Author Interview: Lara Silverman

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Singing Through Fire by Lara Silverman, J.D., hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

I’ve been reviewing a lot of romance stories. We all love reading stories of two people falling in love and living happily ever after. But what happens when the happily ever after doesn’t go exactly the way you wanted it?

Singing Through Fire is a romantic memoir of a couple who met in a hospital as both of them fought for their lives. It’s a real life story of true love, and I’m honored to interview author Lara Silverman and get a behind the scenes look at their tragic love story.

What was your life like prior to collapsing on the job?
Before everything came crashing down, I was running at full speed—working long hours as a young attorney in a big law firm, chasing success, and checking all the boxes I thought would make life meaningful. I loved my job, my friends, and my church, but I had very little margin for rest. When I suddenly collapsed at work, it felt like my whole identity and future disappeared overnight.

How did God use your illness to change your life?
My illness forced me to face what I had been avoiding: that my worth wasn’t in my career, productivity, or health. Being bedridden for years stripped everything away, but it also gave me a front-row seat to God’s presence in the fire. He didn’t leave me in the ashes—He met me there. Through pain and loss, I began to learn that suffering isn’t wasted, that God has a purpose even when we can’t see it, and that joy is possible even in grief.

How did you meet Matthew?
I met Matt in the most unexpected way—while I was at my lowest strictly bedridden on a bed in one room, and while he was fighting his own terminal cancer. He reached out with compassion and encouragement, and what started as a handful of phone calls turned into daily conversations full of wisdom, laughter, and a depth I had never experienced. It wasn’t the love story I had imagined for my life, but it became the most romantic and beautiful gift I could have received.

Tell us about your love story.
Our love story was written in the margins of medical charts, hospital visits, and late-night phone calls. Matt was a brilliant PhD/professor, a youth pastor, and one of the most joyful people I’d ever met, even in the middle of his own suffering.

Together we learned how to laugh when nothing made sense, how to make music when our bodies were broken, and how to cling to God when the future was uncertain. It was raw, unlikely, and breathtakingly beautiful—a love that felt more like grace than chance.

What led you to write about your experience?
Writing this memoir wasn’t something I set out to do at first. It was born when God explicitly called me to write it two months after my husband died. I couldn’t deny the nudge.

Throughout this eight-year journey, I had already written most of it down in some sense: in the darkest nights, I scribbled prayers, questions, and glimpses of hope in my journals. So by the time I wrote the full memoir, I knew what God was calling me to share.

I wrote Singing Through Fire because I wanted others in deep suffering to know they’re not alone, and that even in the hardest places, God is present, working, and writing beauty in the ashes.

What do you hope readers will get from reading Singing Through Fire?
I hope readers will walk away with a deeper sense of God’s presence in their own fires. My prayer is that they’ll see their pain isn’t meaningless, that God has an eternal purpose even when the outcome isn’t what we long for, and that joy is not just for the mountaintops but also for the valleys. I want readers to feel less alone in their questions and more anchored in hope that God is still good—even in suffering.

Anything else you’d like to share?
If I could leave readers with one thought, it would be this: your story, no matter how broken, can still sing. God is not finished with you, and He can write beauty even from the hardest chapters. That’s why I wrote Singing Through Fire—to remind us all that love, hope, and joy can rise even in the middle of grief, because we serve a God who never wastes our suffering.

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About the Book

Singing Through Fire invites readers into the Job-like true story of a young woman who loses everything —and dares to ask why a good God allows it.

When Stanford Law graduate Lara Palanjian collapses on her dream job, she never imagines it will lead to four years bedridden—or to the love of her life.

Enter Matthew Silverman: a witty, wise, and impossibly joyful youth pastor and professor facing terminal cancer. What begins with a few random encounters soon ignites an extraordinary, God-written love story that neither of them saw coming.

As their unlikely romance unfolds between medical crises, late-night laughter, and unexpected musical performances, Matthew’s unshakable faith challenges everything Lara thinks she knows about God’s goodness—and what it means to walk with Christlike faith, resilience, and joy in the face of overwhelming grief and suffering.

But with time against them, one question looms louder than the rest: What if this gift is only for a moment?

Shockingly funny and spiritually rich, Singing Through Fire is a modern-day Job meets Lucille Ball. It explores what it means to suffer, love, and even laugh and make music while your life is burning down around you. It eloquently gives voice to the aching questions many sufferers quietly carry—then takes readers inside the breathtaking story of two people who found miraculous love and defiant joy amid heartbreaking loss.

It reveals how God can use even our deepest pain to write the most beautiful love stories—even on the cusp of eternity.

PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

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About the Author

Lara Silverman is a Christian author, lawyer, jazz singer, comedic actress, and violinist. She holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A. in both Economics and Political Science from UC Berkeley, where she was one of six finalists for the University Medal, Berkeley’s highest academic distinction. Before falling seriously ill in 2018, Lara worked for two federal judges and practiced high stakes litigation for three years at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, where she specialized in intellectual property, antitrust, and contract cases of all kinds.

In 2023, Lara co-founded The Silverman Show—a multifaceted comedy, music, and theology show—and released her debut jazz/pop album as her own music producer in February 2024, even while bedridden. In September 2024, she debuted as Mrs. Serious in her solo Armenian comedy show online. Lara’s writing has been featured in various respected Christian blogs, where her reflections on faith, suffering, and grace have encouraged others. Even as she remains mostly bedridden today, she anchors her unwavering hope in God.

Connect with Lara by visiting her website, Facebook, Instagram, and her YouTube channel.

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Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will receive a $30 Amazon gift card!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight September 15, 2025 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on September 22, 2025. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

Enter Giveaway

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