HGTV Meets Desperate Housewives in Terri Kraus’ Latest Novel

Renovation of building and heart collide in Kraus' next installment of the Project Restoration series  

The Transformation by Terri Kraus

What happens when the normal Christian life you expected doesn't turn out exactly that way?  Can a good, hard-working Christian man disregard his cultural and religious admonitions-as well as his mother's plans for his life-for the love of a woman and a historic church building?  For anyone who has ever faced a dilemma of the heart-or for the avid HGTV watcher-author Terri Kraus tackles these questions with The Transformation (David C Cook, September 2009), the latest installment in her Project Restoration series dedicated to remodelers, rehabbers, and DIYers.

Oliver Barnett is a good contractor, a good Christian, and an obedient son, never in trouble, never one to rock the boat...until real estate developer Samantha Cohen enters his life.  Samantha, full of life, vitality, and wit, is unlike any woman he has ever known-in more ways than one.  Not only is she planning to transform a historic church into a restaurant/nightclub, she is Jewish and has had a "modern moral past," having none of the restrictions that Oliver has had placed upon his own behaviors.  While Oliver needs the work, he struggles with the idea of being involved in such a building project.

At the same time, an old girlfriend, Paula, rekindles a long-ago relationship with him-with the enthusiastic encouragement of Oliver's domineering mother.  Paula would be the safe choice, and the choice that would appease Mom, yet Oliver is drawn to Samantha because of her beauty and her exotic nature.  Oliver finds himself in a most unsettling dilemma.  Does he do what's right by the nice girl his mother has chosen for him, or does he do what his heart is telling him to do? 

"Can a 'good, Christian boy' find happiness with a woman from another faith?"asks Kraus.  "Can Samantha find salvation through Oliver's witness?  And can a church ever be anything other than a place of worship?  These are the intriguing questions I pose in The Transformation and I hope readers will enjoy discovering the answers."

Author Bio

An award-winning interior designer, Terri Kraus comes to the Project Restoration series naturally, having survived the remodel, renovation, and restoration of three separate personal residences, along with those of her clients.  She is the author of twelve other novels, including several co-written with her husband, Jim. Terri lives in Wheaton, Illinois, with her husband and son, Elliot.

The Transformation by Terri Kraus

David C Cook/September 2009

ISBN: 978-0-7814-4867-3/304 pages/softcover/$14.99

www.davidccook.com