Award-winning, Bestselling Novelist Hallie Lee Unveils The Shepherds, the Eagerly Awaited Fourth Volume in her Beloved Shady Gully Series
Amazon.com bestselling author Hallie Lee is celebrating her latest novel, The Shepherds, which released to retail August 30, 2024, in hardback, trade paperback, and all major ebook formats from WordCrafts Press. The highly anticipated fourth volume in The Shady Gully Series follows in the footsteps of Lee’s Number 1 Amazon.com bestselling debut novel, Paint Me Fearless, its sequel, Wolfheart, which climbed to the Number 2 spot on Amazon.com’s Hot New Releases chart in the Contemporary Christian Fiction category, and last year’s highly regarded Shades of Violet, Book 3 of The Shady Gully Series.
When the charismatic pastor of Kentucky’s biggest and most popular megachurch collapses on stage in front of thousands, a frenzy of speculation erupts. Is he sick? Washed up? Or is it that woman?
Mysterious and strikingly beautiful, could “Meadow from small-town Louisiana” be responsible for the revered Timothy’s downfall? Desperate to escape scrutiny, Timothy inflames rumors even more when he takes a sabbatical with the lovely Meadow—to Shady Gully, Louisiana.
A jaunt to his hometown also fits the bill for Sterling, the handsome lead musician at Northlake Christian Church. Since his love life and secret aspirations are in the tank, he eagerly joins Timothy’s exodus.
When they arrive in Shady Gully they find a thriving community with several new businesses, including Sterling’s sister’s booming Veterinary Hospital. While Sterling grapples with his failures—which seem especially magnified in light of his sister’s success—Timothy seeks counsel with Father Patrick, a man of faith and the only one he can trust with his sordid history.
Despite the mounting challenges, The Shepherds resonates with the power of kindness, reveals a life-changing epiphany, and erupts in a battle between good and evil as a clever priest joins forces with a weary, defeated evangelist to overcome a grotesque injustice.
“The charismatic, popular pastor of Northlake Christian Church in Kentucky made his “Shady Gully” debut in book 1 of the series,” novelist Hallie Lee explains. “Although it was only a “cameo” appearance, his kindness and sincerity proved pivotal in Desi’s spiritual journey.
“Everything about him, from his self-effacing, meek nature, to his detailed sleeve of tattoos and his unshakeable faith, suggested there was something deeper to his truth,” she continues. “When he tells Desi in book 1, “Sometimes when bad things happen in your life, no matter how faithful you are, you need a little help climbing out of the muck,” Desi wondered if he spoke from personal experience. Turns out he did, and The Shepherds is his story.”
The Shady Gully series has developed a loyal fan following over the years and has generated a healthy number of glowing reviews from both fans and industry pros alike. In reviewing Paint Me Fearless, the debut novel in the series, KIRKUS declared, “Lee’s prose is fluid and full of personality.”
“Revisiting Shady Gully in Wolfheart was like walking into a warm, inviting home of people you’ve missed. It gives you all the feels. Humor, the bonds of loyalty—and the price you sometimes pay for it—family, friendship, and love are all intermixed with death, violence, and battling personal and sometimes lifelong demons,” adds a 5-star Amazon review.
“Small-town life at its heart-tugging best! Curl up and let this one wrap around you like a warm blanket,” said author Jennifer Jakes of Shades of Violet, the third book in the series.
The Shepherds is garnering its own share of accolades, including this 5-Star review on Amazon.com: “Having read the series, in my opinion Lee’s writing and character development, her finesse in disclosing personalities and personal histories gets better with each successive book … and that’s saying something because Hallie Lee set the bar high from the beginning.”
“Hallie Lee is one of those authors with the almost preternatural ability to tap into the human psyche and touch those tender places that we’ve all tried to hide…past hurts, perceived failures, that sense that no matter what we do, it’s never enough,” muses WordCrafts Press publisher, Mike Parker. “And she does it with such a deft touch and with just the right balance of pathos and humor. You close the book feeling refreshed, encouraged, and perhaps even a bit more free.”
About Hallie Lee
Born and raised in Louisiana, Hallie Lee’s first novel, Paint Me Fearless, debuted at #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Release List, was Bookfest 2022’s #1 Contemporary Christian Fiction winner, and blossomed into the successful, bestselling Shady Gully series.
In between writing novels, she writes devotions for Guidepost’s All God’s Creatures magazine, a devotional that reveals all the miraculous ways God uses animals to nurture our faith.
She currently lives in the hills of Kentucky with her family and new intern, Piper, the orange cat.
Connect with Hallie online at:
www.HallieLee.com
Recent Comments