With the release of her latest book, Anchor My Heart, Sara Beth Williams talks about how mental illness plays a role in her most recent second chance book. For the record, Sara Beth doesn’t write rom-coms. Thought you oughtta know. We also went on a fan-girl gush over J’nell Ciesielski and a few other authors. #becausefiction.
I got to talk to Sara Beth a few months ago in Episode 37, but it was time to chat about her latest (and may I say timely in theme) book.
What on Earth Does Mental Health Have to do with Love and Romance?
Read the latest novel from Sara Beth Williams, and you’ll find out! Drawing on personal experience when a series of family losses and crises left her with (understandable) anxiety, Sara Beth explores this in Anchor My Heart.
Sara explains how going through her late mother’s journals while she was in the editing process of this book gave her the title. At the bottom of the pages of that journal were Bible verses, and one had Hebrews 6:19 which reads:
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which enters within the veil,
A significant part of our discussion focused on just how mental illness fits in the lives of Christians. It’s so easy to label all struggles as either spiritual or physical only, but the truth is, what the source is (aside from the obvious original fall of man!) depends on the person. And for some, it may even be both.
Sarah’s character really struggles in her book, but obviously, with hope as a strong theme, I suspect he gets his happily-ever-after.
When not writing, Sara Beth Williams enjoys reading a variety of authors including:
- The Murphy Brother Series Jennifer Rodewald and
- The Ice Swan J’nell Ciesielski (we both agree that she’s a phenomenal writer.
Of course, she enjoys many others, but those were the ones she’d been reading most recently.
Her series is the Second Chance Novels
- When Hearts Collide
- A Worthy Heart
- Anchor My Heart
More about Anchor My Heart by Sara Beth Williams
In the aftermath of tragic loss, worship leader Matt Lawson is grappling debilitating anxiety. The blessings he’d taken for granted—a dream job, a woman he couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his life with, and his God-given musical talent have crumbled at his feet, leaving him reeling in despair, unable to face the wreckage of the life he’d envisioned for himself.
Tara Pierce is ready to put past hurts behind her as she prepares to graduate college and take a leap of faith in her career. When Matt’s grief causes him to isolate himself from everyone he knows, she refuses to stand idly by and do nothing. She has traversed similar terrain before. No one deserves to travel that road alone.
Unexpected attraction flares as Tara reaches into the sea of Matt’s grief and helps ground him in reality. But Matt’s not ready to give himself away again. Can Tara risk her heart and their friendship and let God step in to heal where she can’t?
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