True Love: 12 Christmas Stories, My True Love Gave to Me

by Ben Bongers

Let’s face it, life is messy and so are emotions. But, as Hellen Keller said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” This book was written with love, for someone the author loves, and who loves him in return. The twelve stories contain every emotion that we feel daily, but we’re too afraid to let out. They are offered in the hope that readers will give themselves permission to really feel. To laugh, to hope, and yes… to cry. What better time of life than the Holidays to open that little door to our hearts that we slam shut and lock most of the time.
 

Vinyl Laminate Hardback w/ Dust Jacket: $27.95 | Hardback – Case Laminate: $19.95 | Paperback: $14.95 | Kindle: $9.99

TESTIMONIALS

“CLEVER is the best word to describe Ben Bongers’ latest work True Love. The characters are well-defined and at the same time, intricately intertwined. You’ll never see around the corners Ben guides you through, but be sure to carry some tissues on this journey. Past and present come together in this heart-warming Christmas trip; it is not to be missed. God bless us, every one!” – Melissa Mader-Schaefer

True Love is a wonderful set of twelve stories that stick to your thoughts and hit you in the heart. Six geese a laying was a jewel for my imagination. Uncle Clayton and the author Ben Bongers took me on a memorable journey. Read them and see which stick in your mind and emotions.” – John Bergmann

True Love is a literary epiphany!” – Les Epstein, author Kip Divided & Sleep Cinematic: A Golem’s Quartet

True Love is a captivating read. It felt like I was seeing each story unfold before my eyes. All with a surprising and sometimes shocking twist, I felt was hard to put down.” – Courtney Boatwright, Graphic Designer, Illustrator

True Love is an uplifting collection of stories that transcend the common notion of the meaning of Christmas to embrace the best of the human condition the year ’round.” Janet Haddox

“I will never hear ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ without Ben’s inspiring stories from True Love playing through my head. Read them for Advent, or one a month throughout the year. And keep some Kleenex at hand. You’ll need it.” – Linda Ade Brand, Stage Director

“A new Christmas tradition has been born. Read this book with family around the fireplace, at bedtime, or if you simply need to be reminded of the spirit of the season. Year after year this will be at the center of many a holiday’s love and cheer.” – Dr. Erik Christianson, Ed.D.

“Witty and wise, knowing and tender, a new Christmas classic!” – Laurel Ann Winzler 

“No Sophomore slump here! In True Love, author Ben Bongers has followed up his brilliant debut novel THE SAINT NICHOLAS SOCIETY with a delightful and heartfelt take on ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ that draws one in from the very beginning. I look forward to seeing what the talented Ben Bongers will write next! Stay tuned!” – Bill McCarty

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ben Bongers was an international operatic tenor and sommelier for 30 years based in San Francisco, CA, and Germany and is now a Gerontologist. He has written for trade magazines in wine, singing, and is published in eldercare textbooks. Ben is currently studying for the Permanent Diaconate in Kansas City, MO, and is a Knight of Magisterial Grace in the Order of Malta. His first novel, The Saint Nicholas Society, was published by En Route Books and Media in 2022.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

​Courtney Boatwright is a Chicago-based graphic artist and designer. Her career in the graphics industry began 19 years ago as the in-house designer for a small, woman-owned business in Fairfax, California. She relocated to Chicago in 2006 to study graphic design in advertising. Born and raised in California, Courtney’s love of visual storytelling stems from her quirky, theatrical family and childhood. Fables, folklore and film, along with illustrated and sculpted narratives, fuel Courtney’s imagination and inspire the creative media with which she chooses to communicate her art. Currently, Courtney is the Senior Creative Manager for Skender, a process-driven construction firm.

 

OTHER CATHOLIC LITERARY WORKS

Maria’s Dynasty and Songs of her Family by George Luvisi

Maria’s Dynasty and Songs of her Family by George Luvisi

Maria's Dynasty and Songs of her Family by George Luvisi Amal, Maria's younger son, learns the profound cost of ambition and the loss of familial and moral grounding in the pursuit of material success. He realizes the value of love, relationships, and humility after...

read more
Vacation and Other Tales of Enduring Love by Glenn Morrow

Vacation and Other Tales of Enduring Love by Glenn Morrow

Vacation and Other Tales of Enduring Love by Glenn Morrow We are not meant to travel through our lives alone. These are tales of the sustaining power of love. Whether we are descending into the Grand Canyon on muleback or lost in Venice with absolutely no sense of...

read more
Center Camaraderie by Angelyn Spignesi Kopylec Arden

Center Camaraderie by Angelyn Spignesi Kopylec Arden

Center Camaraderie by Angelyn Spignesi Kopylec Arden In the first part of this book, Angelyn Spignesi Kopylec Arden, Ph.D., Psychologist and Professor Emeritus of Holy Apostles College and Seminary, summarizes, extends, and reflects upon...

read more
Things Beloved: Two Short Novels

Things Beloved: Two Short Novels

Things Beloved: Two Short Novels by Glenn Morrow The Better Boat Wandering the coast, 12-year-old Anthony comes upon a man kicking a sailboat. The derelict boat is stranded high on the shore, so the man sells it to Anthony for a dollar. In an idyllic Rhode Island...

read more
Nkar: The Village of Myths and Legends

Nkar: The Village of Myths and Legends

Nkar: The Village of Myths and Legends by Fr. Eugen Nkardzedze Fr Eugen Nkardzedze has provided a vindicating account of the juiciest myths and legends of Nkar that does justice to history, culture, religion, and the general anthropology of the people of Nkar. Very...

read more
Masters of Interior Space

Masters of Interior Space

So Shine is the debut album by brothersister  10 new original Catholic Christian songs Music & Lyrics by Fr. Lawrence Edward Tucker, SOLT“‘So Shine’ strikes an excellent balance between Catholic hymns and classic rock.” – Check out the review at Aleteia.orgMasters...

read more
A Sword Will Pierce by L. Blosser-Medley

A Sword Will Pierce by L. Blosser-Medley

A Sword Will Pierce by L. Blosser-Medley L. Blosser-Medley offers her readers a love story, showing the great love Mary has for God, always saying, "God's will be done" and doing His will, always trusting fully in Him. Our Blessed Mother became the first and most...

read more
Goat-Song and Other Stories by David Ross

Goat-Song and Other Stories by David Ross

Goat-Song and Other Stories by David Ross Goat-Song and Other Stories is a collection of one novella and two short stories. The novella, Goat-Song, concerns an exclusive theatrical production, and the two people involved, one alive, the other dead. One short story,...

read more
The Saint Nicholas Society by Ben Bongers

The Saint Nicholas Society by Ben Bongers

Ben Bongers reading from his book at Catholic Gifts and Books at 13397 Olive Blvd., Chesterfield, MO 63017. See https://catholicgiftsandbooks.com/The Saint Nicholas Society by Ben Bongers Fred went from having it all—the girl, the car, the mansion—to being on the...

read more
“Empty Nest” and Other Stories

“Empty Nest” and Other Stories

"Empty Nest" and Other Stories by Angelyn Spignesi Kopylec Arden The place of the dream, of the inner life that connects to others, where literature touches the unconscious, where Spirit moves and speaks through the material world, has a language and inherent meaning....

read more
Obsidian Mirth by Thom Brucie

Obsidian Mirth by Thom Brucie

Obsidian Mirth The characters in Thom Brucie’s Obsidian Mirth fall into a dilemma where loss and betrayal entangle the need for forgiveness and love. Their choices reveal what distinctions lie between knowing one’s self and knowing another, choices that expose that...

read more
Saynt Lachmi

Saynt Lachmi

Saynt Lachmi A young street child named Lachmi is whisked into prostitution, rescued, and led by her spirit and providence through the use of her extraordinary gifts to the brink of sainthood. The body, she shows us, is a prism, revealing through its gradations the...

read more
La Redención de San Isidro

La Redención de San Isidro

¡Una gran noticia! En los Premios de la Catholic Media Association (CMA), la edición original en inglés de... La Redención de San Isidro... ganó el tercer lugar en la categoría Novela Católica; también ganó el tercer lugar en la categoría de Mejor Portada.So Shine is...

read more
A Quienes El Corazón Decidió Amar

A Quienes El Corazón Decidió Amar

¡Una gran noticia! En los Premios de la Catholic Media Association (CMA), la edición original en inglés de... A Quienes el Corazón Decidió Amar... ganó el segundo lugar en la categoría Backlist Beauty.So Shine is the debut album by brothersister  10 new...

read more
Coda

Coda

Senator Bob HillCoda: American Politics, Personal Loss, and Recovery A Novel by Dick Bishirjian Senator Bob Hill (R-PA) is sentenced for involuntary manslaughter for an accident in which he was driving under the influence. Prior to completing his sentence in jail, the...

read more
The Rebirth of Nicodemus, authored by Rick Akins

The Rebirth of Nicodemus, authored by Rick Akins

Special congratulations to Rick for his being awarded third place in the 2020 Catholic Book Awards contest for best Catholic novel. The Rebirth of Nicodemus by Rick Akins As the Romans prepare to destroy Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 A.D., the Apostle John visits the...

read more
Children of the Breath: A Dialogue in the Desert

Children of the Breath: A Dialogue in the Desert

Children of the Breath: A Dialogue in the Desert by Martin Chervin Martin Chervin, Ronda’s husband, became a Catholic at the age of sixty, after decades of struggling with doubt. His way of resolving his doubt was to ponder the battle between Satan and Christ during...

read more
Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage

Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage

Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage by Ronda Chervin January 4, 1984 would be a day to remember for Margo Kemperdick. It began when the thirty-five year old woman walked out of her dilapidated, wooden frame row house in the South Bronx one morning to get her mail,...

read more
Sisters Karamazov

Sisters Karamazov

Sisters Karamazov by Natalie Karamazov “So what kind of a title is that Hmmph! The Sisters Karamazov? So you think you’re a female Dostoevsky? Isn’t that more than a little arrogant?” Let me explain. The idea for writing this fictionalized account of my life came in...

read more
Eye of the Tiber

Eye of the Tiber

Eye of the Tiber by S.C. Naoum Reporting Catholic news as it happens, when it happens, and before it happens, Eye of the Tiber has been delighting readers online since 2012. Now, it provides a book that can be thrown! The only news source brave enough to report...

read more
The Table

The Table

The Table by Dcn. Dennis Lambert First century Christianity and present-day musical aspirations meet in the story of a miracle table built by the grandfather of Jesus Christ.  The table is placed in the hands of a Centurion named Cornelius following the death of the...

read more
To Whom the Heart Decided to Love

To Whom the Heart Decided to Love

Great news! To Whom The Heart Decided To Love won 2nd place as a Backlist Beauty in the 2021 Catholic Media Awards!So Shine is the debut album by brothersister  10 new original Catholic Christian songs Music & Lyrics by Fr. Lawrence Edward Tucker, SOLT“‘So Shine’...

read more