A Broken Kind of Beautiful

Praise for
A Broken Kind of Beautiful

“Both beautifully written and honestly told,
A Broken Kind of Beautiful
is captivating! Faith is the resounding heartbeat of this poignant story, but Ganshert also breathes to life a tender romantic tale and a powerful inner journey as soothing as sweet tea on a hot summer day.”

—D
ENISE
H
UNTER
, best-selling author of
Dancing with Fireflies

“In
A Broken Kind of Beautiful
, Katie Ganshert writes her most compelling novel yet, where imaginary characters seem to step off the pages. Readers will embrace both Ivy and Davis as they struggle with who they are and who they want to be. The story lingers with you after you close the book, like a melody you want to listen to again and again.”

—B
ETH
K. V
OGT
, author of
Catch a Falling Star
and
Somebody Like You

“
A Broken Kind of Beautiful
is beautifully written and populated with characters that tugged at my heart from the first page. This story is about
The Story
—the best story of history—that of God’s redeeming grace and pursuing love. I found it moving, inspiring, and wholly satisfying. Another Katie Ganshert novel for my keeper shelf!”

—B
ECKY
W
ADE
, author of
Meant to Be Mine

“Ganshert’s fresh, riveting novel of shattered dreams, second chances, and true love is one that will capture readers’ hearts and refuse to let them go. This story reveals the deep truth that we can trust our fractured hearts to the God who specializes in mosaic tiles—the One who formed the universe from words and man from dust, and who has no trouble figuring out how to bring beauty from the broken.”

—B
ETSY
S
T
. A
MANT
, author of
All’s Fair in Love and Cupcakes

“Katie Ganshert has created characters so real, my heart ached for them as I longed to know them more and soothe the hurts in their pasts. The truth threaded through the pages is one to savor, as is this story of a journey from brokenness to redeemed beauty.”

—C
ARA
P
UTMAN
, award-winning author of
Shadowed by Grace

“Katie Ganshert’s
A Broken Kind of Beautiful
is poignant, heartfelt fiction at its finest—a gentle story of hope and healing wrapped in the kind of romance that keeps the reader turning pages. I love the emotional depth, lyrical writing, and strong sense of place. Most of all, I love that days after closing the book, the characters are still alive in my head.”

—M
ELISSA
T
AGG
, author of
Made to Last
and
Here to Say

“With a setting that becomes its own kind of character, a tender romance and soul-stirring symbolism,
A Broken Kind of Beautiful
is a shining example of how God’s grace can restore the brokenness in our lives. Her gorgeous writing voice pulled me in from the first page and kept me thinking about her characters after the story ended. Katie’s novels are to be savored and enjoyed again and again.”

—L
ISA
J
ORDAN
, award-winning author of
Lakeside Reunion
and
Lakeside Family

B
OOKS BY
K
ATIE
G
ANSHERT

Wishing on Willows
Wildflowers from Winter

A BROKEN KIND OF BEAUTIFUL
PUBLISHED BY WATERBROOK PRESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

Scripture quotations are taken from the following versions: The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc.
^TM
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
www.zondervan.com
.

The characters and events in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental.

Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-60142-590-4
eBook ISBN 978-1-60142-591-1

Copyright © 2014 by Katie Ganshert

Cover design by Kelly L. Howard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company.

WATERBROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ganshert, Katie.
   A broken kind of beautiful : a novel / Katie Ganshert.
        pages cm
   ISBN 978-1-60142-590-4 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-60142-591-1 1. Single women—Fiction. I. Title.
   PS3607.A56B86 2014
   813′.6—dc23

                                                                                 2013046053

v3.1

For the broken ones
.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.

—I
SAIAH 43:1

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Other Books by This Author

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Epilogue

Readers Guide

Acknowledgments

1

The girl with the haunted eyes reentered his life on the other side of a lowering casket, humidity and the shrill song of cicadas tangling together in the South Carolina heat. Aunt Marilyn pressed trembling fingers against her lips and swayed as if the wet ground had risen up and pitched her forward. Davis Knight tightened his grip beneath his aunt’s elbow and looked away from her pain. That’s when he saw her—standing like a statue, her waif-like form shrouded in grief.

Ivy Clark. All grown up.

A distant rumble of thunder rolled across the blackened sky, leftover remnants from a tropical storm. A raindrop brushed his ear; another grazed the tip of his nose. Pastor Voss bowed his head. So did everyone else, including Ivy. A slight breeze ruffled wisps of hair around her downturned face and fluttered the butterfly sleeves of her dress. The last time he’d seen her in the flesh, he had just returned to Greenbrier for a short summer stint after completing his freshman year at NYU. Ivy had been twelve going on fifty. Tall and gangly with eyes too large for her face—twin souls the color of honey, staring and deep as if she saw and understood every sadness in the world.

Then she had disappeared, and so did he, in a way. A few years later he began following her career because it was in his interest to follow it, but even with all professional motives stripped bare, he would have followed it anyway.

Pinpricks of sweat beaded along Davis’s temples. His sister, Sara, wrapped her arm around his and squeezed. Pastor Voss’s prayer ended in time for Ivy Clark to look up and catch him staring. Familiar territory to her, no doubt, given her career. Not so familiar to him.

He would have looked away, but her awareness of his attention triggered an intriguing metamorphosis. It seemed her eyes had learned some tricks over the years. Like how to bat in just the right way. How to dance in invitation. How to swallow the grief that had wrapped around her shoulders moments ago, when she thought nobody watched. She smiled a smile Davis knew well, one he’d seen hundreds of times on a hundred beautiful faces—the type of smile that had lost its allure two years ago.

He glanced down at the grass—thick green blades framing his black loafers—and patted his sister’s hand, his own personal reminder of why a woman like Ivy Clark could not be a part of his life. Ivy belonged to a world that took and took and took so subtly and connivingly that a person didn’t notice until there was nothing left to give. It was a world he never wanted to be a part of again.

Still, he looked one more time. Ivy stared back, a smirk on her face.