About the Book

Book: What You Said to Me

Author: Olivia Newport

Genre: Christian Fiction

Release Date: November 2020

Book 4 in the Tree of Life Series: A Father-Daughter Genealogy Team Link Faith Journeys on Family Trees

When 15-year-old Tisha Crowder gets caught shoplifting, attorney Nolan Duffy tries to protect her from consequences that could rattle her already troubled life. His daughter, Jillian, feels like she’s the one being punished instead—by having Tisha assigned to work with her on a backlog of genealogy files. Tisha doesn’t seem interested in taking the job seriously, and Jillian’s patience wears thin. Besides, everyone in Canyon Mines knows the Crowder family has experienced generations of brokenness. Then a sliver of hope turns up in long-ago words in plain sight, challenging shrouded assumptions about Tisha’s family. Now Jillian is the one who can walk with Tisha back to 1893 and uncover where everything went wrong in the first place—and save her from the past.

What You Said to Me is the fourth book in the Tree of Life series by Olivia Newport. You’ll want to return to the lovely Colorado mountain town of Canyon Mines again and again to explore and celebrate unforgettable family stories that will inspire you to connect with your own family histories and unique faith journeys.

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About the Author

Olivia Newport’s novels twist through time to find where faith and passions meet. Her husband and twentysomething children provide welcome distraction from the people stomping through her head on their way into her books. She chases joy in stunning Colorado at the foot of Pikes Peak.

More from Olivia

Careful Words

“You didn’t just say that.” Or, “I can’t believe you said that.”

Have you ever said that in retort to someone whose comment offended or wounded? I know I have. But what cuts me even more deeply is when I say to myself, “I can’t believe I just said that.”

The words of a parent at wit’s end, a spouse harboring hurt, a friend saddened by misunderstanding, an employee feeling undercut—they have all been my words. And they came out too fast to swallow back before they did their damage.

I hope I have also had the words of a parent who set aside busyness to listen, a spouse offering loving encouragement, a friend checking in with someone going through a tough patch, a coworker curious to see how I could help rather than compete. Those are the kinds of words I’ve never regretted, never had to repent of, never had to do rebuild from.

I certainly didn’t write What You Said to Me because I think I get it right all the time or even most of the time. Far from it! In our culture of rushing and achieving and—let’s face it, sometimes just getting through the demands of the day—sometimes our words are the last thing we are careful with. Yet they have the longest lasting consequence in our relationships and families—sometimes for generations. The dual-timeline story traces how words that injure became a pattern in one family line until one girl finally fought back to find healing for her future.

My challenge for myself, and all who read What You Said to Me, is to be the person who speaks healing words of hope so that “I can’t believe you said that” becomes “Thank you for saying that.”

If you have a particularly poignant experience of how another’s words impacted you, I’d love to hear from you.

Olivia Newport

My Thoughts

What you said to me is Book 4 in the Tree of life series. I have not read all the books, but I did not have any issues following along. The author is one of my most favorite authors to read. She was one of the first authors I discovered when I switched to reading mainly Christian books. This book also hit so hard to me. I grew up in a mentally, emotionally and verbally abusive household. Words that should never be spoken to your own children were said to me. As a mother myself, I am careful with how I speak to my children. It took a long time for me to be able to forgive those who spoke unhealthy things into my life. What is spoken to you over and over is what you start to believe.

This book weaves together the past and the present. It also shows that how bitterness can move from one generation to another. I know with myself and my story - I was the one that had to stand up and say THIS IS ENOUGH.

This book is the conclusion to the Tree of life series. We see Nolan and Jillian Duffy, a father daughter team, combine a lawyer and a professional genealogist together helping others. Nolan represents a young girl, Tisha who is caught shoplifting. He tries to help her get a lesser or no punishment. Nolan gets her assigned to help with his daughter, Jillian's major back log of genealogy files. Jillian is not thrilled with this idea. Tisha acts out and clashes over and over with Jillian.

Nolan and Jillian start to dig through Tisha's family history and we are transported back to 1893. This book does go back and forth between the two time periods - but the author has weaved it together seamlessly.

Well written characters, intriguing storyline. I love all the books that this author writes. I received a copy of this book through the Celebrate Lit blogging program - all thoughts are my own.