I am not sure why I find it easy to write reviews for good books, or even some great books, but struggle to write reviews for books that touch me to my very core, books whose characters have so much to teach me about living a life fully relying on the love of God. The Words We Lost is just such a book. Nicole Deese is no stranger to grief, and unselfishly shares from the root of her experience. Her characters aren't limited to the experience of grief; their relationships with God are also impacted by feelings of abandonment, addiction, and anxiety. Readers will be blessed to wade through and sometimes plunge into troubled waters with them, and even more so to surface on the other side with the One who calms the waters.

The Words We Lost is one of those rare finds that is finely crafted and leaves its mark on the reader for its beauty and the truths it reveals. I am very grateful to have received a complimentary copy from Bethany House Publishers without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Have you ever read an electronic copy or borrowed a book from the library and immediately knew you needed your own copy for your bookshelf? That was The Words We Lost for me! Pretty sure I pre-ordered it as soon as I finished my e-arc. More than just a romance, this story is also about friendship and family, both found and biological. Nicole Deese does an amazing job capturing the realness and messiness of love and grief. God's grace and goodness are woven so naturally throughout this novel. Nicole Deese always writes the most beautiful stories that have me smiling one minute and tearing up the next ( ok, there may have been some sobbing). This book will without a doubt be one of my top reads this year and it gets all the stars from me! Be sure to read the author's note!
Thank you Netgalley and Bethany House for my advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I received this e-ARC from Netgalley, and while trying to read the first chapter of the e-book, I just wasn't connecting to the story like I felt I should be or wanted to. I switched to the audio version, and it made all the difference for me. I absolutely loved this book. It always seems strange to describe a book surrounding grief as beautiful, but that's exactly what this story is. It's mixed with pain, and you feel all the emotions on the pages of this book. I've never heard of or read any books by Nicole Deese, but now I want to dig into her back list. You will not be disappointed if you pick this book up.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the e-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this book! It is full of so much heart and so much that tugs at a book lover's heart.

“There are no winners in grief; only survivors.”

This is an absolutely powerful novel of epic proportions! I've read every single book by Nicole Deese from “Before I Called You Mine” back in 2020, and I expect nothing less than brilliant from her. I think this is her best yet! She takes three friends, binds their hearts together & then carries two through grief, forgiveness, and finally peace with a new outlook on life. I'm sure this wasn't an easy book for her to write, having gone through her own grief when she lost her youngest sister in 2013 (read the author's note in the back), and so this makes the story much more authentic. I can't even move on from this for a few days yet!

Deese doesn't leave the reader in the grief period without the promise of hope...a hope only God can give in the hardest of circumstances. Because the one other thing I adore & appreciate from this author is her smattering of faith in the pages. It not only gives my soul sustenance as a reader, but also something for her characters to cling to when life gets messy. Cece's mom Wendy is a great example of a mentor to Ingrid when she talks about her faith in God & lives it out in her own life.

“I'd always admired the way Wendy spoke to God when I was a teenager, as if she'd saved Him a seat at the dinner table and He'd actually shown up.”

I tell you this book has ALL THE FEELS! I must have cried & laughed my way through, all while diving deeper into the pages. Deeses' fictional world became mine, her characters my own best friends and the whole Campbell clan my own family. Her words flooded pictures, emotions, tastes (blackberry lemonade slushies in summer, anyone?) and touch in my mind. I rooted for, cried with, and rejoiced with Ingrid, Joel, Wendy, Chip, Allie, Madison, Patti and all the rest. When an author can connect me so completely with her characters, that makes the story for me!

One last note: Ingrid & Joel....okay, so I'm a hopeless romantic and I was so desperate to know if they got back together at the end! I was on tenterhooks because you can just feel the sparks between them. Deese once again proved how she can make the impossible happen; their journey is wrought by rough waters and forged together like the sea glass Wendy finds on the beach.

“Perhaps this is what love did to a person. It slowly turned up the temperature from within so that eventually the outside of a person had no choice but to match the warmth of the inside.”

All I can say is THIS is an amazing piece of fiction that doesn't feel like fiction. Deese is a master writer who can take her readers on a journey they'll never forget and leave them so thoroughly satisfied in the end, they'll keep coming back for more....time & time again. I don't know how she's going to top this one, but I'm looking forward to her next adventure!

*I received a complimentary copy from Bethany House and was not obligated to leave a review. All opinions expressed here are mine. *

I knew this would be a 5 star. Nicole Deese's books almost always are. She is an incredible author who writes beautiful Christian fiction with a side of romance. The love story in this book was probably my favorite so far. I loved everything about this book. I loved the creative way she made the book a dual timeline by presenting the past in a memoir. There was such raw and real emotion throughout the whole book. This will be a favorite this year for sure.

I didn’t know anything about this book heading in, but I was so excited to read it because I always love a good Nicole Deese book! I was completely blown away by this story. This book was so emotional and filled with raw grief and regret, but also hope and love.

This story was heartbreakingly beautiful. I was completely immersed in the setting. I really enjoyed the characters and the internal journeys they went on to find healing and light.

If you like deep books that will make you cry but are filled with so much hope, this is a great pick for you!

Content warning: death of a friend, loss of a parent, grief, addiction, workplace abuse

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Bethany House, and the author for the complimentary copy. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

4.5/5⭐️

I loved this book.

Faith-based and at times heartbreaking, this beautifully written story deals with love, loss, second chances and above all the power of friendships.

Joel, his cousin Cecelia and Ingrid, a girl in need of roots after growing up with her father’s port-to-port jobs, have been best friends since teenagers until a tragedy strikes that pulls Indy and Joel (who have fallen in love) apart.

Five years later, following another heartbreaking loss Joel and Indy are forced to reunite to carry out a request. Secrets long buried and surprising revelations come to light, but will they help or hinder their tremulous start to forge a new beginning.

The characters are well-defined, relatable and vulnerable in their humanness, and the losses, while devastating, are also reminders of how much others in our lives can mean to us. There are some hauntingly insightful/deeply felt/gorgeous passages as the characters (especially the threesome) experience growth through life’s journey of change.

I’ll definitely be looking at this author’s backlist and as she goes forward as well. Very well done and recommended.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Bethany House for providing the free early arc of The Words We Lost for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

When I started reading this book, I wasn't really sure what I was going to be reading. At first I thought it was literary fiction, and then I realised it was romance. But as I continued to read it, I realised this book was an unusual romance novel because it actually had some depth and dealt with the real topic of loss.

I really enjoyed Indy as a main character. She's reeling in the loss of her best friend Cece's death, and it's impairing her basic functioning in her job and personal life. Joel, her high school sweetheart and Cece's cousin, is also dealing with loss himself.

I felt like my expectations in the book were low, but I was pleasantly surprised. The main thing that bothered me was that I felt the end wrapped up too neatly. I had a hard time believing that Indy's trauma and loss would be so magically fixed in such a short time frame.

It's evident that Nicole Deese has been through loss in her life. Her experience is clear in her writing, and I think this book is worth the read. It's not a life changing read, but it actually felt like it had some weight to it.

Review

“The Words We Lost” was my first book by Nicole Deese, and to be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. From the description I knew there would be some romance, but it didn’t sound like much. Would it veer more contemporary? I can happily say it’s both. The relationship between Ingrid and Joel played a huge part in the story, while at the same time, the story wasn’t all about them and their feelings. I loved the dual timeline nature of this book, loved getting deceased friend CeCe’s perspective, and really enjoyed the friendships, family and found family, and of course the tragic backstory and faith elements. While I found the beginning of the novel slow and didn’t immediately get sucked into the plot, Deese’s writing didn’t let me quit, and I’m glad! Highly recommend!

This was my first book from this author and I was really excited as I saw such great reviews. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for me. It read slow, the timelines were confusing, and Ingrid came off selfish to me.

Maybe it just wasn’t a good fit for me right now, and I might give it another try because between the synopsis and reviews I feel like I could love it.

I’m rating it for my read but also for my hope for it when I come back and try it again.

Although this book had a book inside of it ( not something I really like ) it was a really good read. Nicole Deese used the book inside the book to give us a lot of information about the past. The other part of the story was so very good. There was a romance at the center of it, but most of the story was more about friendship and other relationships.

My favorite part of this book is the strong woman in it. Each had things they were dealing with, but they stood up for themselves and worked through the issues. I liked the friendships they forged and the love they showed each other.

I have read Nicole Deese before and I am looking forward to reading her next story.

It has been more than six months since Ingrid Erikson lost her best friend and author Cece Campbell on the operating table. Since then Ingrid has not been able to read and comprehend what has been read and her job as an editor at Fog Harbor Books is in jeopardy. Cece was the author of the hugely popular Nocturnal Heart series and her fourth book ended with a huge cliffhanger. The manuscript for the last book "The Fate of Kings" is missing and the book world is obsessed. When Cece's cousin and other best friend Joel Campbell arrived at Fog Harbor with a newly discovered letter, Ingrid returns home to Port Townsend, WA, hoping to find the elusive manuscript. What she is given instead is a memoir written by Cece about their friendship and the events that separated Ingrid from Joel years ago. Using a book within a book, Nicole Deese explores the subject of grief and the ever present promises of our Heavenly Father. I especially loved the connection one of the characters made between sea glass the tears we shed and God using the ocean as the bottle (Ps. 56:8) where He makes them beautiful.

A big thank you to Bethany House and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Happy publication week!

The Words We Lost by Nicole Deese is a Christian, contemporary romance novel.

Story Enjoyment Rating: 10/10

This story sent me on a real rollercoaster of emotions! It deals in-depth with grief and the loss of loved ones, which is a heavier topic than I usually like to read about. However, I appreciated that Nicole Deese balanced these intense, emotional scenes with lighter moments of friendship and fun.

I requested this book from NetGalley because I had heard so many good things about the author’s books. Bethany House kindly let me have an advanced copy of the ebook to read and review. All thoughts on the book are my own.

This book follows Ingrid, an editor with a publishing house. Sadly her best friend, a writer called Cece, has passed away. Ingrid had helped Cece publish four books in a fantasy series, but the final book was still missing. Ingrid’s boss told her that if she didn’t find the book, then she would lose her job. In order to find it, she had to return to the place she had been hiding from and face up to the memories, emotions and people she had avoided for so long.

The book was told from two perspectives. Ingrid’s perspective was written in the first person present tense. The other was written in the third person past tense. The pacing was good, and the story did not drag.

I felt that the main aim of the story was to follow Ingrid’s inner journey through her memories and emotions. However, I also enjoyed the romantic plot line and the different mysteries the characters faced.

The narrative swung back and forth between intense emotions of grief, loss and a painful past and lighter moments of friendship, fun and hope.

Christian Faith Rating: 2/3 Medium

The characters were clearly Christian. The main point of the story was Ingrid’s inner emotional journey. However, her faith, and the faith of other characters, did play an important role in the story.

Overall I thought the story was very well written and I was emotionally invested in the characters.

I own some of Nicole Deese’s earlier books, so I will definitely read more by her in the future.

A really great story. Heartbreaking, emotional full of fiendship, family, grief, forgiviness, beoken promises and love. Ingrid, her best friend Cece and her cousin Joel's lifes are intertwined from the moment they met more than ten yers ago. But a tragedy and secrets kept them apart until Ingrid is forced to come back to the only place she has felt like home and face all the feelings, secrets and decisions that broke them. “I can’t erase the darkness for you, but I can be the one to hold the light when you’re ready to come home.” Joel's statement to his love for Ingrid. Will it be enough to have the happy ending they deserve?

Wow! All I can think as I read the last pages of this story is, "Wow..."

This is a beautiful story of friendship, love and the pain we cause those we care about most.

When Cece and her cousin Joel befriend a homeschooled Ingrid as teenagers, their families become intertwined. And when one of them is lost, the other two are left to piece together the shards of their lives into something they can move forward with, whether together or alone.

As they uncover long-held secrets and the mystery of a missing manuscript, they are taken on a healing journey as well. And when they find the words they'd lost, their hearts are made whole again.

I can't recommend this story enough. Definitely a new favorite!

Thank you to Nicole Deese, Bethany House and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

I enjoyed this book although it was a little slow to start. Having read several other books by this author I knew I would be invested but it just took a little while for me to get into it and warm up to Ingrid.

I'll start off with what I didn't like as I had a couple of things I didn't care for with this book. There were so many things going on it was a lot to keep up with. Throw in all the jumping around with the story flash-backs and it really messed up the flow and made it feel way longer than it needed to be.

I also had a little bit of an issue with Ingrid's trauma response. I could have understood being unable to work due to grief, but the problem itself just didn't make sense to me (maybe it just wasn't described well enough?) it didn't feel necessary to the story and seemed like more one more detail bogging down the story.

And while Ingrid was the main protagonist, it seemed like more effort was put into bringing Cece to life. I felt more of her character and there was so much more depth to her that Ingrid was almost secondary. Which I think made it a bit harder for me to connect with her.

This book is packed with emotion, most prominent being grief. Grief is such a complex, tricky topic I think I personally just didn't feel it from the story as much as I would have liked. I think it was because there were several different plot points that each had a grief angle, so it you really didn't get to feel the depth of Ingrid's grief and how it truely impacted her because there was so much going on.

With the negative out of the way I did enjoy this book. Having grown up in Washington state and having visited Port Townsend, I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the area. Even if you had never visited the Northwest it's described so well you can easily imagine the setting.

Cece had an almost child-like innocence about her that made her enjoyable to read about. She was just fun and lively and I think we can all think of someone like her in our lives.

I typically like to read mystery/suspense type books so I appreciated the twist towards the end. While I did have some suspicions throughout the book (that ended up being correct) it didn't deter from the plot itself and I felt satisfied that it turned out how I was expecting and hoping.

So while this maybe wasn't my favorite book by this author, it was just one that I liked but maybe didn't love. Probably a 3.5/5 star read. Better than "just okay" but not quite memorable enough for a 4 star.

Oh my goodness, this book is so good! I could relate to the main character and her struggles with dealing with grief, since I lost my SIL to a brain tumor 5 years ago. Nicole Deese does such a beautiful job with this story, and the difficult subject of grief and healing.

I am a huge fan of Nicole Deese and I will devour her books when I can.

The Words we lost is a little different from my favorite book that tackled grief , guilt and how healing is necessary and how healing occurs. Nicole gave us relatable characters, a dual timeline and a plot for the books. The author brings out the feelings as we follow friends that have broken promises hanging between them and it's importantly a book on survival.

This is one one the most beautifully written books I’ve read in a long time—the narrative, the character development, the dual POVs, and dual timeline. There’s a book within a book. Two captivating stories between past and present unfold with different perspectives and unexpected twists. It deals with grief, guilt, and healing in a way that will stay with me forever.
This will easily be one of my top reads of the year. Brilliant.