Is there an escape for Lizzie?

Lizzie Engel is being forced to return to her Mennonite hometown of Kingdom, Kansas in order to protect her daughter. A stranger she does not know has been mailing her threatening letters and a man has been following her around. The new life she has set for herself and her daughter is threatened and the only place she knows to go is back home since that is the only place the stranger won’t be able to find her.

Kingdom is an isolated town that has been governed by a strict board of elders. Outside interference is simply not tolerated. She left five years earlier when her father would not accept her pregnancy. Seduced by a man she believed loved her, the town turned against her and she had to leave. Now she has returned and is finding that the new pastor and some of the  people she had known are changing the town. Buildings are painted, people are beginning to smile and help each other. Her own mother is taking a stand in opposition to her father’s. An accident and the death of the driver leads Lizzie to realize the stranger has found her. Who is this person and what do they want? An old friend, Noah Housler, works with her to unravel the mystery. In the end, of course, all is well and Lizzie finally finds the acceptance and love she had looked for all of her life.

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I received this book to review for free from Bethany House.

A Christmas story of love, forgiveness and redemption

When I read the back cover of this book, I failed to understand how the title had been chosen. A Wreath of Snow? A novella that covers a short period of time, Liz Curtis Higgs has given us a story that does not seem to be happening in a short time frame. Set in Scotland during a snowstorm, Meg Campbell is leaving Stirling and returning to Edinburgh after spending a disappointing Christmas with her family. Things at home have not been the same since her brother, Alan, had been injured in a curling stone incident. Gordon Shaw is leaving Stirling after completing a newspaper assignment. When their train is stranded in a snowstorm, this unlikely pair finds themselves walking back to Stirling. Neither wants to return for their own reasons.

Gordon is invited to the Campbell home for a meal and to warm himself when they make it back to town. From this point on the reader becomes immersed in the lives of the Campbell family and Gordon Shaw. There is more to these individuals than meets the eye. Meg feels guilty and angry because Alan is disabled and has become adept at making their parents feel sorry for him, catering to his every whim. Gordon is also feeling guilty because it was his actions that caused the injury. He knows he needs to make his true identity known and ask for Alan’s forgiveness. When the family realizes who he is at a curling match, the lifestyle that Alan has set up for himself begins to rapidly untangle and the secret that Alan had been hiding is now revealed.

A story of secrets, unforgiveness and guilt in the lives of Meg, Gordon and Alan we find the mercy and grace of God at work as everyone faces the truth in their lives and reconciliation becomes a reality.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Can a person be made for The River?

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I began The River. It is a story about a river and its place in the life of Gabriel Clarke. How could someone be made for the river? Yet, Gabriel was. Losing his father at a young age to The River, Gabriel moves from Colorado to Kansas to live with his mother. He fears the water now and wants nothing to do with any river. As the years go by, he begins to see that a river is not something to be feared. Then comes the day when friends invite him to go to Colorado with them to camp, go river rafting and to explore the river. Gabriel starts to remember things from those early years and begins to accuse The River of taking his father from him. 

The more I got into this book, the more I began to see and understand the struggles Gabriel was facing. He was trapped by the chains of fear and resentment, trapped by circumstances that would affect his life unless he could gain his freedom. Returning to Kansas after the trip, Gabriel felt the pull of The River and so returned to Colorado to the river rafting camps. He goes to work at one of the river camps and meets people who help him to better understand The River and the affect it has on the lives of those who love it. He also starts to understand that The River did not take his father from him. As a seasoned rafter, his father lost his life while saving the life of someone else. With this knowledge, he realized that his destiny, his home is here with The River. He was made for The River.

I recommend this book, giving it five stars. It is a story of the freedom that awaits all of us when we face our fears and no longer give them control over our lives.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Lonnie Sawyer and her family live in the Appalachian hills among the creeks and hollows. Shy and retiring Lonnie has no experience with men, so when Gideon O’Riley walks her home after a local singing and dance she finds herself what his friendliness and advances mean. Gideon has treated her with respect and kindness, helping her over the rocks and moving branches out of her way. When they reach her home, she allows him to kiss her. But Lonnie’s father believes it was more than a kiss and a shotgun wedding takes place. Now the handsome Gideon finds himself married. Not used to being responsible for anyone, he takes Lonnie and heads across the hills to find a job. The kindness and gentleness of the walk home that night is gone and he is now hard and unyielding in pushing to reach a town where there is work. Lonnie’s life was hard at home, but nothing like she is experiencing now. She is not feeling well, is not eating and wants to sleep. The walking all day with little to eat has begun to take its toil when Jebediah finds them and takes them home to stay with him and his wife so Lonnie can recover. Gideon begins to realize the responsibility forced upon him with his wedding day and discovers he actually loves Lonnie, but there are still things he has to discover and learn before he is able to be the husband and father his family needs. Lonnie finds that she is stronger than she ever thought and the book ends with these two young people ending up where they should have been on their wedding day – deeply in live and committed to each other.

Over the Edge by Mary Connealy

All’s Well That Ends Well is the title of a Shakespearian play, but it also describes the ending of The Kincaid Brides, Book 3. Mary Connealy has very neatly tied up all the loose ends and still managed to give us a surprise or two.

I had the opportunity to read second book, In Too Deep, about the second brother, Ethan, and wondered what I could learn about the third brother, Seth. A Civil War veteran with a physically painful childhood, Seth was in the habit of going to the caverns in the mountains around the home place to hide whenever remembrances of his past overwhelmed him. Along comes Callie who had married Seth while she nursed him after the war. One day he took off and she never saw him again. The day came when she realized she needed to find his brothers, let them know she had married Seth and was on the way to see them. That in itself was a surprise to the brothers, but not the biggest one. Seth and Callie had a son no one knew about.

At this point, I was hooked and had a hard time putting the book down. I simply had to know how Callie and Seth worked this out. Would Ethan find that the past no longer held control over his life? Would he remember that he had a wife? Would Callie find that she could trust her husband not to abandon her again? The answer to all those questions is yes, but how they were answered I want to reader to discover on their own.

Over the Edge works as a standalone book because enough information is given to make sure the reader is aware of what has happened in the lives of Rafe and Ethan, the brothers. Yet, that background information does not get in the way of those who have previously read Out of Control and/or In Too Deep.

I received this book to review for free from Bethany House.

A Season of Tending by Cindy Woodsmall

Would an Old Order Amish girl dabble in witchcraft? Many in Rhonda’s town believed she did. How else could one explain the premonitions that she said she sensed? Because the townspeople, Amish and English, looked at her wondering, Rhonda kept close to her family home and tended her garden. Canning the fruit of her garden and selling it gave her a feeling of satisfaction. So did dispensing the herbs she also grew, but there was one who was determined to destroy that garden and keep the seeds of doubt alive in the town.

Samuel King and his family tended the apple orchard that had been in their family for generations. Selling the apples for eating and cider provided the finances needed each year. This year, though, worms had invaded one third of the orchard and Samuel knew they were facing a financial problem. He considered approaching Rhonda for help with the orchard since she knew enough about horticulture to offer advice and had a thriving canning business that might make use of the apples that could not be sold for anything but cider. As they work at uniting the two businesses, a sudden tornado destroys what is left of the orchard. What will they do now? What new avenue is God opening up for them?

A Season of Tending presented a deviation from the usual Amish story of boy meets girl, boy and girl disagree, boy and girl either make up or go their separate ways. The primary focus of this book is the resolution of financial issues and of perception. This is the first of a new series titles Amish Vines and Orchards. I enjoyed this book and happily recommend it to anyone interested in another side of Amish life.

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