"I mean, what is the point of working and straining to hear God's will when in the end I'm just as lost as if I'd never tried in the first place? Wouldn't it be easier if I just didn't care at all?"

Oh, Darcy. What a heart-breaking and soul-wrenching journey she takes after everything turns upside down and sideways in her controlled, neatly packaged world. Her naive, steady, optimistic, good girl self goes through blinding disappointments, crushing life circumstances, life-altering challenges, and an undeniable call to leave the past behind. This book, more so than any other of the author's I've read, has captured me wholly and completely with the raw intense emotions. Throbbing grief is balanced by unshakable friendship, sense of purpose is restored by training rescue dogs, and God's molding and shaping through difficulties is so evident. Though the book plays out through only Darcy's first person viewpoint, we get to know Bryson pretty well and he is the epitome of a reborn man. His sensitive, sweet, tender, compassionate nature that no one else knows allows him to fit into Darcy's 'new' world and his sacrificial love is incredible to behold. Charlie and Zoe are excellent secondary characters who add depth to Darcy and Bryson's world and I'm secretly hoping that there will be a book about Zoe.
It's another winner for Tammy L Gray. You don't want to miss this contemporary romance filled with characters who will feel like your best friends that exquisitely paints a journey of hope, grace, and forgiveness that will feel like your own.

I received a copy of the book from Bethany House and was under no obligation to post a positive comment. All opinions are solely my own.

Love and the Silver Lining
by Tammy L. Gray

4 stars

Oh, such a fantastic book. I had a very hard time putting this down and read it in just a couple of days! I absolutely loved the characters and the writing. I am a huge fan of Tammy L. Gray now.

After reading and loving many of Tammy L. Gray’s indie books, I was excited to receive an e-ARC of her latest traditionally published book!

Some things I enjoyed:
-Real, raw characters. Tammy excels at showing the emotions the characters are going through and letting the reader experience them too.
-Beautifully done depiction of an adult dealing with the recent divorce of her parents. I don’t usually see that focused on, but it was done really well here!
-The dog training. It was fascinating to see the different ways Darcy worked with the various dogs!
-Bryson. I didn’t care for Bryson very much in the first book (and I don’t know that you are meant to), but his character development was so well done! I loved him in this book and wanted to give him a hug because of all he had experienced.

Some things I didn’t care for as much:
-The love triangle. I just wanted Darcy to open her eyes and realize what was going on, haha!
-Darcy’s friendship with Cameron. The last part of the book was really good because Darcy finally started realizing things and actually vocalizing them. But I felt frustrated with her several times over her choices regarding Cameron.

Despite the things I didn’t care for as much, I’m glad I read this book and I’m looking forward to seeing what Tammy L. Gray writes next! She is excellent at writing characters and character arcs and I really appreciated that in this book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Love and the Silver Lining by Tammy L. Gray

"Sometimes the answer to prayer is NO. And like it or not, we have to accept the answer."

Why I started with this quote from the book is because it is true. We have to understand that sometimes what we ask for isn't good for us and what comes our way is much better.

Tammy's storytelling is brilliant and trust me on it as I am not a fan of love triangle but this made me want to wait to see what happens and also maybe rooting for some characters. She has written such amazing conversations between characters that you will enjoy every part of it.

Talking about characters, Darcy is a total mess and by the end of the book I loved how she has shown great development. Cam is sweet, nice guy who wears his heart on sleeves. Lastly coming to Bryson, mysterious or you can say reserved in nature and has something dark about him but what matters is how he nourishes himself, I loved how the author has done justice to each of them.

Sometimes we learn and accept things the hard way and it goes for every character in this story though it still doesn't ease the pain that comes with reading through the pages. It left me teary eyed by the end of the book. The end is something which makes me unsure of my feelings in a good way. You'll know when you read.

This book is about mending family relationships before it's too late, how to deal with anger, have faith in greater being, self discovery and about how we don't want to accept or see what is right in front of us. To top everything else there are dogs in the book and lot more to learn from how Darcy treats them.

I am definitely picking up more of Tammy Gray's work. Thank you Netgalley and Baker publishing for giving me a chance to read this.

Anyone who's done all the "right" things and seen their dreams dashed will relate to Darcy, whose world is upended by her parents' sudden divorce and the cancellation of the mission trip she's painstakingly planned.

Mired in grief, anger, and depression, Darcy needs a soft place to land. Her lifetime best friend Cameron (a guy) offers his place, but instead Darcy accepts the invitation of Zoe, sister of Cameron's bandmate Bryson. Darcy is glaringly oblivious to the feelings of both Bryson and Cameron, and that leads to trouble.

Love and the Silver Lining may be Tammy Gray's best novel. The characters are relatable and multi-layered, the attraction palpable, and Darcy's job readying abandonment dogs for adoption dovetails nicely with her own healing.

Love and the Silver Lining is gritty and real, with relatable characters confronting difficult issues. Tammy L. Gray pours honest, raw emotion into her novels, which I feel is so important. I hope we continue to see more books like this in the marketplace.
Darcy's heartache over her parents' divorce and her unexpected change of career plans sends her into a spiral. I loved how training the dogs helped her recalibrate, process her anger and grief, and ultimately brought her closer to the Lord. I'm a huge fan of dogs and enjoyed the scenes featuring the trials and tribulations of helping each animal overcome their issues. Such a beautiful picture of our own struggles as humans. The tension between Bryson and Cameron and their competition over Darcy is intense! These complex relationships are well-written. I admire Gray's ability to boldly address the messiness of life through the lives of these fictional characters. This is a complicated story undergirded with a message of hope, and I kept me reading late into the night.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary copy. All opinions stated here are my own.

The State of Grace series is such a great series with characters that are real and likable with real life issues. Darcy is having a bad year with her picture perfect parents getting a divorce and a missionary trip she has saved for years is canceled. Has God left her? Prayer is not helping. She has terminated her apartment lease. She could move home with her mom or stay at best friend Cameron's place with all his roommates. But another friend, Bryson talks his half sister into letting Darcy stay with her for a while. Cameron, Bryson and other friends from youth group are part of an up and coming band so they are thrown together all the time. Bryson's friend and mentor has his own hurts and Darcy is able to work with his dogs to get them adoptable while she works through her hurts.
This is an emotional story about a group of friends who all have issues to work through. Darcy has to overcome her disappointment in her parents and other disappointments. She is left with trust issues.
Cameron is her normal sounding board but she is drawn to dark, brooding Bryson, who has a sad past. People are not always as they seem. We are all formed by our past and sometimes our present is not how we envisioned it. But God always has a better plan. I highly recommend this story of relatable characters who come out on the other side better for their trials and tribulations.
I received a complimentary ARC from Bethany House Publishers and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine only.

I love her storytelling!!! Darcy was a wonderful main character to follow and the way she dealt with her life being flipped upside down was so relatable and real. I’m grateful to read about Christian adults having difficult and mature conversations, and also having weaknesses and insecurities.
This is an excellent sequel and I highly recommend!

I loved Tammy Gray's book Love and a Little White Lie that is the first in the series State of Grace and have been looking forward to Love and the Silver Lining to read Darcy's story. Darcy is unable to go and be a missionary and is wondering what God has for her in life. She moves in with her childhood Bryson's sister and she soon sees Bryson in a new way as he reaches out to help her find a way to fill time through helping rescue dogs. A love triangle soon develops between Darcy, her lifelong best friend Cameron and Bryson.
I had a hard time liking melancholy Bryson and so I didn't enjoy the book as much as I hoped. I would have liked to see more of the characters from book 1 woven into this one. The love triangle did keep my attention as I was curious who Darcy would choose. So I don't give spoilers, I do hope that the man she didn't choose gets his own story soon!
I received a complimentary copy through NetGalley, but all opinions are my own.

A huge thanks to Bethany House Publishing for my e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Love and the Silver Lining is the second book in the State of Grace series. The book follows Darcy Malone whose dreams of mission work slowly die in front of her and she ends up not going on the trip of her dreams because The Guatemalan school she was to teach at has closed. She finds herself jobless and homeless and ends up taking an offer from Bryson Katsaro and stays with his sister. While there she has to confront her relationship with her parents, her best friend Cameron, a sense of purpose, forgiveness, and letting go. I loved this book so much! Highly recommend

This book was a little bit of a slow starter for me but wow, the depth of the feelings totally took over and then I was hooked.
The issues here are when life knocks you down, remembering that God has the best plan. Even when we thought we had it all figured out, His way is always better.
And keeping pain inside to protect ourselves only works for a short while. Reaching out to others and sharing and giving back fills our empty spaces.
I loved Bryson, for his heart and his ability to reach out to others despite his hurts. And Darcy is easy to identify with for she had always strived to do everything right, but still her plans were upturned and her family fell apart.
I absolutely loved the dogs. Adding them to the story added a whole new dimension. Some of their problems mirrored the characters.
And the romance in this story was wonderful.
This is a great story that I can’t get out of my mind.
Thanks you to NetGalley for allowing me to read it. The opinions are entirely my own.

Great book!! Loved every minute of it and did not want it to end. This one brought tears to my eyes many times, especially this line from the book, “These tears fall for the first man I ever loved, the one I can’t seem to forgive “. It was a book about more than girl meets boy, etc. It was so much more than that. I hope Cameron is in the next book. 😊

This is a new-to-me author and I found well-developed characters with depth and personality. Darcy Malone’s dream of mission work in Guatemala is cancelled leaving her with no job and no place to live. Through a set of unexpected circumstances, she accepts an offer to move in with Zoe Katsaros. Darcy tries to hide her growing attraction to Zoe’s brother, Bryson, from her best friend, Cameron Lee, Bryson’s bandmate. Will Darcy realize when you try to please others, in the end everyone gets hurt? When Darcy finds an opportunity to work with rescue dogs, will she discover she also needs rescued to find love and forgiveness? I am a new fan.
I received a copy from the publisher by way of NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

I want to start by saying this is not the happy, cute, funny romantic comedy that I first thought it was. This was my first book by Tammy L. Gray. Despite it not being the light romantic comedy I thought it was, it was still a fantastic book.

This book has so much depth to the characters and the plot.In facts the depth of the characters was a large part of the plot. Love triangles are not something that I usually enjoy but Tammy wrote these relationships realistically and not in a cringeylove triangle way.

If you are looking for a contemporary romance that is a bit more grittyand serious, then this is a book I would recommend. I felt that the lessons the characters had to learn were realistic and honest. I know I will definitely be reading more from Tammy L.Gray.

Is it crazy to want to cry because a story is over? Oh my word, this story was so excellent! I literally just finished the last page wondering if I should get all of my thoughts and emotions out now or collect my thoughts. I'm just going for it.

I had an idea of what I thought Darcy's story might look like after getting to know her in book one. Boy was I wrong. I think even she didn't know who she was. This story was really about her getting to the core of who she was and the relationships that involved her. I appreciated how the author used the dogs Darcy ends up working with to give us insight into what she was going through.

I also had very strong feelings about Bryson from book one, and none of them were kind. Seriously, if you've read book one tell me I'm wrong. I will admit after reading book two in wondering if I should go back and read book one to see if I can find things I might have missed. Needless to say, I had strong feelings about Bryson at the end of this story as well.

There's so much to pack into this review. Darcy goes through a lot. A lot more than most in such a small period of time. It was incredible to watch her try to process everything and find her way in life. Cameron, her best friend, is there through the thick and thin.

Cameron is still figuring out life after the fallout from his relationship with January. He plays a big part in this entire story as well.

Of course, there's the man in all black, Bryson. This guy has walls in place no one should be able to get through. I just loved how the author drew back his layers through Darcy. Along with her, we get to know him better and deeper.

If you're looking for romance, this story will fill that desire utterly! There were so many moments where my heart was racing because the story was able to spark my romantic side. It also evoke emotions from me for the deep pain all 3 of the main characters were feeling! I was a total mush ball with my emotions all over the place, much like the characters in the story!

The bad boy meets the girl who’s always good! Tammy will have you crying over dogs (in a good way) and chewing your nails over Cam. Loved this book!

I enjoyed this book so much! For a fictional story, it got me to think about some deeper things, especially the questions that Darcy asks after her family life and dreams have been shattered. This is such an excellent story!

Fans of Christian romance and dog lovers will love this. I'm not really either one of those (I prefer my Christian fiction less focused on romance and I'm allergic to dogs), but it was still an enjoyable read for me.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Love and the Silver Lining is a contemporary romance written by Tammy L. Gray.

Summary: Darcy Malone’s life is over. Or at least it feels like it. The missions trip she has been scrimping and saving for is officially cancelled. She’s already quit her job, ended her lease, and put her things in storage. What in the world is she going to do now?

My Thoughts: I liked this book. The characters were well-developed, the storyline was interesting and unique, and it held my interest. Even though I am not a dog person, I really liked how the author tied what was going on in Darcy’s life to what was going on with the dogs, and how as she helped the dogs, she also learned things she could apply to her own life.

I also liked how the story developed, and the progression in Darcy’s life as she realizes she needs to make some changes and find the silver lining in the things that had happened to her.

Overall, it was a good read. It was more of a one-time read for me, but I enjoyed it.

I would like to thank Bethany House for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my review. Thank you!

3.5
When Darcy Malone's dream of going on the mission field devastates her, she flounders around, wondering why God allowed this and what His will is for her now. It will take a bunch of dogs and learning to let go and let God for Darcy to learn what His will is for her. Along the way, she must listen for sometimes God doesn't speak the way we want Him to.
Tammy Gray writes with depth here and this is one sure to please Christian fiction fans.

My thanks to the publisher and author for a copy of this book. The opinion here is my own.