About the Book

Book: Half Agony, Half Hope: Dear Lily Edition

Author: Joy Michelle Austin

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Release Date: March 17, 2026

Lily
Days before her wedding, Lily Wentworth’s carefully planned future is shaken by an unexpected turn. Unsure how to move forward, she turns to the one person she has always trusted—her father.

Rick
Determined not to let their darkest years define her, Rick Wentworth offers Lily the journals he wrote during the season he fought to keep her safe and survive one day at a time.

As Lily reads, she begins to uncover not only the truth of what they endured, but also the fierce, steady love that carried her through—and the strength she may need now.

Half Agony, Half Hope: The Dear Lily Edition is a clean, closed-door story of resilience, family, and the love that shaped two lives.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Joy Michelle Austin is an award-winning novelist writing contemporary fiction. Her debut found an immediate audience among readers drawn to heartfelt stories of healing and second chances, launching the Jane Austen’s Men series. She also wrote The Seaside Sleuths and the Bridal Batter Blunder, a cozy mystery tie-in project for young readers.

Joy draws inspiration from real stories of courage, grace, and the quiet heroes found in everyday life, crafting fiction for readers who seek hope, honesty, and heart in contemporary storytelling.

She is the recipient of the West Coast Christian Writers Encourager Award and the Walt Disney Legacy Award—an honor given to fewer than 1% of Cast Members worldwide for embodying Disney’s “Dream, Create, Inspire” legacy.

Through her blog, The Joyous Living, she connects with thousands of readers who share her love of culture, storytelling, and meaningful living. She lives in Southern California with her dog, Captain Hastings.

More from Joy

Half Agony, Half Hope was not a story I set out to write lightly.
It was an answer to a call God placed on my heart as a survivor of sexual assault—a call to tell the truth without exploiting it, and to create hope without diminishing the pain. From the beginning, I knew this would be a heavy debut novel. I also knew I wanted it to be clean, faith-centered, and redemptive.
The decision to tell this story through the eyes of a man was intentional. So few novels explore male survivors with compassion and dignity, yet one in six men are sexually assaulted. Their stories are often hidden, misunderstood, or minimized. Rick Wentworth’s journey exists to say plainly: healing is possible, faith is not erased by trauma, and masculinity is not diminished by suffering.
Because of the weight of Rick’s past, much of the abuse in Half Agony, Half Hope is veiled. I wanted readers to feel the truth of what he endured without being retraumatized themselves. Still, after the book released, readers told me they longed for more gentleness—more space to breathe inside the story.
That is how the Dear Lily Edition was born.
Lily was Rick’s hope and grace during the darkest years of his captivity. In the cellar, she was the reminder that love could still exist, that innocence could survive, and that God was not absent—even there. Their bond became the quiet heartbeat of the story: a wounded man learning how to hope again through the steady, healing love of a child.
At its core, Half Agony, Half Hope: Dear Lily Edition is a story of survival and faith—but it is also a story of a father and daughter choosing trust and hope despite hardship, and building a family where brokenness does not get the final word.

Interview with the Author

What does success as an author look like to you?

Success as an author, to me, is not defined first by sales or recognition, but by whether my words have encouraged someone to keep going when life feels heavy.

Both as a writer and a blogger, my hope has always been to inspire — not with easy answers, but with stories that remind readers that endurance matters, healing is possible, and hope is never wasted. If someone closes one of my books feeling strengthened, comforted, or a little less alone, then I know the story has done what it was meant to do.

I believe stories can gently meet people in places we often struggle to name — grief, resilience, faith, starting again — and offer quiet companionship there. That is a responsibility I carry with deep gratitude.

As a Christian, I also see writing as an act of stewardship. We are surrounded by narratives that rush past suffering or try to tidy it too quickly, yet Scripture shows us a God who meets people inside their hardest moments.

Success, for me, means writing with honesty about life’s fractures while still illuminating the steady presence of grace to both a secular and a Christian audience.

Of course, every author hopes their work reaches many readers. But even if a story finds its way to one heart at exactly the right time and helps that reader breathe a little easier, trust a little deeper, or hope a little longer — I would call that success.

Because if my writing encourages and inspires others to believe that light can still be found, even in difficult seasons, then I know I am walking faithfully in the calling I’ve been given.

What inspired this book?

The Dear Lily Edition was born from both a creative longing and a deeply personal place in my own life.

After writing my debut novel (Half Agony, Half Hope), I felt a strong desire to create a story that remained emotionally honest while also being accessible to more readers — one that was clean, closed-door, and ultimately anchored in hope. I wanted people to be able to step into Rick and Lily’s world without fear, and to come away encouraged rather than overwhelmed.

At its heart, this is a story about endurance, healing, and the quiet strength of love that refuses to give up.

Lily’s journey carries particular meaning for me. Her experience with suppressed memories was inspired, in part, by my own healing journey and the compassionate guidance of my late therapist, Mrs. Sandy Sanders. She was a remarkable presence in my life, and the support I received during that season helped shape the emotional truth behind these pages.

While the circumstances in the novel are fictional, the themes of restoration, safety, and being gently brought back into the light are very real to me.

More than anything, I wrote this book so that readers might encounter a story where pain is not ignored, but neither is hope — where even the most fragile beginnings can grow into something strong and lasting.

Which part of the book was the most difficult to write?

The most challenging pieces of this book to write were Rick’s letters.

They carry significant emotional weight, and I knew they needed to serve two audiences at once. For first-time readers, the letters had to stand on their own—clear, steady, and strong enough to invite them into Rick’s story. For readers familiar with the original trilogy, they needed to offer a deeper layer of hope and truth without simply echoing what had already been told.

Finding that balance required great care.

I was also intentional about honoring the truth of what Rick endured while keeping the letters clean and closed-door. My goal was never to soften his experience, but to approach it with restraint—allowing the emotional reality to be felt without unnecessary detail. Sometimes what is gently implied can carry more power than what is explicitly shown.

In many ways, the letters became the quiet heartbeat of the book. They allowed readers to witness not only Rick’s suffering, but his endurance, his growth, and the way hope slowly reenters his life.

One beta reader shared, “Once the letters begin, the compulsion to find out what Rick remembers and how Lily will respond kept me reading late more than once.” That response meant a great deal to me, because it confirmed what I had hoped—that the letters would draw readers forward, not through shock, but through emotional connection and care.

Those pages asked for precision, patience, and compassion—but stories that handle difficult themes with both honesty and hope can meet readers in a deeply meaningful way.

What is your favorite Bible verse or life verse?

My life verse has long been Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

There have been seasons in my life when that promise was not simply comforting — it was sustaining. During moments that felt uncertain, and even in chapters marked by deep personal hurt, this verse reminded me that God’s vision is always wider than what we can see in the present.

I have learned that hope is not always loud or immediate. Sometimes it is a quiet steadiness — the decision to trust that the story is still unfolding, even when the path looks very different from what we once imagined.

That perspective gently shaped parts of this novel as well. Without giving too much away, Lily’s journey reflects the growing confidence that our lives are not defined by timelines we thought we would follow, but by the faithfulness of God as He leads us forward. There is a strength that comes from releasing our expectations and discovering that His plans are often kinder than our own.

Jeremiah 29:11 continues to anchor me in that truth: that no season is wasted, no detour is meaningless, and that hope is never misplaced when it is placed in Him.

Describe your view as you’re sitting in your writing chair.

I love to change up my writing environment, so I actually have three favorite spots where stories tend to unfold.

The first is my bedroom, where a comfortable chair and an impossibly inviting bed create the kind of quiet that welcomes deep focus. More often than not, my view includes my beloved rescue dog, Captain Hastings Alyosha, faithfully curled up at my feet. He has been part of my life for nine wonderful, healing years, and his steady presence is its own kind of companionship during long writing days.

Captain Hastings even found his way, in a small but meaningful sense, into my fictional world. He inspired Lily’s rescue dog — a Christmas gift in The Weight of Prejudice, the second book in the Jane Austen’s Men trilogy — which felt only fitting, as stories often borrow from the places that have loved us well.

My other favorite space is what I affectionately call my office-cum-lounge — a cozy corner with both a loveseat and a desk chair, depending on what the day calls for. A beautiful window overlooks my street and allows for one of my favorite quiet pastimes: people-watching. There is something endlessly inspiring about observing the ordinary rhythms of life — neighbors passing by, conversations unfolding, the gentle movement of a day — all reminders that every person carries a story.

Wherever I choose to sit, I try to create a space that feels peaceful and welcoming. For me, writing flows best in places that invite reflection and imagination… ideally with a loyal dog keeping watch nearby.