Jessica Rakus – Haven Strong

Today, author Jessica Rakus is guesting. She’s talking about her debut release, Haven Strong, a women’s fiction title. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway.

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Jessica’s inspiration for the book:

I was deeply inspired by the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in April 2018. As a hockey fan, I was inundated with news, with stories of the survivors and the victims, with the grief of their community. I cried every time I heard more about it. Eventually I decided to explore it – my own sadness, and the larger story of how hard it must be to lose someone, and for that to happen publicly. I’ve always been interested in the many shapes grief takes, even before I’ve had a few experiences of my own. Reading or writing about grief is almost practice for real life. I lost my father shortly before starting this book, and I’d found talking about what I was feeling was nearly impossible, for a lot of complicated and complex reasons. Working through my grief by watching Jo and her friends and family deal with their own was incredibly helpful.

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Title: Haven Strong
Series: N/A
Author: Jessica Rakus
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Length: 299 pages
Release Date: December 1, 2025

Blurb: Josephine Grant lives a charmed life – a husband, three perfect children, strong bonds with family and friends in the small town where she’s lived her entire life. She’s the helper, the hostess, the one who always shows up. The person who can do it all.

Then the bus carrying her son’s basketball team crashes, and Jo’s husband and son are among the lives lost. Now she has a new identity. Widow. Single mother. Woman who lost everything. Grief begins to tear apart the place that’s always been her home. Infighting among friends. Gossip and rumors. Wounds that may never heal and bonds that just might.

Now Jo has to rebuild her life, but as the person who thinks of herself as the helper, asking others to help hold her together is impossible. Jo must learn to lean on others as she learns to stand on her own.

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Available at:

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The game got more physical, Reston between me and the basket. I couldn’t push past him and still dribble, so I turned my back to him, trying to get an angle on him. My back was against his chest, heat radiating from his body. I closed my eyes, inhaling the scent of his sweat, feeling the pounding of his heart, the rise and fall of his breathing. My mouth went dry, and I did my best to swallow. I wanted to turn around, but I knew if I did, I would kiss him.

We were in my driveway. All of Haven could have seen us, and then what?

“Everything okay?” Reston murmured against my ear.

I’d stopped dribbling, holding the ball in my hands. This was no longer friends goofing off, having fun together. This was me realizing that I wanted—badly—to take Reston inside and make love to him on my unmade bed. The lust had bubbled inside of me unexpectedly, but my husband, I couldn’t do that to him, even if he wasn’t…

“I have to get back to my chores,” I replied, taking half a step away from Reston.

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Jessica Rakus is a debut novelist, after many, many years of writing practice. She currently lives in Louisiana, after living briefly in seven other states.

More information available at JessicaRakusBooks.com