Another Kind of Hero

The novel Another Kind of Hero features a young Roman Catholic priest, Vincent Dwyer, who  after completing his seminary studies in the turbulent mid-1960’s, follows his vocation in the footsteps of three uncles who became priests in the same diocese a generation before. Newly assigned as an associate for a veteran pastor at his boyhood parish, he encounters Julie Leffert, a distraught parishioner and a young mother of six children, one windswept night when she arrives at the rectory seeking counseling for her troubled marriage. In the course of assisting this attractive but distressed woman, Vincent  realizes that he is falling in love with her and her large brood of children. Responding to what he sees as a greater calling to marry Julie and help her raise her children, he leaves the priesthood to follow what he now feels is his true vocation. Intra-familial conflicts and many trials ensue as he undertakes a long, difficult journey with his newfound family.