Tara Lancaster grew up in the shadow of her
preacher father. Determined to please him, she burdened herself with following
all the “Christian” rules. She even started a blog that taught other young
women how to be the good girl. Then, her life changed. Accused of a heinous crime,
she flees her current life and hides out at her sister’s. That’s where the haunting
begins. Except Tara doesn’t believe in ghosts. She’s not sure she believes in
anything. With her new found friends, including a handsome neighbor, Tara is
bound to find out who’s behind the scary happenings or die trying.
This question remains— In the midst of the suspense,
will she learn to lean on God’s love and grace?
If you enjoy reading Mary Higgins Clark, you’ll
love this fast-paced suspense. I confess, I lost a few hours of sleep because I
couldn’t put it down.
The book is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com
Here’s what Christy
Barritt shared with me when I asked her about the writing journey for The Good Girl.
I wrote The
Good Girl ten years ago as Hurricane Isabel was ravaging Virginia, the
state I call home. My brother and his wife were going out of town and had asked
me to come to Minnesota to dog sit. I didn’t have any kids back then, so I said
yes, looking forward to the chance to get away and explore a new place.
Their house wasn’t what I expected. It was older,
had squeaky floors, and no curtains on the windows. One night, I heard the gate
outside my bedroom window mysteriously open. Another night, someone rang the
doorbell past midnight. Just a few little quirky things like that had happened
during my stay and got my brain whirling.
That’s when I got my idea for The Good Girl. In The Good
Girl, superstar Christian Tara Lancaster comes to dog sit for her sister,
who’s traveling Europe with her flavor-of-the-month boyfriend. Tara, a
preacher’s kid, has always followed all of the rules, and life in return seemed
especially blessed. Then everything came crashing down—her marriage, her
career, her reputation. Her sister, on the other hand, followed none of the
rules and her life seems seamless and blissful. Every idea Tara had for how her
life would turn out is wrong. The story goes from there.
I really had a great time writing this book. As I
said earlier, I wrote it several years ago. It made the rounds at several
publishers, one of the editors even writing, “Someone is going to snatch up
this book. I wish it was us.” I could never give up on this novel, though.
Something about it just gripped me.
Of all the books I’ve written, this one has the
strongest faith thread. Tara is really struggling to understand if God really
loves her not. She’s struggling to know if God is even real or if her whole
life has been build on a false premise. Add a ghost, fame-hungry friend, and
hunky neighbor to the mix, and you’ve got one of my favorite stories that I’ve ever written.
People have asked me, “Are you Tara?” The answer
is no, I’m not Tara, but I have drawn on parts of my own experiences. I
definitely put too much weight into what people think of me at times. I can
also be a perfectionist. I’ve been wounded by my brothers and sisters in
Christ, deeply at times. God is working on me, though, and my goal every day is
to become just a little more like Him.
I hope people will read The Good Girl and walk away examining themselves, and their faith,
and how they treat other Christians. The early feedback on the book has been
positive. People have said that the book was not only entertaining, but it caused
them to think and reevaluate their own thought patterns and actions.
To find out more information about the book, visit
my website at: www.christybarritt.com.
Thanks so much for having me here!
Bio:
Christy Barritt is an author, freelance writer and
speaker who lives in Virginia. She's married to her Prince Charming, a man who
thinks she's hilarious--but only when she's not trying to be. Christy's a
self-proclaimed klutz, an avid music lover who's known for spontaneously bursting
into song, and a road trip aficionado. She's only won one contest in her
life--and her prize was kissing a pig (okay, okay... actually she did win the
Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Suspense and Mystery for her book
Suspicious Minds also). Her current claim to fame is showing off her mother,
who looks just like former First Lady Barbara Bush.
When she's not working or spending time with her
family, she enjoys singing, playing the guitar, and exploring small,
unsuspecting towns where people have no idea how accident prone she is.