Safe Haven: Where Hope Lives

Stiles debuts with the enchanting tale of a family’s tragedy and miraculous new beginning. At the outset, 40-year-old Chicago TV reporter Michael Russo loses his job. He and his fiancé, Anna O’Leary, consider buying a dilapidated two-bedroom farmhouse in the country, and have sex in the barn while visiting the property. Back in Chicago, Michael, an atheist, clashes with his future in-laws, staunch Irish Catholics Colin and Grace, causing Anna to walk out on him. Seeking a new start, Michael buys the house himself, where he receives wisdom and renovation tips from a local handyman and priest who suggests to Michael that the barn has magical powers. When Anna visits, she and Michael begin to reconcile, and she tells him that she’s pregnant. Before their wedding date, Anna dies in childbirth after going into labor three months early. Their baby, Brie, unexpectedly survives, a miracle in the eyes of Colin and Grace, which Michael attributes to the fact that she was conceived in the barn. As a little girl, Brie is slow to speak, but she develops an uncanny ability to communicate with animals, and Stiles suggests she’s able to perform miracles, such as bringing a dead lamb back to life. Stiles’s hopeful novel is rich in detail and symbolism. Readers will relish this satisfying story. (Self-published)