{"id":42137,"date":"2025-10-17T09:16:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=42137"},"modified":"2025-10-17T09:16:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:16:55","slug":"never-alone-by-cheryl-s-hartmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=42137","title":{"rendered":"Never Alone by Cheryl S. Hartmann"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A tender, unflinching memoir of faith, shame, and the quiet power of grace.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hartmann offers a deeply personal reflection on finding God\u2019s grace amid shame and despair in this compelling memoir. \u201cI never liked the word ‘testimony’,\u201d she admits early on. \u201cI thought my story was too small to matter.\u201d But as her life unfolds, she finds that even the quietest stories can reveal profound truths. What begins as a confession of fear and failure becomes a meditation on redemption and the slow, patient work of healing. Her childhood in a small Ontario town was marked by order without tenderness, rules without warmth. Her mother\u2019s harsh words left invisible scars, and at school, ridicule taught her to disappear into silence. The weight of years spent unseen carried her, by twenty-three, to the edge of a cliff and a fleeting wish for release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memoir traces her gradual return to life through forgiveness, compassion, and spiritual rediscovery. A kind teacher\u2019s encouragement, a moment of humiliation, a song shared in her family\u2019s gospel quartet\u2014each experience becomes a step toward grace. \u201cGrace,\u201d Hartmann writes, \u201cis not perfection. It is surrender.\u201d Interwoven free-verse poems act as prayers of renewal, capturing the beauty that emerges from brokenness. Hartmann\u2019s writing is sincere, unsentimental, and deeply human. She neither glorifies suffering nor pretends that faith erases it, but shows how divine mercy and self-forgiveness can coexist with doubt. A tender and unsentimental account of grace hard-won, the book will resonate with anyone who has wrestled with guilt, grief, or the longing to be seen by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A thoughtful meditation on self-forgiveness and the enduring nearness of divine love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pub date June 4 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FriesenPress<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISBN 978-1038341242<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price $26.49 Hardcover, $15.49 Paperback, 4.99 Kindle edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tender, unflinching memoir of faith, shame, and the quiet power of grace. Hartmann offers a deeply personal reflection on finding God\u2019s grace amid shame and despair in this compelling memoir. \u201cI never liked the word ‘testimony’,\u201d she admits early on. \u201cI thought my story was too small to matter.\u201d But as her life unfolds, she finds that even the quietest stories can reveal profound truths. What begins as a confession of fear and failure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":42139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[7223,723771261,91,3328,178,723771251,723771254,723771258,723771250,723771257,1136176,723771253,19397,723771063,723771259,1473,723771260,723771252,1008073,856121,309,723771256,723771255,349],"class_list":["post-42137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-author","tag-biography-autobiography","tag-blogging","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-cheryl-s-hartmann","tag-christian-memoirs","tag-christian-poetry","tag-even-when-i-didnt-know-it","tag-gods-grace","tag-indie-books","tag-inspirational-memoirs","tag-memoir","tag-memoirs","tag-personal-memoirs","tag-reading","tag-religious","tag-religious-autobiographies","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-trusting-god","tag-women-autobiographies","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-aXD","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/unnamed.jpg?fit=520%2C832&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42140,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42137\/revisions\/42140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}