Sewn with Joy

Joy is one of the five daughters of the Millers of Pinecraft in Sarasota, FL. She wants nothing more than to be a wife and mother and to live her simple life. She believes this will happen when Matthew Slagel, the bishop's son, but one night, a truck comes rumbling down her street in the middle of the night and stops in front of her house. She is the only one in her house awake, so she goes downstairs to see if she can help them find what they are looking for. It just so happens that the truck holds set materials and the producer for a new tv show that's being shot about the Amish.

The bishop preaches against getting involved with the television people, but Joy can't let them make fools of themselves, nor can she let them go on without telling them about the freedom they will find in God. She gets pulled into the production by correcting some mistakes in costume, making costumes for the characters, and befriending the lead actress.

I appreciated the way the authors, Tricia Goyer and Sherry Gore, handled the "be in the world, not of the world" conundrum. Even though the bishop really wanted his people to stay away from the show production, Joy felt like she had to show them God as He really is. Her mindset came between her and Matthew, found friends in unlikely places, and strengthened her family. While she made money as a consultant to the show, she gave that money to her parents so that her father could afford some very expensive medical treatments.

I also love that recipes and sewing hints were included throughout the book. It's a treasure trove of hidden gems, and even Lovina's pies and Hope's garden make an appearance in the book. Sewn with Joy will delight Amish fiction readers, and I can't wait to see how things work out for Faith and Grace.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a piece of Lovina's Orange Cream Pie for dessert.

My thanks to Harvest House for allowing me to read and review this book.

Sarah's Orphans

Sarah has recently lost her father and now her mom has left home, leaving Sarah to take care of her four brothers. Andy and Henry are pretty much grown up, but Luke and Isaac are still in school. Coming home from the general store one day, Sarah nearly runs over a little boy. She goes looking for where he darted into the woods and finds an abandoned barn and a small trailer. Inside the small trailer are the little boy and an even tinier girl. Sarah convinces them to come home with her and begins looking for their mother. When the child protective services gets involved, Sarah finds she has to take classes and training to become a Bridge Parent for these children. Right after gaining custody of the children, Sarah's paternal grandmother comes to stay for as long as she's needed.

Paul Byler buys the farm next to Sarah's and works out how he can help her. He buys some chickens and takes them to Sarah so that they can share the eggs. He buys some goats and gives them to Sarah in exchange for goat's milk cheese. He gives her brothers work to do in exchange for helping them out on their own farm. He wants to help Sarah in a way that doesn't look like charity.

One thought rings clarion clear throughout this book and that is how important it is to listen to God. We can let the chaos of urgency take our minds off what is truly important, or we can take whatever is on our plates to God. When Sarah's foster children disappear, the first thing the community does is gather to pray.

Vannetta Chapman doesn't write the formulaic romance, but she does write thoughtful books that touch her readers deeply. In Sarah's Orphans, she brings out the need for foster parents, parents willing to adopt children who have been removed from their parents for whatever reason, people willing to take these children in for however long, because the one thing every single child needs is love.

This book is five stars, two thumbs up, and love and prayer.

My thanks to Harvest House Publishers for allowing me to read and review this book.

A Love Made New

Kathleen Fuller writes Amish fiction full of empathetic characters and situations. She has almost a memoir style of writing, but she's writing about a whole town, not just one or two characters. I adore her Amish Fiction.

A Love Made New finishes out the series on the Schrock sisters. But it also brings to conclusion the history of Bartholomew and Naomi--Irene and Andrew's parents.

Abigail is the only sister not married, and while her sisters have found their loves in Birch Creek, Abigail seems to find snacks. She feels truly bad about herself and her weight and cannot believe that someone would want her in such condition. Kathleen's descriptions of Abigail's struggles are spot on. The sensitivity she has embued in Asa Bontrager is a delight to read, especially as I can relate to Abigail's struggles.

Abigail's story is not the only one being told in this novel. Irene and Sol are finding their way around between friendship, love, and forgiveness. Sol has a past (and who of us doesn't have a past?) that brings him shame, and Irene makes it her job to show Sol that forgiveness is real, forgiveness is forever, and forgiveness brings peace. When Sol bares his soul to Irene, he is sure that she is going to reject him. After he drops her off, his horse takes him back to the abandoned cabin where his father had kept money he had stolen from the community. It was also the place where Sol would go sleep off a drinking binge. Now it was a place where God wanted to talk to him.

Both Sol and Asa are learning to listen when God speaks and to bring their petitions to the God who hears. Asa had to listen to what God was telling him when he moved back to Birch Creek from Shipshewana, Indiana.

As usual, Kathleen has included at least one fantastic cook in her book. It is a five-star, two thumbs up, and a special treat kind of book. Cookies and tea or coffee would go well with this book while you are reading it.

My thanks to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this book.

Sea Rose Lane

Irene Hannon has written a romance novel that doesn't entirely fit the formula and it is a breath of fresh ocean air! The setting of Hope Harbor is idyllic and fits the story so well that it couldn't be set anywhere else and be as good.

So for the formula:

Boy Meets Girl: Eric meets BJ when he runs into her bumper while talking on his cell phone. He doesn't make a good first impression for this architect/contractor who is relatively new to his hometown. When he finds that she's remodeling his father's home to make it a B&B, he further instills her poor first impression when he questions her workers.

Boy Gets Girl: This part of the formula doesn't happen the way it does in most romance novels. BJ takes her time to get to know Eric, keeping him at arms length until he takes the time to let her know she can trust him. He's a big city lawyer and wants to go back to the Partner Track lawyering instead of living in a small town doing small town law, however, he wants BJ too. She has been the big city architect and wants nothing to do with the big city.

Here's where the story deviates even further--Boy doesn't lose girl, because he truly doesn't have girl to begin with. They know something is sparking between them, but BJ is reluctant to let it go further. Where Eric gains BJ's trust is in a project she has going with a charity group she volunteers for. What BJ wants to do is start a program where younger people are matched with some of the elders of the town to help them stay in their own homes longer. When she sees where Luis, one of her workers, lives, she sees him as a perfect companion for Eleanor. She needs Eric to do some legal work for the companion partnership to prove to the board of the charity that this is a viable program.

What Eric finds in working with BJ is something he never thought he'd find. One thing, she used his artistic talent to paint backdrops for the fundraising play. When Eric finds that he has missed painting, he begins to paint a canvas and gets wrapped up in it, just like he gets wrapped up in his legal work.

There are many quaint expressions of small town life--Charley's fish taco truck is open when Charley takes a notion to open it. The rest of the time, he's an artist. Most people know one another's business and are friends with everyone else in town. The town bakers do not know how to make anything lo-cal, especially Eleanor and her fudge cake. The town is rich in humanity, humor, and character.

While Irene did let the reader know which boy and which girl were going to pair up, she did it in such a winsome way that it doesn't feel forced. She used her talents well in writing Sea Rose Lane and I hope that she gets rewarded for the fine craftsmanship she put into the book.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a fish taco--if Charley's is open.

My thanks to Revell Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.

California Gold Rush Romance Collection

Whenever I see that Barbour Publishing has a collection to read, I jump on it like a rabbit on a carrot. These are nice little novellas to read to fill an hour when you don't want to be too involved in the plot of the book. A lot of them do fit the Romance Novel Formula, but they still will have a few surprises. But there is one more aspect to the formula I haven't really hit on, and that is by the time the first chapter or two is over, the reader knows which boy and which girl are going to end up together.

The California Gold Rush Romance Collection is really no different than any other romance collection, but there are a couple of stand-out novellas. The Golden Cross and Gold Haven Heiress are two that don't really fit into the mold and really are intriguing. The Golden Cross tells the story of a man and his niece immigrating from China to find gold, but they find something more they can do that is more valuable than gold. The Gold Haven Heiress tells the story from Thalia's viewpoint, and Thalia is a girl who has lived a long life for her few years. She has settled in the ghost town of Gold Haven because it allows her to be alone. When Jack Taylor moves in, that messes up her plans to live a solitary life.

This is a strong four star book.

My thanks to Barbour Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.

Sweet as Honey

When I was checking my list to see what to read next on my TBR pile (thankfully it's an e-pile, not a physical pile), I was hoping it was going to be an Amish book. Imagine my thrill to see that Sweet as Honey by Jennifer Beckstrand was next on my list! It was just what the doctor ordered for my reading pleasure.

My first and only critique: Jennifer switches back and forth between Amish and English spellings of certain words. Aendi or Aunt was the one I remember most. I understand an English character using Aunt, but even some of the Amish characters used Aunt.

Lily, her sisters Rose and Poppy, and her Aendi Bitsy own a honeybee farm and sell the honey to the local Amish market for only a dollar a pint. Since she was in the eighth grade, Lily had been friends with Paul Glick who was pushing her to marry him. It was his father's market that bought her honey.

In creating Lily's character, Jennifer has completely and convincingly made a woman who has been beaten down and has had her confidence totally shattered.

In Paul's character, Jennifer took the definition for passive-aggressive controller straight out of the dictionary. There are good Amish folk and there are the occasional bad seeds. Paul falls somewhere in between--he's extremely legalistic in his beliefs, following in his father's footsteps, but he brow-beats Lily at any and every opportunity.

But then there's Dan, the very picture of clueless about his behavior. He doesn't understand how his words have hurt Lily and why she holds him at arms length. When he finally does understand, he wants Lily's forgiveness, and if she's willing, he wants her heart too. He endears himself to Aendi B by learning all he can about keeping bees and drawing the honey. He also learns how the sisters have been cheated by Paul's machinations.

I am going to have a hard time waiting for Poppy's and Rose's stories to come out.

This is a five star book, with two thumbs up, and a pint of Amish honey for your sweets.

My thanks to Kensington Books for allowing me to read and review this book.

A Facade, Not So Elegant.

I read the first book in this series by Kristi Ann Hunter and really enjoyed it. It had just enough suspense and romance to keep my mind engaged. When An Elegant Facade showed up on my radar, I jumped at the chance to read and review it. Here's what Amazon.com says about the book:

Lady Georgina Hawthorne has worked tirelessly to seal her place as the Incomparable for her debut season. At her first London ball, she hopes to snag the attention of an earl.

With money and business connections, but without impeccable bloodlines, Colin McCrae is invited everywhere but accepted nowhere. When he first encounters the fashionable Lady Georgina, he's irritated by his attraction to a woman who concerns herself only with status and appearance.

What Colin doesn't know is that Georgina's desperate social aspirations are driven by the shameful secret she harbors. Association with Colin McCrae is not part of Georgina's plan, but as their paths continue to cross, they both must decide if the realization of their dreams is worth the sacrifices they must make.

The big secret isn't all that big--but to Georgina it may have been the most significant thing in her life. Going to all the Society balls and being on debut for her London season was part of her plan to gain marriage to a titled man with money.

There are so many books like this one--a social climber wants to marry a rich, titled man to secure her place in the ton. Because this book is like so many others, at least that I've read, I had a hard time reading it through. This is a three star book.

My thanks to Bethany House Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.