After volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center, Kennedy Stern finds herself a pawn in a deadly game of intrigue, at the mercy of those who consider a few innocent lives a small ransom to pay for victory.

(Be sure to see below to get your own pre-release copy of Unplanned before it hits the bookstores.)

Kennedy Stern from Unplanned has been one of my favorite characters to date for a number of reasons.

Everyone around Kennedy knows that she’s driven. She graduated at the top of her class in high school, which landed her a spot in Harvard’s elite program for pre-med students. All Kennedy has to do is keep her grades up as an undergrad, and she’s guaranteed admission into Harvard Medical School once she graduates. Her perfectionism has worked in her favor until now, but it might also prove one of her biggest character flaws.

Something I find very endearing about Kennedy is that she’s not always pining after some boy. She has her goals, she has her life plans, and she’s not going to swoon over the first guy who pays attention to her. I have to admit I admire this about her, since I was admittedly horrible at being single.

Even when she’s trying to solve the mystery of the hotline phone or praying for God to protect her from those who want to keep her from finding that mystery out, Kennedy struggles with feelings of of isolation and homesickness. It’s something many college students experience their first time living away from home, but Kennedy’s case is even more pronounced. Not only is she a dozen time zones away from “home,” she finds herself a cultural outcast. She grew up as a missionary kid in China, where she never felt that she belonged, but when she gets to Harvard, she realizes just how different she is from her peers who grew up exclusively in the US. Hers is a struggle typical of missionary kids, sometimes called third-culture kids because they always seem stuck between their home culture and the host culture of the country they live in.

Some of my favorite scenes to write about Kennedy were the ones in which she’s struggling with her own spirituality. Her parents are missionaries to China, and they train North Korean refugees. When Kennedy compares herself to the underground missionaries she knows (like Simon and Hannah from the novel Torn Asunder), Kennedy believes she won’t measure up to anyone. Her parents were so focused on their ministry in China that Kennedy was left to flounder quite a bit. The scenes that show Kennedy’s struggle with her own spiritual walk make me sad for her as a character, but they also make me excited because she has so much room for growth in books to come (and yes, there will be plenty more books about Kennedy, Lord-willing).

After volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center, Kennedy Stern finds herself a pawn in a deadly game of intrigue, at the mercy of those who consider a few innocent lives a small ransom to pay for victory.

(Be sure to see below to get your own pre-release copy of Unplanned before it hits the bookstores.)

It’s always fun to learn how much of themselves authors put into their characters. For Alana Terry, it can be a whole lot! In her new Christian suspense series, the main character Kennedy Stern is a lot like Alana was in college. They both were in school in the Boston area, they both were pre-med students, and they both loved Russian literature. Watch the four-minute video to learn about even more similarities.

Unplanned is the newest Christian suspense novel from award-winning author, Alana Terry. PRE-ORDER the ebook today, fill out the form below, and receive:

• a pre-release copy of Unplanned (no waiting for launch day)
• the Unplanned Bonus Materials (go behind-the-scenes with deleted scenes, bloopers, character studies, and more!)
• 30 Days of Prayer to End Abortion devotional
• an exclusive 20-minute video from the author answering readers’ frequently asked questions (includes  the story of the mysterious phone call Alana received that was the basis for the novel)

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