write. Then Max's parents are nearly killed in an accident. Tony drops everything to come home and be there for her and her brothers. He'll just have to wait until things calms down before he confesses his love. The only problem is, between the accident and the usual chaos of running a community theater and the world suddenly "discovering" where Max's mother, actress Emily Keeler has been "hiding" for the last twenty-five years, things might never calm down. All Tony can do is prove his love by being her rock, drop lots of hints, and look for the best opportunity to make his case. Before the new guy in the tech crew makes his move. He's certainly been paying a lot more attention to Max than Tony is comfortable with. Max has tried for a long time now not to want more, and closer, than what she and Tony have. With all the chaos of holding together Homespun Theater, staging a new production, and dealing with the paparazzi invasion, she shouldn't have time for useless wishing and dreams that can only get her into trouble. And yet …