About the Book

Book: Stronger than the Storm

Author: Deena Adams

Genre: Christian Women’s Fiction

Release Date: April 28, 2026

A runaway teen. A wife’s devastating secret. A family’s reckoning.

Since surviving a rocky season in her marriage nineteen years earlier, Beth Holbrook has prayed and worked toward maintaining a solid marital commitment, raising godly children, and leading a thriving parenting ministry. On the cusp of realizing her publication dream and expanding her influence nationwide, her daughter, Leesa, runs away without a word.

Having recently turned eighteen and graduated from high school, Leesa is livid with her parents for not allowing her to attend a beach party, especially when the only guy who has ever shown interest in her will be there. When her best friend suggests they escape their parents’ strict rules and move to Myrtle Beach together, she makes a spontaneous decision to leave town. A mere six weeks later she returns home with shocking news that affects not only her future, but her family’s.

While grappling with a volatile blend of failure and anger, Beth’s identity as a pastor’s wife, mom, and respected parenting coach disintegrates. Amid mounting conflict in her marriage, continued criticism from her mother, and strained relationships with her children, Beth confesses a long-held secret, shattering her already splintered family.

As a hurricane bears down on the Holbrook’s house, the storm raging within the walls threatens to rip apart the fragile stitches holding their family together. When Beth’s solid foundation crumbles, will her family survive intact? Or is her contrition too little, too late?

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About the Author

As a Jesus girl for more than thirty years, Deena Adams understands how important hope is to daily life, which fuels her passion to inspire others through hope-filled fiction based on true to life stories.

She is a Certified Mental Health Coach, a multi-award-winning author, an active ACFW member, founder of the Marathon online writers group, and a six-year ACFW Virginia board member.

Deena lives with her husband near the coast in beautiful Virginia. When she’s not writing, reading, or serving in her church, you’ll find her hanging out with family and friends, playing board games, and doting on her seven grandchildren.

More from Deena

Crafting a novel from authentic life experiences is a challenging task, but it’s one I sensed God’s call to undertake. If the Lord can encourage those facing heartbreaking situations through my struggles as the mother of a prodigal twenty years ago, I’m all in.

Growing up, I tried my hardest to please my parents and teachers, but I always felt I didn’t measure up. As a Type A person, I’m sure that mindset was my doing, not theirs.

Fast forward to my season as a young mom, and my insecurities ramped up even more. When I became a Christian in my late twenties, I already had three small children and longed to be the world’s best mother and do everything right. I saw my kids’ mistakes as an indictment of my parenting abilities, leading me to believe myself a failure and to try harder to succeed.

With that attitude, you can imagine how I reacted when our teenage daughter ran away from home and returned pregnant—especially since my husband is the pastor of our church. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

The emotional upheaval I endured while watching our child make one poor decision after another revealed my many shortcomings. Among the important lessons God taught me was what a shallow person I’d been and how much I wanted others’ respect and for them to find me acceptable—no, exceptional. Sadly, I was at a place in life where other people’s opinions seemed to carry more weight than my children’s feelings, but I was blind to my faults.

As I walked through the deep valley with a prodigal, God, in His great mercy, opened my eyes and showed me the truth about myself.

My journey of healing and restoration with our daughter was the catalyst for my debut novel, Stronger than the Storm. I pray that the challenging themes I address will uplift those going through extreme difficulty and that the embedded truths inspire hope in Jesus.

In my book, the Holbrook’s crisis begins as ours did, with a teen runaway getting pregnant by a guy she barely knew. I incorporated some factual events from our lives and drew many of the characters’ raw emotions from personal history. Although I gave Beth Holbrook, the mother in the story, a few of my personality traits, including the passion to be a supermom and failing miserably, the bulk of this family’s journey is fictional.

My experience as an adult daughter inspired the revelation of a long-kept secret in the latter part of the book. To avoid spoilers, I’ll simply state that nothing prepares anyone for such devastating news.

Yet, amid turmoil and unexpected adversity, God is still on the throne and has a perfect plan for our good and His glory. When we surrender everything to Him, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus through life’s storms, we can gain true peace and cling to the truth that God is stronger than anything we face.

In Stronger than the Storm, the Holbrook family must come to this understanding as well. As you read the book, I trust that this family’s journey, and mine, will provide you with encouragement and hope.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28 (NLT)

Blog Stops

Simple Harvest Reads, May 7 (Author Interview)

Artistic Nobody, May 8 (Author Interview)

Fruitfully Planted, May 8

Guild Master, May 9 (Author Interview)

Inspired by Fiction, May 10

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, May 11

Fiction Book Lover, May 12 (Author Interview)

Tell Tale Book Reviews, May 13 (Author Interview)

Blossoms and Blessings, May 14 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, May 15

Stories By Gina, May 16 (Author Interview)

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, May 17 (Author Interview)

Happily Managing a Household of Boys , May 17

Books, Books, & More Books, May 18 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, May 19

Blogging With Carol, May 20

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Deena is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card and a paperback copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/dYgBP/stronger-than-the-storm-celebration-tour-giveaway

Interview

If you could give advice to a newbie writer, what would it be?

Don’t rush the process. Learning how to effectively craft a novel, adding in the layers of emotion, deep POV, scene descriptions, pacing, character and spiritual arc, and so much more does not come quickly or easily. Go to writing conferences. Watch instructional videos and webinars. Read blog posts on how to write. Get every bit of training possible. (You wouldn’t believe the amount of free stuff available online!)

Then immerse yourself in the writing and publishing world if your goal is to publish your work and for people to purchase and read your books. Establish a network of authors who will help you learn how to promote and market yourself and your books. Build a brand for yourself around the kind of stories you plan to put out and strive to grow your platform right away. Don’t wait until you have a book to sell.

This sounds like a lot and very hard work, because it is. But there’s so much joy when you get that book out into the world that has the potential to touch readers’ hearts and maybe even change a few lives.

If you had a free day, what would you do?

If it’s at least seventy-five degrees outside, I’d love to spend the day at my favorite place on earth—sitting on the beach under an umbrella reading a Christian Women’s Fiction book, listening to the crashing waves, and marveling over God’s amazing creation.

 Give us an insight into your faith in the Lord.

I went to church regularly with my parents during my formative years. When I was around ten years old, they stopped going, so I went with friends, and in high school, my boyfriend and I were the only ones in our families who attended church. Right after graduation, my boyfriend joined the Navy and moved away, so we got married. That was 1981. We moved four times in that first year and fell away from church and the faith we’d grown up with.

In 1989, we were living on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay when the terrible earthquake during the World Series rocked our world, literally and spiritually. Three days later, when the bridges opened back up, I left SF, never to return.

The overwhelming fear that I could’ve died that day and didn’t know where I would spend eternity compelled me to return to church. I surrendered my life to Jesus not long after and have loved and served Him ever since. He is my life. My everything.

In 1999, two years before my husband retired from the Navy, we answered God’s call to plant a church in Chesapeake, Virginia, where we still serve today. All I seek to accomplish in this world, including my writing, is for the Lord and His glory.

Do your books revolve around certain themes?

Yes, they do. I’m a huge fan of fiction with deep themes that address real-life problems. As a pastor’s wife for the past twenty-seven years, I’ve learned that the church isn’t immune to many of the same tragic circumstances as those who don’t have a relationship with Jesus.

Some themes I include in my stories are abortion, adultery, low self-esteem, mental illness, suicide, pornography, prodigal children, abuse, and life-altering revelations. But along with putting characters in those extremely difficult trials, my books point people to God and His truth, and the characters must learn to depend on Him, pray, confess sin to others, forgive, and allow God to use their hurts for good and His glory. Everything may not turn out perfect in the end, but redemption is always present.

Is your book part of a series?

Yes. In 2025 I signed a three-book contract with Scrivenings Press for The Holbrook Family series. Stronger than the Storm is book one, which focuses on the parents, Beth and Kevin, along with their middle daughter, Leesa.

Book two features Tyler, the eldest Holbrook child, and his wife Shelby, and releases in June 2027.

The third and final book, which will follow the youngest Holbrook child, Megan, will launch in June 2028.