Romantic Reads: Anchor My Heart

Story behind the story Anchor My Heart by Sara Beth Williams

My life, since February of 2018, has been in major upheaval. Way before the pandemic began.

Three family deaths occurred within six months of each other. My brother moved 2,000 miles away. My dad endured five surgeries in five months. I began to have symptoms of anxiety.

By the way, all of this occurred a year after I’d penned most of what is now Anchor My Heart.

Anchor My Heart tells the story of Matt Lawson and Tara Pierce. Matt has lost everything. In the wake of a life-altering tragedy, anxiety from his childhood rears its ugly head, making it difficult to cope with reality.

I don’t like to throw the term anxiety around lightly. I didn’t really acknowledge that I had anxiety for over a year.

Now that I have had three years to reflect, I realize that anxiety has always been part of my life, to some extent. Instances throughout college which I couldn’t truly explain, now make so much more sense, in light of my ability to self-reflect.

Back to Anchor My Heart: Before completing any of first three manuscripts, I had never experienced real, raw, intense grief, until the year When Hearts Collide was published. It is a book that also deals with grief.

Before Anchor My Heart, I’d never experienced any major anxiety. But God, in His infinite wisdom and love and knowledge, prompted me and inspired me to write these stories that deal so heavily with grief and anxiety because He knew. He knew I was going to walk through the same experiences. It almost felt like a future me had written journal entries to the past me.

In 2019, I returned to my third manuscript after about three years, combed through Matt’s experiences again, revised, enhanced the emotional reactions based on experiences I was still having throughout that year and then sent it off to my editor. It was raw, beautiful and romantic, but had a terrible title. I knew I had time to fix that.

In March 2020, as I was going through one of my mom’s old journals which has a nautical theme, I found this verse: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (Hebrews 6:19 NIV)

The words anchor and hope stuck with me for months. As I waded through edits from my critique group, and later my editor, I knew the theme of my book was finding hope through extreme trials. But that hope isn’t just plain wishful thinking. I knew, for these two characters, it had to be an assurance in something greater than themselves.

I strongly believe God brings revelations to us at just the right time. For me, reading that verse in early 2020 was exactly when I needed to read that verse. Not any sooner. Not any later. This verse has been a blessing to me throughout 2020. But that could be an entire blog post in itself.

After some back and forth brainstorming with my editor and other author friends, we came up with this title: Anchor My Heart.

I absolutely adore this title for so many, many reasons.

I sincerely pray that when you read through Matt and Tara’s journey, you find hope, too, in knowing that strong assurance anchored in the One (God) who holds all things in His hands.

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Author Bio:

Sara Beth Williams is a wife, mother of two daughters, and temporary caretaker of a lovable old lady pit and a spunky Pomeranian-Shih Tzu mix. She lives in Northern California. 

When she's not held hostage by the keyboard, she enjoys music, teaching, reading and spending time with her family. 

She is all about connecting with readers!

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Book Blurb for Anchor My Heart:

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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Buy Anchor My Heart on Amazon

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Connect with Sara Beth:

Amazon / Goodreads / Bookbub/ Facebook / Instagram / Twitter/ Website / Newsletter

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Note to the readers from Sara Beth:

There is a Pre-order Prize Pack Giveaway Available for Anchor My Heart! 

Enter to win a grand prize pack full of books and bookish swag. THREE winners will be chosen in all. All chosen winners will be invited to join me on a Zoom coffee or tea date.

Pre Order Anchor My Heart HERE

Click here to find out all the info you need to enter to Win