Heidi Gray McGill Books In Order

Publication Order of Shumard Oak Bend Books

Publication Order of You Are on the Air Books

Heidi Gray McGill is a Christian contemporary romance and historical fiction author that is best known for her “Shumard Oak Bend,” series of novels. She is also the retired Founder and Director of an ESL program.

While it has for a long time been hard for her to say, she is legally blind and walks with a white can when she is out and about. In 2001, she was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmetosa, a rare eye disease and she could not have been more devastated.

Still, Heidi is an optimist and found the silver ling and says her condition just made her stronger.

She has been known to weave scripture seamlessly into the lives of her characters that will encourage and uplift her readers. She is also a master storyteller that always keeps her readers turning the pages wanting more.

Heidi currently makes her home in Charlotte North Carolina where she lives with a husband that whom she has been with for more than three decades.
When she is not writing her blockbuster novels, she can usually be found outside walking up to 12 miles a week. She also loves to read, scrapbook, cook, and travel with her girlfriends.

McGill was brought up in a pastor’s home and from very early on adopted a Christian life. However, she did not at that time have the deep heart commitment of having a personal relationship with Christ.

She has said that she was the joy of her parents’ lives and she always worked hard to make her mother and father proud. Heidi was never rebellious and did not struggle to keep the laws of God.

She also wanted to never disappoint her earthly father. The biggest problem was that she was doing the wrong thing in trying to please her earthly father.
She grew up to become a married woman with a child and a staunch member of a Christian congregation.

But it was her mentee who she met in the church that challenged her faith. She made her realize that she had been living a life of rules rather than following a savior.

Heidi then knew that she had to write Christian answers in her heart rather than simply knowing them. She now lives her life for Christ and desires only to please him.

Heidi shares her Christian faith in her writing through her well-fleshed out characters that show that living in faith in Christ can result in tremendous fulfillment and peace.

Even though Heidi Gray McGill has grown up to become quite a prolific author, reading was not something that she loved as a child. She may have read a book here and there while in college and high school but it was never her thing.

During this time, she was too engrossed in schoolwork to have any time for reading fiction. But everything changed when her children started reading and she found that she liked the simplicity of their stories.

As her children grew older, she started reading more of their required readings as she got more into their lives and understood where they were in life.
McGill got into the classics when her children hit middle school. It was also during this time that she realized that she was not too fond of mystery and science fiction works, nor anything that has foul language or on-page sex.

When she became a born-again Christian, she recognized how impressionable she could be. As such, she pivoted to Christian fiction, and soon after she got into Christian fiction writing.

Heidi published “Desire of My Heart,” her debut novel in 2020.

Heidi Gray McGill’s novel “Desire of My Heart” is the story of Rachel whose greatest desire is to have a family.
The story goes back to 1858 where Rachel is just about to become too old for the orphanage she had been living in. But she is still just a shy girl who does not know how to survive in the harsh world outside.

She listens terrified as the matron tells her that she will be sold to the highest bidder who will marry her. She asks God to intervene and prays that she will find a way to escape alongside Charlie her younger brother.

God answers her prayers and sends a liberator as she gets the seed of an idea. This sets in motion an adventure that will result in heartbreak and happiness and almost cost her her health.

Rachel runs into trouble and slams right into it that many wonder if she will ever come out of it in one piece. Together with her brother, they face sorrow and danger but this all makes them grow in their faith.

They might just come to the realization that God may have even bigger plans for them.

“With All My Heart” by Heidi Gray McGill introduces a woman and her kid nicknamed Little Sun and Singing Bird. The latter has always struggled with accepting the love she desperately desires.

On the other hand, Pete is a man who craves commitment and a future. To accept God’s will for his life he may just have to lose the woman he has loved for the longest time.

Meanwhile, Singing Bird has to hide from those that would harm her and her kid and they survive by sheer grit.

The two find refuge in the only place where the mother has always felt protected, appreciated, and welcomed. But in doing so, she finds herself in the vicinity of Pete the man she has been trying to forget for years.

Pete is interested in having a family and when she comes back o him his hope could not have been more rejuvenated. Still, he somehow cannot find any happiness or love which just seems always out of his reach.

It is a story full, of turns and twists that make one realize how people are alike in their resistance to change even when it would be good for them.

Heidi Gray McGill’s novella “Deep in My Heart” is the story of Mary and Melvin who go on an unexpected journey as God leaves them on an interesting journey of faith.
Melvin has chosen to leave his entire inheritance behind while Mary decides to give up something that is even more precious.

Melvin Trexler has always known that slavery is despicable. But his father wants him to get involved in the running of their family plantation. He decides the only course of action he can take is to move his new family and his future to the Midwest.

Still, his wife is not so eager to leave everything behind but will not go against the vow of loyalty she had made to him. She knows that God will always be with them and everything will turn out fine in the end.