To Laugh Once More (Book 2, Snippet 8): Inspirational Novel By Sherrie Wilson ~ Hannah R. Conway

An Inside Look at book two, To Laugh Once More, by Sherrie Wilson!

To Laugh Once More is a Victorian Inspirational Romance set in Georgia in 1895.

The War may be over but the battles still rage.

A dissatisfied wife. A misunderstood husband. Three tragedies will alter their path forever. Will their choices tear them apart, or will they allow them To Laugh Once More?

Three years after her marriage to Hamilton, former debutante Lydia Barrington Scarbrough is dissatisfied with life. She has yet to have children, and she spends most of her days sitting in a circle of women chatting about homemaking. She thought life would be more than what it’s turned out to be. Hamilton travels on business and never takes her with him. What’s a lonely wife to do when she has no children to raise? She longs for adventure and romance, and really, she longs for the fulfillment of her purpose in life. A purpose beyond being a wife and raising children.

Lydia faces a series of hardships that stretch her faith beyond capacity. Leaving her childhood home in Florida for Georgia proves to be more difficult than she ever imagined, and her marriage may not survive the trials. Lydia’s own personal battles drive a wedge between them. What will it take to make Hamilton attempt to save their marriage and draw Lydia back to him?

As Lydia strives to etch out a place for herself in a new world full of unfamiliar prejudice and attempts to overcome her private battles, she must help Hamilton understand her deepest longings and learn the true meaning of joy. Will she surrender her will in order to find her purpose? Will her future hold a happier marriage, motherhood, and a calling greater than she could ever have imagined?

Ready for a Sneak Peak? Enjoy snippet 8 of 10 below:

Snippet #8

Lydia focused her eyes on the wall across from her and bit the inside of her mouth to keep from exploding at her sister’s words. How could these women not be frustrated with this mundane life? Everything had remained the same at Live Oaks from year to year, except now the cries and laughter of seven grandchildren permeated the walls of the mansion.

Lydia stood and shoved past the settee and the piano, which she’d never learned to play. She narrowly missed the English teapot that sat on a tray on the table in front of the sofa. The orange slices and bowls of sugar and cream wouldn’t have garnished the wood floor as well as they’d graced the tray. Despite Lydia’s tantrum, the warm teacakes, sprinkled with sugar, fanning out around the teapot, disappeared one by one by the hands of her amused sisters.

She rushed to the window and pulled back the draperies. The bushy-tailed squirrels scampered about the lawn collecting the nuts buried back in the fall and chattered with excitement at each unveiled treasure. The birds chirped in the trees, looking for seeds in the dormant grass. The worms, the innocent victims of the birds’ voracious appetites, poked their heads out of the soil, and the birds devoured them seconds later. In the distance, the cows mooed as they waited milking on this dreary day, and the chickens clucked. Nothing changed around the plantation.

Why couldn’t she climb the moss-draped live oaks and the cypress trees that towered above her childhood home? They were the only things that had ever blanketed her in protection. However, married women, especially ones who’d already turned twenty-four, couldn’t do such things. Married women couldn’t do many things.

She turned to face Mother and sisters. “Oh, you don’t understand. I’ve been a wife for three years now, and I feel as if I’ve done everything a wife can do and nothing I want to do. Planning the meals and mending socks is hardly fulfilling for a spirited young woman like me.” They didn’t understand that she was born to be more than just a homemaker.

About the Author:

Sherri Wilson Johnson is an Inspirational Romance novelist, a speaker, and a former homeschooling mom who’d rather have laugh lines under her eyes than worry lines across her forehead. She lives in Georgia with her husband, her two children and her Chihuahua, Posey. Her favorite thing to do when she’s not with her family is to curl up with a good book or work on her current work-in-progress. She loves to dream of visiting romantic places and is passionate about the Lord, motherhood, homeschooling, and writing. Sherri is the author of To Dance Once More, Song of the Meadowlark, and To Laugh Once More. She is a columnist with Habits for a Happy Home and Choose NOW Ministries.