Designs for Nora

Designs for Nora
Friday, September 26, 2025 by Karen H. Richardson

Categories: Friday's Fiction / GUEST AUTHORS / Reviews and Interviews

PLEASE WELCOME

KAREN H. RICHARDSON

FICTION FRIDAY

THE AUTHOR’S STORY

Faith and encouragement carry us through what life throws our way

Enrich – Encourage – Empower. We hear these three words echo across social media and news feeds. These words can divide as easily as they can connect us. When God created woman, He gave her a marvelous capacity for loving, nurturing, and serving. Women, in their willing devotion to those they love, can find themselves defined by their roles, leaving them with a sense of lost identity. She is someone’s wife, mother, aunt, friend, when she really wants to be herself.

Karen’s books recognize these wonderful traits God created in women. Her stories refresh the reader by allowing them to see the triumph their characters achieve over feelings of restlessness, loss, and emptiness. The Oakdale Collection features novels with strong female protagonists who face struggles of the heart that spill over into their relationships.

In her latest Oakdale novel, Designs for Nora, the reader is taken on a journey from the depths of Nora St. Claire’s sorrow to a renewed sense of life and love. Karen develops her storylines and themes from firsthand experiences. Over the last ten years, Karen has experienced the loss of several people close to her. While not as dramatic as what Nora experiences, the emotions are authentic. Loss brings grief. Grief takes time to heal from; time that cannot be rushed. Throughout the journey, God is faithful to guide, protect, and love. He brings peace to the storms life delivers.

Enrich, encourage, and empower show up in different forms – renewal, redemption, and rediscovery. Existence in the world today can be so stress-filled and crisis-driven. Karen’s goal in writing is to use real emotions in a positive way to demonstrate how, through it all, believers find their happy ending in Christ.

Excerpt from Designs for Nora

The last box was packed. Eve had chosen a few of her mother’s personal items to keep. They took her clothing to the women’s shelter. The rest was put in storage to go through at another time.

Nora looked at the time on her phone. “Oh, you’ve got to get cleaned up for lunch with your friends. Are you okay with me wrapping things up here after I drop you off?” Nora continued to be hypersensitive to Eve’s feelings.

“Yes, but … but can we stop by before we leave town?”

Nora smiled at her niece. Was it her imagination, or had Eve matured in the last several weeks? She had been outside the hospital door when her mother coded. She held up well with the funeral director and had the will and financial business explained to her. Now she had packed all her mother’s worldly belongings. Experiences no teen should have to go through, Eve had done so with grace.

“Sure.” Nora’s phone buzzed. It was Curt. She declined the call. But not before Eve saw the caller’s name.

“What does he want?”

You.

MORE ABOUT DESIGNS FOR NORA

How much loss can one woman take? Six years ago, Nora St. Claire’s husband, Seth, a police officer, was killed. While deeply in love with her soulmate, their marriage had been strained by miscarriages and infertility. Nora never expected to be a widow at 37. In Designs for Nora, Nora experiences more loss after trying to rebuild her life. When her niece’s estranged father shows up demanding visitation, Nora considers what it means to forgive the one person who brought tremendous pain to her family. Nora’s situation allows her to experience God’s renewing spirit in a way she never expected.

Oakdale Novels: Curtains for Maggie and Designs for Nora are available on Amazon.

ABOUT KAREN H. RICHARDSON

Karen Richardson has one goal: to make an impact. With a deep faith and a strong work ethic, she crafts fiction that encourages and empowers readers to overcome life’s challenges. The themes of rediscovery, renewal, and refreshment are central to her women’s fiction series, the Oakdale Collection. Her debut novel, Curtains for Maggie, was published in 2023 and achieved #1 ranking on Kindle within its genre. The second book in the collection, Designs for Nora, was published in 2025. In addition to her novels, Karen has published several articles and maintains a blog called KK’s Candor. When she is not writing, Karen enjoys gardening, playing pickleball, and reading. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and soulmate, Jay. She cherishes her time with family, which includes her grown son, Cole, and daughter-in-law, Erin.

Connect with her on social media:

Facebook: @KHRAuthor

Instagram: @KHRAuthor

X: @KHRAuthor

Website: KHRAuthor.com

MY REVIEW *****

Romance, suspense, personal tragedy, family friction, and emotional struggles, as well as great character arcs. This book has it all.

I liked the way the author combined the above with each character’s development. Nora, after surviving the loss of her beloved husband, now deals with a sister’s death. Not only does this bring back past grief, but Nora has been assigned as guardian for her sister’s teenage daughter. Add to the mix the appearance of her sister’s long-lost, alcoholic husband, Eve’s father, and the uncertainty of a budding romance. Will Jim accept Nora with the added responsibility of a teenager?

Jim has to deal with tension with his parents and a new threat to a promising romance.

Eve not only lost her only parent, but she also has to move to a new town. Add the threat from a father she doesn’t remember.

Curt, Eve’s father, has a renewed interest in his daughter, whom he has not seen in many years. He must decide if he can “clean up his act” to obtain visitation rights. What is his true motive, anyway?

Share This Blog: