As I Have Loved You

Wow! Another great book by Nikki Arana. It is very moving and thought provoking but I didn't expect any different. This book takes you through just about every emotion. I did not want to put it down.

"As I Have Love You" is another great novel by Nikki Arana. This book made me hungry for more of the Holy Spirit and His leading. Leigh, the main character learns to "let go" of her only son when he moves out and away from the direction of God. Leigh learns to trust God with the seeds that she had planted in her only sons life. Jeff's life is a picture of God's mercy and grace. Read this story and feel the love that the Father lavishes upon us as children of God. ~Shelly of Chadron MOPS

Deeply spiritual, totally loving without the syrup, and a myriad of characters one can form a relationship with. Leigh is the single mom of Jeff, a 21 yr. old ADD sufferer, and she loves him to the point of smothering, truly believing she knows what is best for him. I distrusted Leigh from the beginning. Jeff, whom I dearly loved from the first mention of his name, has a full and heavy load, fighting ADD, attending college, working and being the perfect son. Then he met Jessica. Jessica, whom I cried for, will never be good enough for Jeff according to Leigh. Her troubled past and present make her second class and Leigh sets to break them up. However, his first love is strong enough to cause Jeff to defy his mom, his church and his Biblical teachings. Leigh is devastated and heartbroken, angry and vindictive. She has absolutely no clue she is just the same as a person she is hating and judging. John, Leigh's first and only real love "disappeared" just out of high school, and she has carried a torch for 25 years, desperate to know why he never answered any of her letters. A chance viewing of him on the TV sends her in search of him and some answers. What she finds out changes the direction of all their lives and love-hate grow stronger and stronger. John is so spiritual, he was my hero, and seemed to step right out of the pages of the Bible as well as history. He is the type of man every person would love to meet at least once in their lifetime. His spirituality, patience, love and honesty truly grip the reader from the first. There is family conflict between Leigh and her parents because of the favoritism toward her brother, RJ. Her dad is now suffering from cancer, and there is infinished business between siblings and parents....lots of it. There are surprises and shocks, in some cases I actually found myself getting angry because things did not go the way I wanted for my heroes. This is because the author grabs your attention, walks the characters right in front of you, and refuses to let go of your interest, a truly amazing feat. Jessica and her pain show the rocky road of sorrow that many of today's unwanted babies have as their lot in life. Desertion, mistreatment and rape have been her past and drugs her present, but Jeff loves her so deeply that he is willing to overlook it all and help her through...but they really need AND WANT the love and support of his mom. At one time they thought they might get her support, but when the chips were down, it wasn't there. A truly heartbreaking love story of a young couple. This book is so deeply spiritual it has one heading to the pages of the Bible to see what is written there....even with it being a fiction book, it is so touching and grabs both heart and soul. I am forever grateful for getting this book, and sincerely hope there is a sequel, but if not, it stands on its' own. Thank you Nikki and may God continue to bless your writing. I have a new top author on my list..YOU

As I Have Loved You is the perfect title for this book. Not only was it a page-turner, but there were some powerful illustrations within it's pages. This "love" story touched a deep place in my heart that few novels reach. Plus, it made me cry. Not a miserable-type cry, but a what-a-touching-message cry. I connected so well with the characters that I literally hurt when they hurt. I sensed the same deep regret, the kind where you wish you could go back and do something over again, but you can't. I found the subplot with Jeff, Leigh's son, particularly compelling, especially the conflict regarding intimacy with his girlfriend and the values he was raised on. Also, the lessons Leigh learned about unconditional love through her son's experience were priceless. Very well done. It was like God held a mirror in front of Leigh's face and insisted she take a good, hard look. So true!

Wow. Really, that's the first word that springs to mind when you ask me to sum up Nikki Arana's new release, AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. She grabbed me in the prologue, when she parts the misty veil between heaven and earth and reveals the plan of God on one boy's life, and she kept me hooked until the last page. This book made me cry--which is a real feat--and kept me thinking for days on end. Leigh Scott is a woman who has worked hard to win that morsel of security in her life, and now everything rests on her son. Jeff's been fighting severe ADD all of his life, but he's finally almost done college and has a career lined up. She's had to give up many of her own dreams to help her son reach his, she's had to protect him from her disaster of a marriage so that he carried only good memories of his father. Now it's finally time to focus on herself a little, to turn her modest writing career into one worthy of the call she feels on her life. But how is she supposed to focus on the proposal that's been requested when Jeff's spending so much time with a girl that can only mean trouble? Jeff's always seen thing in people that others don't. And in Jessica he sees a beautiful girl with auburn hair who's been hurt so much but has always managed to rise above it. His mom doesn't much like their blossoming relationship, but how can he deny Jessica when their friendship is all she has? Still, he doesn't intend things to go the way they go. And when the situation gets continually worse, he's not sure how to repair the damage. All he knows is that he loves both women and will do whatever it takes to keep them both in his life. The touch of the Holy Spirit plays a huge role in AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, and the story addresses the struggle and misconception that can go hand and hand with seeking that power, as well as the beauty and grace that accompany it when it finds a pure and open heart. The characters are deep and flawed and fighting desperately for their faith, but each chapter hammers home the lesson of the title: that if we're to truly please Him, we must love one another as He has loved us. Arana manages something spectacular in this book. Her writing is a scalpel that cuts straight into the heart, and she reveals truths that both hurt and heal. As we look into the deepest longings of Leigh and Jeff and Jessica and John, an old friend of Leigh's, we see different sides of the same problem, different wounds seeking the same balm. Each character grows and shifts and changes, alternately taking steps forward on the path to God and then slipping away down the path to self. But it's the journey they each choose to make that really illuminates the depths of humanity within them; and it's the place they finally reach that made me blink back tears and wonder what wonders await me behind the misty veil.