by admin | Mar 17, 2011 | Amish, Books, Contemporary Fiction
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Caregiver
Avon Inspire; Original edition (March 8, 2011)
by
Shelley Shepard Gray
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shelley Shepard Gray is the beloved author of the Sisters of the Heart series, including
Hidden, Wanted, and
Forgiven. Before writing, she was a teacher in both Texas and Colorado. She now writes full time and lives in southern Ohio with her husband and two children. When not writing, Shelley volunteers at church, reads, and enjoys walking her miniature dachshund on her town’s scenic bike trail.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Two lives converge one stormy night on a train headed to Cleveland.
Lucy is traveling by herself via train to Jacob’s Crossing to help care for her cousin Mattie, recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Trying to overcome the sudden death of her husband, she’s glad to get away and focus on someone else for a while.
The only other Amish people on the train are Calvin Weaver and his little sister, Katie. When their train breaks down outside of Cleveland, Calvin and Lucy band together to face the outside world. But Calvin also carries the weight of past hurts. When an altercation brings both their wounds to light, they question whether they can trust each other.
Once in Jacob’s Crossing, Lucy is occupied with caring for Mattie, while Calvin does his best to run his family’s farm. But they can’t stop thinking about those special hours spent together. Will the bond they formed last? And will Lucy and Calvin be able to put away the pain in their pasts to recognize the happiness that is suddenly in their grasp?
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Caregiver, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
The Caregiver is a testimony to the literary talent of Shelley Shepard Gray. Although the book is a shorter format than others I have read by this author, there is still a lot going on in it and I didn’t feel shortchanged by the plot nor character development. Lucy, Calvin, and Mattie were all portrayed in such a way that the reader can identify with them. Gray boldly covers issues such as domestic abuse and breast cancer in this story, subjects I have never run across in the many other Amish novels I have read. I thought she did an excellent job in conveying the thoughts and emotions experienced by both Lucy and Mattie.
Amish fiction is not my first choice of genres but I will always welcome any book by Shelley Shepard Gray. I look forward to the next volume in this series.
by admin | Mar 1, 2011 | Amish, Books, Romance, Western
MY REVIEW:
The Amish families of both Emily Detweiler and David Stoltzfus have recently relocated in a small Colorado community. The first meeting between David and Emily is a disaster but as they get to know each other, a close friendship develops. David discerns that something terrible has happened to Emily to make her so fearful and his protective instincts become fully engaged. Under his calm and caring presence, Emily finds herself able to relax again and begins to rebuild her trust in others.
David and Emily each harbor secrets that have convinced them that neither one of them can ever marry. When they find themselves with stronger feelings that friendship, they must come to grips with their secrets and turn their trust to God alone. When at their lowest points, several of the characters heard a still, small voice tell them “Seek Me With All Your Heart.” This would be an excellent example for each of us to follow.
Seek Me With All Your Heart is a warm, comfortable story that is filled with hope, faith, and love. Strong illustrations of love and compassion between family members and for others in their lives is the backbone of this narrative. Several other strong characters add to the enjoyment. A precocious young sister and an elderly neighbor and her parrot are entertaining and humorous.
Although this is an Amish novel, the story was natural and more focused on the characters than on Amish tradition. I personally enjoyed the author’s treatment of the subject. I would definitely recommend Seek Me With All Your Heart.
This book was provided for review by BookSneeze.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A groundbreaking series takes Amish readers where they’ve never gone before . . . Colorado. Emily Detweiler’s family abruptly moved to Colorado after tragedy struck in Ohio. But Emily can’t get far enough to escape what happened there.
David Stoltzfus is not happy when his family relocates from Pennsylvania to Colorado. Nevermind that they haven’t told him why. David struggles not only with this unwelcome move, but also with the fear that a health condition could keep him from living his life in full.
Emily and David each come to terms with a past that follows them, testing their faith and resolve. Will they overcome adversity and step onto the path God has chosen for them?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Beth is the best-selling author of the Daughters of the Promise and Land of Canaan series. All of her full-length novels and novellas have held spots on the CBA (Christian Book Association) Bestseller List and the ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publishers Association) Bestseller List. She is the 2010 INSPY Award Winner for Amish Fiction and a 3-time finalist for the Carol Award sponsored by American Christian Fiction Writers. As a former journalist, Beth was honored by her peers with 11 journalism awards to include 1st Place News Writing for The Texas Press Association. She left her job as a newspaper reporter in 2008 to write novels full time.
by admin | Jan 24, 2011 | Amish, Books, Contemporary Fiction, Romance
MY REVIEW:
Although Amish fiction is not my favorite genre, I always enjoy novels by Suzanne Woods Fisher. The Search was not a disappointment, in fact it may be Fisher’s best book yet. I like the way her books are character and plot driven and that the Amish life is a natural part of the story without demanding attention.
The Search contains everything I expect from a good book. It is well written with intriguing and realistic characters, has a well paced plot with a bit of mystery, humor, conflict, and of course, romance. While Bertha was not the primary character, I thought that she stole the show. Her habit of getting words mixed up reminded me so much of my late grandmother that I smiled often. It was also a pleasure to see the way Bess matured as the story progressed. The story featured more than one point of view but was never confusing. A strong message of faith, forgiveness, and restoration runs throughout. Several plot twists and unexpected developments kept me turning the pages. The Search is a well crafted novel and I highly recommend it.
See what others have to say about The Search here.
This book was provided for review by LitFuse Publicity.
Purchase a copy of The Search here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Fifteen years ago, Lainey O’Toole made a split-second decision. She couldn’t have known that her choice would impact so many.
Now in her mid-twenties, she is poised to go to culinary school when her car breaks down in Stoney Ridge, the very Amish town in which her long-reaching decision was made, forcing her to face the shadowed past.
Bess Reihl is less than thrilled to be spending the summer at Rose Hill Farm with her large and intimidating grandmother, Bertha. It quickly becomes clear that she is there to work the farm–and work hard. The labor is made slightly more tolerable by the time it affords Bess to spend with the handsome hired hand, Billy Lapp. But he only has eyes for a flirty and curvaceous older girl.
Lainey’s and Bess’s worlds are about to collide and the secrets that come to light will shock them both.
“Beautifully written, ‘The Search’ is a skillfully woven story that takes readers through unexpected twists and turns on the long country road toward truth. Fans both old and new will find themselves immersed in this heartwarming–and surprising–tale of young love, forgiveness, and coming to grips with the past.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
In no particular order, Suzanne Woods Fisher is a wife, mother, writer, lifelong student of the Bible, raiser of puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, a gardener and a cook…the latter two with sporadic results.
Suzanne has loved to write since she was a young teen. After college, she started to write for magazines and became a contributing editor for Christian Parenting Today magazine. Her family moved to Hong Kong for four years, just as the internet was developing, and she continued to write articles in a 44-story high-rise apartment, sending manuscripts 7,000 miles away with a click of a key.
After returning from Hong Kong, Suzanne decided to give her first novel a try. For four and a half months, she worked on an antediluvian computer in a cramped laundry room. She didn’t even tell her husband what she was up to. When the novel was completed, she told her family at dinner one night that she had written a book. “That’s why there’s no food in this house!” said her slightly insensitive sons.
Undaunted…Suzanne found a small royalty publisher for that book and wrote three more (all earned multiple awards). With help from an agent, she now has numerous books under contract with Revell. Also look for Suzanne’s Amish non-fiction, Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World, a non-fiction book of stories and examples about the Old Order Amish, as well as Amish Proverbs, and coming in Spring of 2011, look for Amish Values for Your Family. The Choice and The Waiting are the previous books in the Lancaster County Secrets Collection.
Writing, for Suzanne, is a way to express a love of God and His word. With every book or article, she hopes readers get a sense of what faith really looks like in the daily grind. She hopes they realize that life can be hard, but God is good, and never to confuse the two.
Suzanne can be found on-line at: www.suzannewoodsfisher.com
Suzanne Woods Fisher’s latest installment of the Lancaster County Secrets, The Search
, is just out and to celebrate Suzanne is hosting The Search iPad Giveaway!
One Grand Prize winner will receive an iPad Prize Package worth over $500 and includes:
by admin | Jan 22, 2011 | Amish, Books
MY REVIEW:
Although Amish fiction is not my favorite genre, I always enjoy novels by Suzanne Woods Fisher. The Search was not a disappointment, in fact it may be Fisher’s best book yet. I like the way her books are character and plot driven and that the Amish life is a natural part of the story without demanding attention.
The Search contains everything I expect from a good book. It is well written with intriguing and realistic characters, has a well paced plot with a bit of mystery, humor, conflict, and of course, romance. While Bertha was not the primary character, I thought that she stole the show. Her habit of getting words mixed up reminded me so much of my late grandmother that I smiled often. It was also a pleasure to see the way Bess matured as the story progressed. The story featured more than one point of view but was never confusing. A strong message of faith, forgiveness, and restoration runs throughout. Several plot twists and unexpected developments kept me turning the pages. The Search is a well crafted novel and I highly recommend it.
This book was provided for review by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
Available January 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A touching tale of secrets and young love in the Amish community, from the series that Romantic Times has called “refreshing.”
Bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher has written extensively about the Amish, releasing both fiction and non-fiction books that have won the hearts of reviewers in both in and out of the Amish community. Now comes The Search, Fisher’s latest fiction novel in the Lancaster County Secrets series.
Fifteen years ago, Lainey O’Toole made a split-second decision. She couldn’t have known that her choice would impact so many. Now in her mid-twenties, she is poised to go to culinary school when her car breaks down in Stoney Ridge, the very Amish town in which her long-reaching decision was made, forcing her to face the shadowed past.
Bess Reihl is less than thrilled to be spending the summer at Rose Hill Farm with her large and intimidating grandmother, Bertha. It quickly becomes clear that she is there to work the farm—and work hard. The labor is made slightly more tolerable by the time it affords Bess to spend with the handsome hired hand, Billy Lapp. But he only has eyes for a flirty and curvaceous older girl.
Lainey’s and Bess’s worlds are about to collide and the secrets that come to light will shock them both.
Beautifully written, The Search is a skillfully woven story that takes readers through unexpected twists and turns on the long country road toward truth. Fans both old and new will find themselves immersed in this heartwarming—and surprising—tale of young love, forgiveness, and coming to grips with the past.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Suzanne Woods Fisher is the CBA bestselling author of The Choice, The Waiting, Amish Peace, and Amish Proverbs. Her interest in the Anabaptist cultures can be directly traced to her grandfather, W. D. Benedict, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Benedict eventually became publisher of Christianity Today magazine. Suzanne is the host of a radio show called Amish Wisdom and her work has appeared in many magazines. She lives in California.
by admin | Jan 3, 2011 | Amish, Books, Historical, Romance
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Paradise Valley
Bethany House (January 1, 2011)
by
Dale Cramer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dale Cramer was the second of four children born to a runaway Amishman turned soldier and a south Georgia sharecropper’s daughter. His formative years were divided between far-flung military bases, but he inherited his mother’s sense of place—
He took on small construction projects at night to help make ends meet— “and to preserve the remainder of my sanity,” he says. While building an office in the basement of a communications consultant, a debate over labor/management relations turned into an article on mutualism which found its way into an international business magazine. It was Dale’s first published article, and he liked the feel of it. He bought books, studied technique, and began participating in an online writers’ forum, writing during the boys’ naps and after they went to bed at night. Before long he was publishing short stories in literary magazines and thinking about writing a book.
Three storylines vied for Dale’s attention when he finally decided to write a novel. His first two choices were commercially viable secular stories, and a distant third appeared to be some kind of Christian saga about a broken-down biker. The process of determining which novel to write was settled by a remarkable encounter with his youngest son, a lost set of keys, and God. His sense of direction was suddenly clarified. In 1997, Dale began work on Sutter’s Cross, which was eventually published in 2003.
His second novel, Bad Ground (July 2004), while it is not autobiographical, contains a great deal of material drawn from his own experience as a construction electrician.
He and his wife and two sons make their home in northern Georgia.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
An Amish settlement in Ohio has run afoul of a law requiring their children to attend public school. Caleb Bender and his neighbors are arrested for neglect, with the state ordering the children be placed in an institution. Among them are Caleb’s teenage daughter, Rachel, and the boy she has her eye on, Jake Weaver. Romance blooms between the two when Rachel helps Jake escape the childrens home.
Searching for a place to relocate his family where no such laws apply, Caleb learns there’s inexpensive land for sale in Mexico, a place called Paradise Valley. Despite rumors of instability in the wake of the Mexican revolution, the Amish community decides this is their answer. And since it was Caleb’s idea, he and his family will be the pioneers. They will send for the others once he’s established a foothold and assessed the situation.
Caleb’s daughters are thrown into turmoil. Rachel doesn’t want to leave Jake. Her sister, Emma, who has been courting Levi Mullet, fears her dreams of marriage will be dashed. Miriam has never had a beau and is acutely aware there will be no prospects in Mexico.
Once there, they meet Domingo, a young man and guide who takes a liking to Miriam, something her father would never approve. While Paradise Valley is everything they’d hoped it would be, it isn’t long before the bandits start giving them trouble, threatening to upset the fledgling Amish settlement, even putting their lives in danger. Thankfully no one has been harmed so far, anyway.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Paradise Valley, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
Just when I was beginning to feel a bit burned out on Amish fiction, Paradise Valley arrived to encourage my interest. Not the usual offering with a romance set against the backdrop of the Amish lifestyle, Paradise Valley might even be called an ‘edgy’ Amish novel because of situations not usually seen in this genre.
The members of the Bender family are forced to reevaluate many of their traditional standards as they encounter unique circumstances in their new home in Mexico. Their interaction with their hired man, their neighbors, and roaming bandits plus their efforts to make a home in an extremely different environment held my interest throughout the book. Although a romance between Rachel and Jake was woven into the story, it did not overshadow the historical and human interest theme.
I thoroughly enjoyed Paradise Valley and would recommend it. I look forward to the next installment of the Daughters of Caleb Bender series.
by admin | Nov 18, 2010 | Amish, Books, Historical, Law Enforcement, Suspense
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Silent Order
Summerside Press (November 1, 2010)
by
Melanie Dobson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Melanie Dobson is the award-winning author of The Black Cloister; Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana; and Together for Good.
Prior to launching Dobson Media Group in 1999, Melanie was the corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family where she was responsible for the publicity of events, products, films, and TV specials. Melanie received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Liberty University and her master’s degree in communication from Regent University. She has worked in the fields of publicity and journalism for fifteen years including two years as a publicist for The Family Channel.
Melanie and her husband, Jon, met in Colorado Springs in 1997 at Vanguard Church. Jon works in the field of computer animation. Since they’ve been married, the Dobsons have relocated numerous times including stints in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Berlin, and Southern California. These days they are enjoying their new home in the Pacific Northwest.
Jon and Melanie have adopted their two daughters —Karly (6) and Kinzel (5). When Melanie isn’t writing or entertaining their girls, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, traveling, hiking, line dancing, and reading inspirational fiction.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Rural America – 1928. After the murder of his partner, Detective Rollin Wells hides away in an Amish home near Sugarcreek, Ohio, to find out who in the police force is collaborating with Cleveland’s notorious mob. While Rollin searches for answers to his partner’s death, he befriends an elusive young Amish woman named Katie and her young son. As Rollin learns about Katie’s past, he’s shocked at the secret Katie is hiding – a secret that has haunted Rollin for eight years.
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Silent Order, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
After reviewing Christian fiction for a couple of years, I have read quite a few Amish novels. At times it becomes a little difficult to distinguish one from another. I realize that they fill the ever growing demand for stories of the plain and simple lifestyle and I have actually enjoyed most of them. However, I have longed for more variety and have actually found it in a few authors’ offerings. The Silent Order is one of those that defies the usual expectations for ‘bonnet fiction’.
Set in and around Cleveland during the ‘roaring twenties’, The Silent Order relates the story of what happened when organized crime invaded the peaceful countryside of the Amish. Populated with well rounded characters, The Silent Order is a page turner that kept me on edge as I both dreaded and anticipated what would happen next. It is a sometimes dark story but it also highlights dedication, loyalty, bravery, and love. The peace loving Amish community was a stark contrast to the violent men of the Cardano family who resorted to murder of even family members in order to keep their secrets and advance their position.
Although I would have liked for the faith element to have been more fully developed, it did not keep me from enjoying this very well written novel. I highly recommend The Silent Order.
Shelley Shepard Gray is the beloved author of the Sisters of the Heart series, including Hidden, Wanted, and Forgiven. Before writing, she was a teacher in both Texas and Colorado. She now writes full time and lives in southern Ohio with her husband and two children. When not writing, Shelley volunteers at church, reads, and enjoys walking her miniature dachshund on her town’s scenic bike trail.
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