God is continually at work in our individual lives, and He'll use every method possible to demonstrate His love and mercy and grace. That truth provides a framework for Marlo Schalesky's latest release, Shades of Morning.
I was alternately convicted by Marnie Wittier's habit of storing her sorrows, hurts, wounds, and regrets in a box on the shelf; amused by the innocence and wisdom of her Down syndrome nephew, Emmitt; and confused right along with Taylor Cole as to how his life had turned out the way it did.
Best of all, the ending didn't fizzle out, as some do. I was surprised (pleasantly, I might add) right up to the last page. I've read inspirational books that weren't at all inspiring, but Shades of Morning is not one of them. It truly fits the genre description!

MARLO SCHALESKY is the author of several acclaimed novels, including Christy Award winner Beyond the Night.  A graduate of Stanford University, Marlo also has a masters of theology from Fuller Theological Seminary.  She’s a regular columnist for Power for Living and lives with her husband, Bryan, and five children in California.

Back cover blurb: Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness. Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her sister’s attorney, a man Marnie once loved—and abandoned. As Emmit (and Taylor) work their way into her heart, Marnie begins to heal. But when pieces of her dismal past surface again, she must at last face the scripts of paper in her box, all the regrets and sorrows. Can she do it? Or will she run again?