What happens when the normal Christian life you expected doesn’t turn out exactly that way? Can a good, hard-working Christian man disregard his cultural and religious admonitions --- as well as his mother’s plans for his life --- for the love of a woman and a historic church building? For anyone who has ever faced a dilemma of the heart --- or for the avid HGTV watcher --- author Terri Kraus tackles these questions with THE TRANSFORMATION, the latest installment in her Project Restoration series dedicated to remodelers, rehabbers and DIYers.

Oliver Barnett is a good contractor, a good Christian and an obedient son, never in trouble, never one to rock the boat…until real estate developer Samantha Cohen enters his life. Samantha, full of life, vitality and wit, is unlike any woman he has ever known --- in more ways than one. Not only is she planning to transform a historic church into a restaurant/nightclub, she is Jewish and has had a “modern moral past,” having none of the restrictions that Oliver has had placed upon his own behaviors. While Oliver needs the work, he struggles with the idea of being involved in such a building project.

At the same time, an old girlfriend, Paula, rekindles a long-ago relationship with him --- with the enthusiastic encouragement of Oliver’s domineering mother. Paula would be the safe choice, and the choice that would appease Mom, yet Oliver is drawn to Samantha because of her beauty and her exotic nature. Oliver finds himself in a most unsettling dilemma. Does he do what’s right by the nice girl his mother has chosen for him, or does he do what his heart is telling him to do?

“Can a ‘good, Christian boy’ find happiness with a woman from another faith?”asks Kraus. “Can Samantha find salvation through Oliver’s witness? And can a church ever be anything other than a place of worship? These are the intriguing questions I pose in THE TRANSFORMATION and I hope readers will enjoy discovering the answers.”

THE TRANSFORMATION: A Project Restoration Novel © Copyright 2011 by Terri Kraus. Reprinted with permission by David C. Cook. All rights reserved.