Author Judy Lundquist's debut novel follows a fifty-one-year-old woman who trades a stalled career and an uncertain romance for three months volunteering at a remote orphanage in Colombia, only to find that the journey changes her more than she ever expected.
MEADVILLE, PA — Fulton Books announces the release of Orphan Road: A Journey of Tragedy and Hope, the debut novel from author Judy Lundquist. Now available in paperback and digital, this captivating book introduces readers to Julie Summers, a former corporate IT professional whose layoff after two decades in the industry leaves her searching for a new direction in life. Lundquist, a self-described hopeless romantic, set out to write a story that blends romance and adventure with a deeper exploration of grief, guilt, and purpose. The result is a character-driven, suspense-filled journey where survival, morality, and consequence are constantly in play.
When Julie loses her IT job after twenty years and moves in with her adult daughter, she struggles to imagine what comes next. A whirlwind romance with a younger man, Chris, offers a welcome distraction, but it is her long-held dream of volunteering abroad that ultimately pulls her forward. Julie commits to three months at an orphanage in the small Colombian village of Bello, home to children left maimed and orphaned by the region's drug wars. There she forms an unlikely bond with a blind ten-year-old girl and her fiercely protective younger brother, learns from a village medicine man carrying his own history of loss, and confronts dangers she never anticipated — even as complications back home threaten the relationship she left behind. Her time in Bello forces her to reckon with old wounds from her own childhood while learning, slowly, to trust again.
With Orphan Road, Lundquist set out to write more than a romance — she wanted to capture the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of compassion, even in the face of tragedy. The novel examines how service to others can become a path back to oneself, and how healing often arrives in unexpected places and through unexpected people. Blending women's fiction, inspirational storytelling, and adventure, the book invites readers to consider what they might discover about themselves if they had the courage to step outside their comfort zone. “As I poured my heart into this story, I hoped to create a work that would inspire readers and touch their souls,” Lundquist has said of the novel.
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