Awards & Recognitions

  • 2022 Tapestry Awards, 1st Place Fiction/Novel

The Ties That Loose

Can you really trust God when life plummets out of your control?

While clearing out her mother’s estate, Dani Robicheau Kirkland makes a shocking discovery: a box containing pieces of her parents’ life hidden away after her father was declared Killed in Action in the Vietnam War. Inside she finds her mother had once clung to faith and the desperate certainty her husband was alive before she spiraled into the devastated alcoholic Dani has known.

Dani’s F-15 pilot husband, Chris, chafes under his father’s expectations to live up to his granddad’s legacy as WWII pilot. While the Bosnian War rages, Chris is tasked with a clandestine mission: flying an unsanctioned diplomat into Bosnia. But when his plane goes down due to a bird strike, Chris is trapped behind enemy lines with little hope of rescue.

Dani is terrified she’ll nosedive like her mother did, but still clings to hope and a certainty that Chris remains alive despite the Air Force’s doubts. As she searches for a way to bring Chris home and he strives to stay alive, they each battle their family histories desperate to find God’s future for them both.

Will their family ties ensnare them or will holding onto God loose their grip forever?