Valerie M. Bodden Books In Order

Publication Order of Hope Springs Books

Publication Order of River Falls Books

Publication Order of Love on Sanctuary Shores Books

Valerie M. Bodden
USA Today bestselling author Valerie M. Bodden has three great loves: books, her family, and Jesus. Oh, and chocolate. Okay, so four.

She writes emotion filled Christian fiction which weaves real-life people, real-life issues, and real-life faith. Her characters might (or will) experience heartache along the way, however true to her tendencies as this hopeless romantic, she’ll give them a happy ending every time.

Valerie lives out her own happily ever after with her high school sweetheart turned husband with their four kids.

Valerie was born and grew up in Wisconsin, and aside from this one short stint living in Minnesota while her husband trained for the pastoral ministry, has lived there her whole life, despite an aversion to all things snowy and cold. Well, except for Christmas, a snowy Christmas is good.

Periodically, she attempted to get her snow-loving husband and kids to pack up their stuff and move to a warmer climate with her yet so far hasn’t had any luck. So it was for them that she tolerated the snow. Which is some kind of love, if you ask her. Which all changed when they moved to Texas, so finally got her wish.

Along with writing Christian fiction, she’s written over 300 kid’s nonfiction books and helps other authors perfect their own stories. When she’s not busy writing, she enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, managing the church’s library, and reading, of course.

“Not Until Forever” is the first novel in the “Hope Springs” series and was released in 2019. He put his family before her. She chose her career over him. When they get another chance, are they going to put one another first?

Sophie, while climbing the corporate ladder, does not allow herself to think about what she actually gave up when she turned Spencer’s proposal down five years prior. When she is called back home to say goodbye to her dying grandma, she goes well out of her way in order to avoid seeing him. That means he’s the very first person she runs into, obviously. Much as she would like to fight against it, being near him stirs up a few old feelings and it even makes her begin to question some of her old decisions.

Spencer left college in order to help out on his family’s farm and it cost her the woman that he loved. However he just could not turn his back on family. Now that Sophie’s come back, he is determined to protect his heart. He senses there is something new in her, something that makes him think that they could possibly have a second chance. However when his family needs him again, he feels as though he’s repeating the past.

This time around, he is unsure of what choice he should make. Could God be handing them a second chance? Or are the heartaches of the past far too much to overcome?

“Pieces of Forever” is the first novel in the “River Falls” series and was released in 2021. The scars on her face are nothing at all compared to the scars all over her heart. However can God actually help her find healing? And love?

Eight years back, Joseph and Ava had the perfect future all planned out: he’d go to veterinary school, while she would embark on a career with some exclusive modeling agency, and they would eventually get married and have four kids and three dogs. Until one horrible accident changed it all. Unwilling to believe they could even have a future still, she made Joseph promise that he would leave her and live out their dreams on his own. He’s never broken a promise to her, until now.

Because before he’d made that dumb promise to leave, they had made one another this promise: one about forever. Now that he’s done with veterinary school, he is determined to go back to River Falls and prove to her that his promise still stands. That he does in fact love her just the way she is.

However he’ll first need to figure out a way to crack the safe that she has erected around her heart. Fortunately, he’s got help: in the form of a special group of sick children, three lovable dogs, and more than just a few slices of pie. Yet is it going to be enough to convince her that their forever is worth fighting for? Or is he going to be stuck picking up the pieces, alone?

“Songs of Home” is the second novel in the “River Falls” series and was released in 2022. Can God turn the absolute worst day of her whole life into the best thing that’s ever happened to her?

Country music star Lydia St. Peter, in the wake of a very public, not to mention very scandalous, breakup, finds herself needing a place of refuge. She does not know exactly why she’s going to find it with the family that she never even knew she had in River Falls, Tennessee, however at least the tiny town’s going to offer her the privacy that she so desperately desires. She never expects that it would offer her more. In the form of Liam, her new landlord, and his troubled teen daughter.

When Liam, a single dad, comes back to his hometown of River Falls, it is with the intention of caring for his mom and keeping his daughter safe. He knows that his own happiest years are well behind him, as they died with his wife. What he does not see coming is the immediate connection with the new tenant that stays in his mom’s carriage house.

While Lydia feels the pull of family and Liam starts allowing himself to open up to the possibility of love again, a new relationship is able to blossom. However when Lydia gets presented with an opportunity which could rocket her right to household name status, she must decide whether she is willing to give up everything that she has gained in River Falls to chase her dreams, or if her heart’s found its home at last.