Taking Faith

Stolen Hearts #1.5

by Shelly Crane

A Novella to follow Stealing Grace

Amy was taken, right along with Elena, from her life. Roger is harsh to her. He barely speaks to her except to tell her to do things around the house. He barely looks at her, as if he doesn't know what to do with her. She was afraid. Afraid that he would make her his wife in every way against her will...but he hasn't, and she wonders why. She wonders what is it that Roger wants with her...after he stole her to be his wife.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, Drama

110 pages

First published June 17, 2012

About the author

Shelly is a NEW YORK TIMES & USA TODAY bestselling author from a small town and loves everything about the south. She hoards paperbacks, devours sweet tea, searches year-round for candy corn, loves to site-see in the new areas they travel to with her husband's job, and adores reading but doesn’t have much time to these days with all the characters filling her head begging to come out.

Her own books happen by accident and she revels in the writing and imagination process. She doesn't go anywhere without her notepad for fear of an idea creeping up and not being able to write it down immediately, even in the middle of the night, where her best ideas are born.

Reviews

[Shelly Crane]

This book is a short story about Amy and Roger. It starts the same time as Elena's story did, right at the beginning, but I only plan to carry it out until they all escape the community. After that, you get the gist of things from the Stealing Grace book.

Even when I was writing Stealing Grace I wanted to know more about the things that had gone on between Roger and Amy. You assumed that it was bad because of what he did to Elena but Amy tells them that he never laid a hand on her the entire time.

I've been asked to make this a series by several people. I still may do that one day but for now, here's Amy's story.



Expected publication sometime Summer\Fall 2012.

Best Wishes and Happy Ending,
Shelly Crane

[KikiTheKind · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this one without any idea what it was about, because, Ms. Shelly, that's what you do to me, young lady. You make me buy all your works because I already know they're going to be good. That said, thank you for being spot-on again!

I was pleasantly surprised that this book was written in Roger and Amy's combined perspectives. I liked them in book one and had wished at the time that I could be a fly on their wall. Wish granted! In fact, I like their story now even more than Alex and Elena's. Roger's departure away from the community's teachings and his family's "guidance" was a thing of beauty. I felt so sad for him; he was as much a victim as the women. I applauded his final confrontation.

Roger and Amy, despite their circumstances, turned out to be a wonderful, and cute, couple.

Five stars, Madame Crane. Well done!

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much better than Stealing Grace.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

review is on www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com

You all know how much Shelly Crane. She has become one of my most favorite authors. So, when this novella was released I knew that I had to read it. The problem was, I just could not find the time! Well, FINALLY, I did and it was worth it.

If you remember I read Stealing Grace, which was about human trafficking, and loved it. This is a novella of two characters, Amy and Roger, who were in Stealing Grace. I really enjoyed those two characters.

This was a short and quick read, but it was so good. Shelly Crane gives us an amazing inside look (and different perceptive) of the world of human trafficking. Amy and Roger's relationship starts off very rough, mainly because of Roger's upbringing. However, Roger is not like his father, he is not even sure what to do with Amy. Amy is so scared of everything that she is not sure really what to do. Nonetheless, they seem to grow to care for each other.

This is a really quick read and shows some more great talent from Shelly Crane. I recommend this read.

[Jennifer Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just amazing. Shelly takes you back into the "community" and gives us the story of Roger and Amy. You wanna hate the guy, right? He pays to have someone steal a wife for him. A real creeper this guy is. So wrong. Shelly takes this guy and makes us look straight into the heart of him. And what a sweet heart it is. Roger is the kindest man despite how he was raised to act within the community. And Amy, a stronger woman couldn't be found. Read this novella to get the real scoop on Roger and Amy and how the best of people can come from the most horrible of circumstances.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shelly Crane has the ability to make the reader just love all her characters to pieces. Stealing Grace was a fabulous book, while reading I found myself curious throughout what the story was with Amy & Roger so I was super pleased to see this novella about their lives come out. Also, the fact that the stories that were already told during book 1 weren't told over made this even better! I hate to read the same thing over and over and this book just flowed off the first. Bravo Shelly Crane on yet another fabulous read!

[Gloria Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love Shelly Crane!!! Taking Faith is the follow up story of Roger and Amy. I loved them so much in Stealing Grace. Now we get their story starting from when Roger picked Amy to be his wife. You can't help but fall love with Roger. I don't know how Shelly writes such swoon worthy men but she has never disappointed me. You must read Stealing Grace and Taking Faith. Love always wins in Shelly Crane's books,So you can't go wrong reading them all.

[Marianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent supplement to Stealing Grace. It tells the other side of the story from Amy and Roger's point of view. I loved it and hope the author will do one more in this series to follow up with the. Women who escaped including Alex's mom.

[Michaela Foote · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. I was so happy I was able to hear Amy's and Roger's story. I wished it was longer, but that was my only complaint. As always, loved Shelly Crane's book. Another great read from another great author!

[Tiffanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Stealing Grace and I loved this book just as much. I really enjoyed reading about Roger and Amy and how they came together. Another amazing story from an amazing author.

[Clarisse Martinez]

Yes finally the follow up book! I can't wait :)

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still can't find myself liking Roger.

[Gaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

After 'Stealing Grace', I was looking forward to reading Roger and Amy's beginning and their pov, and was not disappointed. Even if I'm into more explicit reads, I still enjoyed it, but yeah, I confess I was left wanting more. :P

It was interesting to see how they got around each other. I ended up loving Roger. Even if he's, physically, a very strong man, even scary looking as once Alex described him, he's so vulnerable, sweet and definitely not as bad as I imagined he was at first with Amy, he's in fact very careful around her most of the time. He's just another victim, really, one that kind of had it worse than Alex, imo. And Amy, well, she's great... a very strong girl, much stronger than she appears to be in the other book. Plus, it was better written than 'Stealing Grace', thus the four stars.

[Aly · Rating 3 out of 5]

After disliking Stealing Grace so very much, I still wanted to read the story behind Amy and Roger. And I am extremely glad that I did! This was so much more believable than Stealing Grace and while I did not exactly love Roger, I better understood what it was like to have been raised in their community and the reasons for Rogers terrible actions in both books. Amy's initial behavior is also what I would have expected from a woman that has just been kidnapped and forcibly married to a strange man; something that I did not see in Elena. This story was a lot less cliché in many other ways as well and actually a very enjoyable read after the disappointment and constant "YEAH RIGHT -_-" of Stealing Grace.

[Jannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well i must say this book was much much better than stealing grace. I feel like if stealing grace was written like this book was i would've enjoyed it much more. Amy and Rogers love story was much more real than elena and alex's and i would've preffered Elena and Alex's love story to be the novella and Amy and Rogers to be the main one.
My only complaint was that it was to short! but i guess if it carried on it would've had the same story line but in a different perspective.
This book was a really cute and short read

[Gabic Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original review at Gabic Reads

It was great to read Roger and Amy's story. I always wondered about their tale after reading Stealing Grace. They were such amazing characters, I wanted to know more. The look into Roger's terrible was well written. I loved how Amy wanted to save him, to show him kindness for no reason at all except that no one ever had.

[Jenna Roads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not wait to read the Stealing Grace Novella called "Taking Faith" about Roger and
Amy's story. Shelly Crane has done it once again. It was amazing. It is a heartfelt story about
human trafficking something that is a very real problem! Inspite of the seriousness
of the topic, Shelly once again shows that "Love truly does conquer all as she is famous for doing.
I would definitely recommend this fascinating book.

[Jenna Roads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not wait to read book two in the Stolen Hearts series called "Taking Faith" about Roger and
Amy's story. Shelby Fallon has done it once again. It was amazing. It is a heartfelt story about
human trafficking something that is a very real problem! In spite of the seriousness of the topic, Shelby once again shows that "Love truly does conquer all as she is great at doing. I loved Roger and Amy's story.
I would definitely recommend this fascinating book.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed that Shelly wrote this book so that we can see how Amy handled everything with her and Roger. Amy is very strong willed young woman and this really helped Roger see that he can be a different person then his father and uncle. When he finally stood up to both of them you could scene the pride Amy had for Roger grow even stronger.

[Taylor Lakke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book much more than the first book in the series. I could have read another 200 pages of this. Sure hope there is another in this series.You will fall in love with the characters. It is a very sweet romance. The story was well crafted and written. The relationship between Amy and Roger is well scripted. I loved this story.

[Taylor Lakke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book much more than the first book in the series. Sorry the book was so short, I could have read another 200 pages of this. Sure hope there is another in this series. The story was well crafted and written. The relationship between Amy and Roger is well scripted.

[Grace Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It told from Amy and Rodger's perspective. It was pretty short, I read it in one night. But it was awesome. Though, I recommomened that you read Stealing Grace first or you'll be confused. 10/10-G

[Courie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story was beautifully written. But I felt the story was too short and it was so fast. At the end she cut the story short and didn't discuss what really happened to his father and te rest of the community.

But anyways the story is still beautiful

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shelly, you are amazing. This was great, I did not expect the story line to be Roger and Amy from the beginning. I had a totally different view of Roger from reading Stealing Grace. so beautiful!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I got to know Amy and Roger better.

[Jessie Wilkens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this is a novella, it is just as captivating as Stealing Grace. I was almost late to work because I couldn't put it down.

[Sheng · Rating 2 out of 5]

Roger&Amy's POV are so cute.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book answered some of my questions about Rodger and Amy. Rodger had it so much more worse then Alex. Amy was a lot stronger then I gave her credit for.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved Roger and Elena's perspective and there story is sweet to read, under the circumstances.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better than the first book.