About the Book

Book: Legacy of Honor

Author: Renae Brumbaugh Green

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: Nov, 2020

He’s been raised to carry on the legacy.

After her mother’s untimely death, Emma Monroe’s dreams to become a teacher are dashed. She takes a job as maid and cook at the local Stratton Ranch, where she endures humiliation and hardship in order to provide for her ailing father and younger brother. Only Riley Stratton, her childhood friend and heir to the Stratton fortune, sees her heart. When she’s asked to care for Skye, the young half-Indian girl most family members refuse to claim, Emma finally finds the purpose she craves.

Riley Stratton has it all, or so it seems. Growing up as the youngest son of the rich and powerful John Stratton, Riley stands to inherit a legacy of greatness in the Stratton Ranch. On the surface, his family looks like they have it all, but manipulation, deceit, and an ever-present quest for power leave him desperate for change. Yet his father has made it clear: do things the Stratton way, or face alienation and disinheritance.

As Riley and Emma choose between honor, dreams, and expectations—not to mention the love they can no longer deny—their first steps prove how quickly the situation can spin into danger. When their best efforts threaten the lives and hopes of those closest to them, it becomes clear the decisions they make will change the course of their lives forever.

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My Thoughts:

What kind of legacy are you leaving behind? Can you change your family's direction? This is a a story of two families, their legacies, and a love that wants to buck against the status quo.

Emma Monroe has just lost her mother and her dreams of attending college. Not willing to leave her ailing father and young brother, she takes on the job as housekeeper for the Stratton family, previously her mother's role. What she sees, hears, and experiences is less than idea. This family is known as the richest and they go to church, but obviously only for show. Not only are they high and mighty, but they have some secrets they are trying to keep hidden.

Riley Stratton has had a soft spot for Emma and her mother for a long time. Especially due the kindness Mrs. Monroe showed him as a boy. He is determined to help this family even going against his own father's wishes. There is something different about their home life that he craves and knows he needs desperately.

I really enjoyed this contrast of families. What makes them who they are and hint, hint, it is not their possessions. Very engrossing read of the importance of legacy and I am looking forward to how this legacy continues to grow.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author

Renae Brumbaugh Green is an ECPA Bestselling Author, award-winning humor columnist, and wannabe superhero. She lives in Texas with her handsome, country-boy husband, four nearly-perfect children and one nearly-perfect son-in-law, and far too many animals. When she’s not writing, Renae teaches online classes and tries to be rugged without chipping her nail polish.

More from Renae

I’ve been writing this book for more than a decade!

In 2008, my dear friend and writing mentor, Chip Ricks, shared a book idea with me. Loosely based on her own family history, she wanted to write a story about two brothers—one who chose to live for Christ, the other who didn’t. She wanted to follow that family through the generations, to show the impact of that one choice, on the people who came behind.

She just had one problem. Chip was a brilliant writer, but she wasn’t a fiction writer. “Will you help me write this book?”

Now, Chip was in her 80s at the time. She was a mother, a grandmother, to me in the faith. If she’d asked me to paint the moon pink, I’d have given it my best shot. For several years, Chip and I worked together on several versions of the book. We only ever got through the first few chapters, and we’d change our minds about the characters or the situations. Finally, one day she smiled at me. She said, “You know, Renae. This is your book. I know I whispered the idea to you, but I always wanted you to be the one to write it. I’m getting too old to work on this . . . please take it. It’s your story.”

Soon after, she moved across the country to live with her daughter. We stayed connected via phone calls and Facebook, until eventually, she stopped responding. We lost touch. I continued to write the book—Chip’s book. Now my book. I’d work on it a while, then put it away for several months, even a few years at one point. In 2017, I finished what would become the first final draft. I fiddled with it more, here and there, but I hung onto it until I met Misty Beller, my publisher at Wild Heart.

I submitted the book to her, and she accepted it, right away! Then the editor got hold of it. God bless Erin Taylor Young! She was brutal, in the best possible way. I spent weeks (months?) making the suggested changes, and each one made the book so much better. The day I turned in those final edits to my publisher, I opened up Facebook. There, on Chip’s FB page, was a note to all her friends.

From one of her children.

She’d gone to see her Heavenly Father.

I sat there, frozen, looking at my screen, big fat tears tracking my cheeks. How was it possible that on the day the book was complete, I learned of her death? She was so instrumental in my walk of faith, and in my path as a writer. It was almost like the Holy Spirit wanted me to know . . . this particular journey was now complete.

I hope you enjoy this book, book one in a trilogy, for it is very close to my heart. And I hope you learn from the actions of two brothers, so many years ago, that our choices have an impact on our own lives, and on the lives of those who follow us.

—Renae Brumbaugh Green