Q: Can you please provide readers with a brief description of The Orchard?Set in the early 1970s, the novel focuses on the aftermath of stunned disbelief and heartache that protagonist Ellie Hostetler and her Old Order Amish community experience when her twin brother, Evan, turns his back on their Plain upbringing, refuses conscientious objector status,... Continue Reading →
Review: Along a Storied Trail
Synopsis: Kentucky packhorse librarian Tansy Calhoun doesn't mind the rough trails and long hours as she serves her Appalachian mountain community during the Great Depression. Yet she longs to find love like the heroines in her books. When a charming writer comes to town, she thinks she might have found it--or is the perfect man... Continue Reading →
Review: The Amish Secret Wish
Synopsis: The third book in the sweet and charming Hidden Springs series from award-winning author Laura V. Hilton. As a columnist for the The Budget, with a secret byline of GHB, Hallie Brunstettler writes about community news, and sometimes alludes to her overwhelming loneliness. Her columns portray a woman who goes from day to day... Continue Reading →
Review: The Moonlight School
Synopsis: Haunted by her sister's mysterious disappearance, Lucy Wilson arrives in Rowan County, Kentucky, in the spring of 1911 to work for Cora Wilson Stewart, superintendent of education. When Cora sends Lucy into the hills to act as scribe for the mountain people, she is repelled by the primitive conditions and intellectual poverty she encounters.... Continue Reading →
Review: The Right Kind of Fool
Synopsis: Thirteen-year-old Loyal Raines is supposed to stay close to home on a hot summer day in 1934. When he slips away for a quick swim in the river and finds a dead body, he wishes he'd obeyed his mother. The ripples caused by his discovery will impact the town of Beverly, West Virginia, in... Continue Reading →
Review: The Amish Midwife’s Hope
Synopsis: A midwife gets a second chance at having a family in this first installment of the new Amish romance series -- Hearts of Lancaster County -- from award-winning author Barbara Cameron.Rebecca Zook has always dreamed of being a midwife. It's a bittersweet occupation for an Amish widow who didn't have children before she lost her true... Continue Reading →
Review: The Key to Love
Synopsis: The only thing Bri Duval loves more than baking petit fours is romance. So much so, she's created her own version of the famous Parisian lovelock wall at her bakery in Story, Kansas. She never expects it to go viral--or for Trek Magazine to send travel writer Gerard Fortier to feature the bakery. He's... Continue Reading →
Review: Two Steps Forward
Synopsis: Back and broke in Stoney Ridge, Jimmy Fisher has coasted as long as he could through life on charm, good looks, and deep-set dimples. They always worked just fine for him--until they didn't. His smile has no effect on the violet-eyed beauty he met at the Bent N' Dent, the one with that stunning... Continue Reading →
Review: Cold Nose, Warm Heart
Synopsis: A poodle, a black lab and a Chihuahua walk into a dog park… All Caleb Donovan has to do to redeem his family name is take a rundown Miami Beach apartment building and turn it into luxury condos. Easy, right? Unfortunately, that would also turn the local dog park into a parking lot and... Continue Reading →
Review: Blackberry Summer
Synopsis: Claire Bradford needed a wake-up call. What she didn't need was a tragic car accident. As a single mom and the owner of a successful bead shop, Claire leads a predictable life in Hope's Crossing, Colorado. So what if she has no time for romance? At least, that's what she tells herself, especially when... Continue Reading →
Review: Starting from Scratch
Synopsis: An Old Flame Brings a Spark of New Hope En Alt Maedel—an old maid. At age twenty-nine, that's what Eva Lapp considers herself. And who could argue with her? Finding a good Amish husband at her age will be next to impossible. Plus, Eva's unwarranted bad reputation in Lancaster... Continue Reading →
Review: A Welcome at Our Door
Synopsis: After a devastating loss, Cindy Riehl is still searching for peace. Will she find it in the community she calls home—or will love send her down a new path? Over the last few years, Cindy Riehl—the youngest of the Riehl children—has watched her siblings find love and happiness in Lancaster County.... Continue Reading →
Review: The Refuge
Synopsis: When Darcie and Walter Goodwin hear of a new cholera epidemic sweeping the area, they join the Shakers whose villages seem immune to the disease. It's meant to be a temporary stay, but Walter is killed in a riverboat accident. With no family and no money, Darcie has little choice but... Continue Reading →
Review: An Amish Reunion
Synopsis: From bestselling authors in the Amish genre come four stories about reuniting with those you love. Their True Home by Amy Clipston When Marlene Bawell moved from Bird-in-Hand ten years ago, she was in the deepest of mourning for her mother. Now her family has moved back so her father can seek... Continue Reading →
Review: I’ll be Watching You
Synopsis: Kate Moretti's The Vanishing Year meets Kimberly Belle's The Marriage Lie in this twisty domestic suspense about a teenaged girl who disappears and is thought drowned--and the dark secrets she leaves behind. Leah, a popular sixteen year old, is uncharacteristically apprehensive the night before her new school year begins. She decides... Continue Reading →
Review: Death’s Kiss
Synopsis: Life is valuable. Death is a necessity. In Yliria, this is not a contradiction.New Year’s Eve 2054. A virus, later named the BlackJack, struck and killed 3/4 of the world’s population. Only those who were 21 and younger were not infected. Treaties broke off. Countries severed connection to the outside world.... Continue Reading →
Review: Mending Fences
Synopsis: Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. Luke Schrock is a new and improved man after a stint in rehab, though everyone in Stoney Ridge only remembers the old Luke. They might have forgiven him, but nobody trusts him. Amos and Fern Lapp allow Luke to... Continue Reading →
Review: Holiday Tales from Fairyland
Synopsis: It’s holiday time in Fairyland. On Halloween, Ichabod Crane, a young schoolteacher, has a boner over sexy and muscular farmer Brom Bones. When the residents of the homophobic Sleepy Hollow aren’t happy about it, the headless horseman rides into town. Will Ichabod fall off his horse into Brom’s strong,... Continue Reading →
Review: An Amish Winter
Synopsis: Home Sweet Home by Amy Clipston (Previously published in An Amish Home) Down on their luck and desperate after being evicted from their small apartment, Chace and Mia O’Conner reluctantly take Chace’s Amish boss up on his offer to rent them the daadi haus located on his property. They are certain they will never... Continue Reading →
Review: The Distant Sound of Thunder
Synopsis: Katie Stuckey and Jonas Weaver are both romantics. Seventeen-year-old Katie is starry-eyed, in love with the idea of being in love, and does not want to wait to marry Jonas until she is eighteen, despite her parents' insistence. So much can happen in a year. Twenty-year-old Jonas is taken in... Continue Reading →
Review: A Place of His Own
Synopsis: When Josiah left Paradise the first time, he didn't even say good-bye. Now he's back, ten years later, and he's changed. Why is he so distant and bitter? Where is the boy who used to be Amanda's best friend? Amanda is learning that there are things even a capable Amish... Continue Reading →
Review: When Winter Comes
Synopsis: Follow one year in an Amish community with three heartwarming tales of old friends and new beginnings. "When Winter Comes" is one novella from this collection. It's been too long since Rebecca has done what she loves—put on her skates and fly across the ice. Five years have passed since a... Continue Reading →
Review: A Change of Heart
Synopsis: Follow one year in an Amish community with three heartwarming tales of old friends and new beginnings. "A Change of Heart" is one novella from this collection. Leah is no good at cooking, cleaning, sewing, gardening—the skills that young women need to make a proper Amish wife. All she wants... Continue Reading →
Review: Botched Murder
Synopsis: Bowled over . . . Sophie "Phee" Kimball is getting dragged into the drama again at her mom's Arizona retirement community. A new board member wants to get rid of two golf courses and replace them with eco-friendly parks, and some of the residents are pretty teed off about it.... Continue Reading →
Review: Steamed Open
Synopsis: It’s summertime in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, and the clamming is easy—or it was until a mysterious new neighbor blocks access to the beach, cutting off the Snowden Family Clambake’s supply. Julia Snowden is just one of many townspeople angered by Bartholomew Frick’s decision. But which one of them was... Continue Reading →
Review: Through the Autumn Air by Kelly Irvin
Synopsis: A mysterious English stranger appears in Mary Katherine Ropp’s kitchen one autumn night, heralding the beginning of a new chapter in the widow’s life. The mother of ten, Mary Katherine is an empty-nester who lost her husband four years earlier. She misses her husband so much, she still talks to... Continue Reading →
Review: Amish Celebrations by Beth Wiseman
Synopsis: The Gift of Sisters Hannah and Rachel are fraternal twins approaching their sixteenth birthday—a time when they will be allowed to spread their wings and enjoy their rumschpringe. The sisters couldn’t be more different: Hannah is outgoing and beautiful, while Rachel is shy and withdrawn. And when newcomer Abraham Stoltzfus... Continue Reading →
Review: A Simple Christmas by Charlotte Hubbard
Synopsis: "Hubbard writes Amish stories with style and grace." --RT Book Reviews The rustic beauty of a country Christmas fills the Simple Gifts crafts shop, while the Amish residents of Willow Ridge pull together in uncertain times--and in the face of an unexpected homecoming. Nora Hooley's shop is abuzz with preparations... Continue Reading →
Review: Wallace Street
Synopsis: A serial killer preys on young girls and the neighborhood is distressed and seeking justice or better yet revenge. Who will find the killer, the detectives, the mobsters, the beat cop or one of the distraught neighbors? Tension grows as the bodies pile up. The neighborhood is boiling over with rage Everyone in this... Continue Reading →
Review: The Return
Synopsis: Beautiful and winsome, Betsy Zook never questioned her family's rigid expectations, nor those of devoted Hans, but then she never had to. Not until the night when she's taken captive in a surprise Indian raid. During her captivity, Betsy faces brutality and hardship, but also unexpected kindness. She draws strength from native Caleb, who... Continue Reading →
Review: Stargazey Point
Synopsis: Shelley Noble's Stargazey Point is a beautiful story of love, heartbreak, friendship, and new beginnings. Devastated by tragedy during her last project, documentarian Abbie Sinclair seeks refuge with three octogenarian siblings, who live in a looming plantation house at the edge of the world. South Carolina’s Stargazey Point used to be a popular family... Continue Reading →
Review: The Great Leap
Synopsis: Mundu, an indigenous teenager from the Brazilian rainforest, is the best long jumper in the world-only no one knows it. That is, until idealistic botanist and power company scout Luis Moraes sees Mundu effortlessly launch himself across a wide stream. Luis convinces the power company to let him take Mundu to Rio de... Continue Reading →
Review: Hauling Through
Synopsis: The small community of Kestrel Cove is pretty much the same as any other fishing town on the Maine coast – a tight-knit group of hardworking and hardheaded characters living within the ebbs and flows of a life dedicated to catching lobsters. But there is one thing that is unique: The residents of... Continue Reading →