Only You, Sierra/In Your Dreams/Don't You Wish (The Sierra Jensen Series 1-3) (Sierra Jensen Collection, Volume 1) [Hardcover]

Robin Jones Gunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006

Happenstance…or God’s Great Plan?

She’s the bold, free-spirited type. She’s cute, she’s fun, and she’s following God. She’s Sierra Jensen, Christy Miller’s good friend, ready for her junior year of high school! All twelve books in the popular Sierra Jensen series come together in four volumes to reveal the ups and downs of Sierra’s incredible God-led journey!

Volume One: In Only You, Sierra, she’s nervous to be the “new girl” after her family moves to Portland and wonders if meeting Paul in London was only by chance. Just when everything important seems to elude her, all it takes is one weekend In Your Dreams to prove otherwise. But even a vacation doesn’t keep her troubles away in Don’t You Wish.

Christy Miller knows a good friend when she meets her,

and so will you—

Get ready for Sierra Jensen!

Only You, Sierra

The Europe mission trip brought Sierra Jensen the best gift possible: two new friends, Katie and Christy. But now Sierra is headed home, and she can’t help but wonder will her friendships last? And what about her new home? Her family moved while she was gone, and that means facing a new high school. And the biggest question of all: Will she ever find love? Then a chance meeting in a London airport answers that question. Paul makes her heart leap. But she’ll never see him again! Or will she?

In Your Dreams

Sierra has had it! She’s done everything she can to find the right job, good friends, and most important, true love. But nothing is working out. Now she has to stay home to care for her grandmother. By herself. For the whole weekend! It will be terrible. But a series of startling surprises shows Sierra just how wrong she is—and before she knows it, she’s on her way to the perfect job, her first real date, and an encounter with a mysterious stranger.

Don’t You Wish

Sierra has three wishes: visit her California friends; have her older sister, Tawni, disappear; and learn more about the mysterious stranger. When Easter break arrives, Sierra’s first wish comes true! She’s headed to Newport Beach for fun, sun, and surf. Unfortunately, not only does Tawni not disappear, she accompanies Sierra on her escape. What’s worse, everyone has a boyfriend except Sierra. But will her wishes begin to change as she realizes God wants to mold her according to His wishes?

Story Behind the Book

“After writing the twelve-book Christy Miller series for teens, a new character showed up on the pages of the final novel. Her name was Sierra Jensen, and she was so compelling as a teenage character that readers began asking for a series about Sierra in order to hear more about her life choices. Our family had just moved to Portland at the time, and I found it easy to picture a sixteen-year-old like Sierra shopping at the local vintage clothing stores, hanging out with friends at a garage band concert, and serving at the homeless shelter on weekends.”

—Robin Jones Gunn

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robin Jones Gunn is a God-lover who can’t stop telling stories. And by the way, she’s still crazy about her husband after twenty-eight years and confesses their two kids turned out pretty good only because of the extravagant grace poured out on their family.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

one


SIERRA JENSEN GAZED out the train window at the cold, wet English countryside. In an hour she and her friends would be back at Carnforth Hall with the other ministry teams that had spent the past week in various European countries. She wedged her hands between her crossed legs, trying to warm them against her jeans. Endless pastures, frosted with winter’s ice, flashed past her window. Sierra let out a sigh.

“What are you thinking?” Katie asked, uncurling from her comfy position on the train seat next to Sierra. Katie’s red hair swished as she tilted her head to make eye contact with Sierra. Even though Katie was two years older than Sierra and they had met only two weeks ago, they had become close during the week they had just spent together in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

“About going back to the States,” Sierra said. Her silver, dangling earrings chimed as she turned to Katie and smiled her wide, easy smile, but she was really looking past Katie. In the seat across the aisle from them, their team leader, Doug, was sitting next to his girlfriend, Tracy.

“This whole trip went too fast.” Katie folded her arms and settled back against the upholstered seat. “I’m not ready to go home yet.”

“I know,” Sierra agreed. “Me neither.” She noticed that Doug was now slipping his arm across the back of the seat. Tracy slid closer to him.

“I’d like to come back,” Katie said. “Maybe next summer.”

“Me too,” Sierra said, watching Tracy snuggle up to Doug.

“It would be great if out whole team could be together again for another trip.”

“Me too,” Sierra said. Tracy was tilting her heartshaped faced toward Doug’s, giving him a delicate smile that, by the look on his face, was melting him to the core.

“What do you mean, ‘me too’? Of course you would be on the team.” Katie looked over her shoulder to see what had distracted Sierra. Turning back to Sierra, Katie leaned forward and quietly said, “Don’t they just make you sick?”

“Katie,” Sierra said in a hushed voice, “I thought you guys were all best friends and had been for years–you, Doug, Tracy, and Christy. Why would it make you sick to see those two together?”

“We’re all best friends. It’s just…well, look at them! They’re totally in love.”

“I know,” Sierra said, casting another quick glance at the couple who were now talking softly and looking deeply into each other’s eyes. “I can’t imagine ever being in Tracy’s place and having a guy look at me like that.”

“Are you kidding?” Katie pulled back and let her bright green eyes do a quick head-to-toe scan of Sierra. “Have you ever looked in a mirror, girl? First, you have the hair going for you. You have great hair! Wild, blond, curly. Very exotic.”

“Haven’t you noticed?” Sierra said, tugging at a curly loop of her long hair. “Straight, sleek hair happens to be in right now.”

“Oh sure, this week. Wait a few days. Everyone will be running out for perms so they can look just like you. And your smile happens to be award-winning, in case you didn’t know. Blue-gray eyes that change with the weather are also quite popular. A few freckles. That’s good. Fantastic clothes, all very original. And I don’t ever want to hear you complain about your body.”

“What body? I’m shaped like a tomboy.”

“Better to be shaped like a tomboy than a fullback.”

“You’re not shaped like a fullback,” Sierra protested.

“Okay, a halfback.”

“You’re both beautiful,” Stephen, the German guy on their team, inserted into the conversation. He was sitting directly across from them and had appeared to be sleeping.

Sierra felt her cheeks blush, realizing Stephen had overheard their conversation. He was the oldest one of their group, and his beard added to his older appearance.

“Why do women find it a sport to criticize themselves to their friends?” Stephen asked, leaning forward and taking on the tone of a counselor. “You both are gorgeous young
women on the outside and fantastically beautiful here,” he patted his heart, “where it really counts.”

“Then you tell us why all the guys aren’t falling at our feet,” Katie challenged.

“Is that what you want?” Stephen asked, and in an uncharacteristic move, tumbled to the floor and bowed at their feet.

Sierra burst out laughing.

“Get out of here!” Katie said. “You’re making this a joke, and I’m serious.”

Stephen returned to his seat, a satisfied little grin across his usually serious face.

“You’re a guy; tell us what you’re attracted to in a girl,” Katie said.

Stephen took a quick look at Tracy and then back at Sierra and Katie. “Well,” he began, but it was too late. His unspoken message seemed clear. Katie threw her hands up in the air. “I knew it! You don’t have to say anything. You men are all alike! You all say it’s the personality and what’s on the inside that counts. But the truth is your first choice every time is the Tracy-type, the sweet, helpful, cute ones. Admit it! There’s little hope in this world for the few individualists like Sierra and me.”

“On the contrary. You’re both very attractive. To the right man, you will be a treasure. You just need to wait on God.”

“I know, I know,” Katie said. “And until then, we have our own little club, don’t we, Sierra?”

Sierra remembered when she and Katie had formed the Pals Only Club at the beginning of their trip. She slapped Katie a high five and said, “P.O. forever!”

“That’s right,” Katie said. “We may have lost Tracy, but it’s you, me, and Christy from here on out.”

“You women do not need a little club,” Stephen said. “Perhaps a caveman with a big club might be helpful…”

Instead of laughing at his joke, the girls gave Stephen a tandem groan and twisted their expressions into unappreciative scowls. He folded his arms against his chest, closed
his eyes, and pretended to go back to sleep. But a crooked grin was on his lips.

“Come on,” Katie said. “Let’s get something to drink.”

Sierra followed her down the rocking aisle that led to the back of the train car. They passed through the sliding doors and headed for the compact snack bar at the end of the next car. After buying Cokes, they stood to the side by the closed windows.

“Guys like Stephen really bug me,” Katie said. “First they’re all sweet and full of compliments, and then they make stupid jokes. You never know if they’re serious about all the nice stuff or not.”

“I think he meant it,” Sierra said, shifting her weight from one foot to another. She was wearing her favorite old cowboy boots that she had worn for most of the trip. They
were actually her dad’s old leather boots. Very authentic. She had found them in the garage last summer when they were cleaning out stuff for a garage sale. Her mom had wanted to sell them and said, “I can’t believe we still have these old boots! Howard wore them on our first date.”

That’s when Sierra knew they couldn’t be cast off to some stranger at a garage sale. She tried them on, and to her amazement, they fit. She had worn them constantly ever since, much to her mother’s dismay.

“Enough talk about guys,” Katie said. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“It’ll be great to see all the other teams tonight and hear about everything that happened to them.”

“Yeah.” Katie agreed. “I can’t wait to hear about Christy’s week in Spain.”

“I still can’t believe they pulled her off our team at the last minute and sent her all the way to Spain after the rest of the Spanish team had already left. I don’t think I could have done what she did, traveling all by herself for two days and then joining up with a team of people she barely knew.”

“It’s like I kept saying,” Katie said, making a muscleman pose. “She is Missionary Woman.”

Sierra smiled. “I felt as if I was just getting closer to her, and then they shipped her off on a moment’s notice. It must have been even harder for you to see her leave like that, since you guys have been best friends for so long.” “I’m sure it was a God-thing.” Katie finished her drink and tossed her can into the bin marked “rubbish” as if she were shooting a basketball into a hoop. She made the shot and with two fingers gave herself a score of “two points” in
the air.

Sierra finished her Coke and aimed her can at the rubbish bin. Her shot banked off the side. When she scooped it up, Katie said, “Try it again.” Sierra did. This time she made it.

“All right!” Katie said, slapping a low five behind her back. “We’re unstoppable.”

Sierra thought about how much had happened during their week of ministry at the church in Belfast. Sierra and Katie had worked with the children, performed in a drama group, gone out street witnessing, prayed with teenagers when they said they wanted to give their lives to God, and had visited some elderly women of the church who treated them to tea and cakes. It had been a life-changing experience for Sierra, a...

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Publishers; First Edition edition (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590525884
• ISBN-13: 978-1590525883
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.3 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

You are warmly invited to visit Robin's website at www.robingunn.com. Be sure to sign up for the Robin's Nest Newsletter and have a browse in the Online Shop.

Over the past 25 years Robin has written 70 books with over 4 million copies sold.

She started writing for teens when the girls in her church youth group challenged her to write stories for them. It took 2 years and 10 rejections before the first Christy Miller novel was published in 1988. Since then the tales of these Forever Friends have continued. The Christy Miller series was followed by the Sierra Jensen series, Christy and Todd the College Years and the Katie Weldon series.

As Robin's readers grew older they asked for more stories about characters their age. The 8 book Glenbrooke series was launched followed by the Sisterchicks(R) series and a variety of standalone destination novels including "Under a Maui Moon" and "Canary Island Song".

Join Robin Jones Gunn on her facebook public figure page where she frequently posts updates on her latest travel or writing adventure.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A satisfying read!, July 6, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Only You, Sierra/In Your Dreams/Don't You Wish (The Sierra Jensen Series 1-3) (Sierra Jensen Collection, Volume 1) (Hardcover)

This collection includes the first three books in the Sierra Jensen series written by Robin Jones Gunn.

Only You, Sierra introduces sixteen-year-old Sierra. Flying home from a mission trip in the UK, Sierra has met several new friends, including Katie and Christy, who readers of Robin's Christy Miller series will recognize. Normally outgoing and adventurous, Sierra is surprised to feel anxiety about her family's move to Portland, Oregon during the time she was away. A new home, new school, and potential new love interest challenge Sierra to reevaluate beliefs about herself that she has long taken for granted.

In Your Dreams finds Sierra watching over Granna Mae for a few days while her family is out of town. While it's difficult for Sierra to see her Granna's memory come and go, what seems to be a simple responsibility becomes more than Sierra bargains for when Granna Mae receives a call saying she needs immediate surgery. Meanwhile, Sierra tries to find a part-time job and wonders why, when she was the most popular girl at her old school, she is having such a difficult time making new friends in Portland.

Don't You Wish takes Sierra and her sister Tawni to spend Easter break at the beach with Christy, Katie, and their friends. When Tawni hits it off immediately with Jeremy, and even Katie pairs off with Antonio, an Italian exchange student, Sierra struggles with being jealous and feeling left out. She wants a boyfriend too. She tries to have fun and even learns to surf. But when Sierra witnesses Christy and Todd, to her the perfect couple, going through a difficult time in their relationship, she realizes everyone has struggles in their life. And she learns, as 1 Tim 6:6 states, that godliness with contentment is the greatest gain.

"Have you ever felt as if you were caught between two lives? The one you're living, and the one you wish you were living?" Sierra asks Christy.

Armchair Interviews says: Readers of all ages will understand Sierra's feelings and be ministered to by the timeless truths God reveals to her throughout this collection.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book., February 29, 2008

By 

A Teens Review "A Teens Review" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Only You, Sierra/In Your Dreams/Don't You Wish (The Sierra Jensen Series 1-3) (Sierra Jensen Collection, Volume 1) (Hardcover)

I loved this book. I will admit though, when I firt started reading it. I was thinking 'This book is going to be soo boring' But, the more I was reading it. The more I found I loved it. For any christian girl, or even a girl who wants to learn more about god. This would be an awesome book for them. It deals with a lot of the things that teen girls deal with. And the way Sierra Jensen handles all the things that are thrown at her, is awesome. She can turn and awful mistake, into a chance for god to use her.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lessons learned, November 10, 2011

By 

Chrystal Mahan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sierra Jensen Collection, Vol 1 (Kindle Edition)

All books are intended for young adult readers. Being 36 years old, I would have to say that even as an adult I found them a lot of fun to read. I really like how they all have growing, coming of age, life lessons written in such a manner that many can related and understand. I think a lot of young adults can learn a lesson or two from these books.