Good Heavens: A Novel

Esmeralda's back. Readers met this feisty widow as she fussed over her fellow citizens of a small southern town in Margaret Graham's novel Mercy Me.

Now in a delightful sequel, Esmeralda feels led to take on a new project. A halfway house for female addicts finds itself in need of a responsible woman to move in and help out, and against her better judgment, Esmeralda volunteers.

She knows nothing about drugs or about much of anything else these women have been through.

But she knows when she's being "led," so she packs up her life, moves to the mountains, and becomes a housemother.

There she meets women with lives she could never imagine, and she must navigate well outside her comfort zone.

Soon enough, she learns how to love the unloved-and to accept their love in return. Good Heavens is packed with hilarity, humanity, and good lessons.

Graham once again has given readers a lovable and very human believer to accompany as she plods through alien territory with her Bible in hand.