Author: Dora Hiers

Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

/ Dora Hiers / 2 Comments
It may come as a surprise to you, but I’m a routine kinda gal. I eat the same cereal for breakfast and wake up and go to bed every day about the same time. Wait staff from our favorite restaurants don’t bother asking for my order; they just confirm it. I write only from my quiet office, and I take breaks in regular intervals. Interruptions throw me off kilter, and it takes a while to regain my balance.
But being a writer is slowly eroding my routine. That, or my husband is. 🙂
He’s always encouraging me to step out of my comfort zone. He prodded me to write my first book, even when I doubted, and encouraged me to join a writers group. When our local librarian invited me to address their readers, hubby rattled off a list of possible topics and practically shoved me into the public speaking arena when I would have been perfectly content to hide out in the obscurity of my office, pecking away at my laptop. Eventually, readers would find my stories, right?
Now, he’s at it again. Prodding me to expand my horizons. Travel. Food. Where does it stop?
Three years ago, he convinced me that a European cruise was cheaper than some of our US vacations, and we’ve cruised there every year since. We’ve craned our necks to stare up at the Eiffel Tower, climbed the Colosseum in Rome, and explored ancient walled cities in Tuscany and volcanoes in Iceland. We devoured pizza in Belfast, gobbled down granitas and cannoli’s in Sicily, guzzled espresso in Barcelona, and tasted authentic fish and chips in London.
And you know what? I actually enjoyed it. Not necessarily every new meal or city, but the experience. He doesn’t have to sell me on it anymore. When he mentions a European cruise, I’m totally on board.
We all need someone like that, don’t we? A friend or spouse to push us to achieve more, to reach for our dreams, to fill a hole with something that we’re passionate about, or to force us to face our fears. For me, it was fear of the unknown.     
What are you afraid of?

Embrace life. Surround yourself with people who love you enough to shove you out of your comfort zone. Give your dreams wings to become reality and discover yourself.
Just wait until he starts messing with my bedtime. Or leaving brochures for Antarctica on the kitchen counter…

“Risk, then, is not just part of life. It is life. The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place. It’s the high-anxiety zone, but it’s also where you discover who you are.” ~Nick Vujicic

On My Kindle ~ BEYOND THE WAVES by Lynnette Bonner

/ Dora Hiers
Purchase Link

The Cover Story~
Can a Love Shattered by the Sands of Time…Rise Beyond the Waves?

Taysia Green nearly chokes on her water when Officer Kylen Sumner shows up in her office claiming he’s back in town because he loves her. Since he’s broken her heart more than once, and she recently started dating youth pastor Blaine Pittman, she wants absolutely nothing to do with Kylen. But he’s been asked to stand in as the mediator between Taysia and wannabe model Sophia Clinesmith, who twisted her ankle in the parking lot of Taysia’s business and is threatening a lawsuit.

If she didn’t need him to help save her gym, Taysia would tell Kylen to take a long midnight walk on a short cliffside trail. She’s perfectly happy with her life just the way it is. So why is it that just the sight of Kylen Sumner sets her traitorous heart to dancing faster than it did the time Blaine kissed her?

Sharing my thoughts~ 
Don’t you just love reunion stories, especially where the characters never stopped loving each other, and the hero is oh so determined to overcome his past mistakes and show the heroine how much he’s changed? :dreamy sigh: Totally my kinda read and write, and Beyond the Waves is exactly all that and more!

Back in high school, Taysia didn’t hang out with the cool kids. When Kylen moved next door during the summer and they struck up a tight friendship that quickly transitioned to romance, she warned him that he would be ostracized, but he only scoffed. You see where that’s going, right? Yeah, Kylen broke her heart…twice. After a few years apart, Kylen’s back, and he’s determined to romance the woman who never let go of his heart, to show her that he’s a changed man.

And romance he does, with gifts and flirting and buckets of romantic tension. I thoroughly enjoyed several laugh-out-loud funny scenes, but Beyond the Waves isn’t all fun and fluff. It tackles some tough topics like abortion, premarital sex, pregnancy outside of marriage, with sensitivity and a tender touch, and a gentle faith thread makes the entire plot a beautiful tapestry, a book I was loathe to put down because I sooo wanted Kylen and Taysia to reach their happily ever after.

“None of us deserve grace, Sophia. I certainly didn’t. But God gave it to me when I asked Him. So how can I give any less to those around me?”

Lynnette Bonner is a new author to me, but she’s definitely on my radar now! And I can’t wait to dive into Caught in the Current, the second book in the Pacific Shores series, featuring Marie and Reece several years later. Of course, the sweet excerpt at the end of this book with an adorable three-year-old just whet my appetite! Overall, I’m so thrilled to add another author to my must-read list!

“We all make mistakes. And since there’s no going back, only forward, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to linger on those mistakes. We just ask for forgiveness from those we’ve wronged, and try to do better next time.” 

Disclaimer: I received this book free from Amazon. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I received no monetary compensation.