Promise Lodge by Charlotte Hubbard W/Excerpt & Giveaway

It's a better life, a fresh start--and a heaven-sent second chance. Founded by three Amish sisters determined to put misfortune behind them, Promise Lodge is a colony where faith's abiding promise can be fulfilled--and love can make all things new…

Energetic widow Mattie Bender Schwartz is working day and night to get Promise Lodge going. She's also hoping the change will help her son Noah's heart to heal after his broken engagement. But his former fiancée, Deborah, is looking for a fresh start too. Filled with regret, and cast out by her dat for a reason she can't yet reveal, Deborah can only pray Noah will forgive her foolishness.

Deborah is the last person Noah expected to show up at Promise Lodge. But with her cruel words still ringing in his head, he's reluctant to accept her apology--even if the Old Order ways demand he try. If only he could obey Christ's most important commandment: love one another. But one thing is certain--his mother and aunts, and their beloved Preacher Amos, will do their best to help him get there. 

Promise Lodge, Book 1

Zebra (February 26, 2016)

ISBN-13: 9781420139419 •• ISBN-10: 142013941X

Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=142013941X/

Barnes & Noble http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9781420139419

The Book Depository http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9781420139419

B-A-M http://www.booksamillion.com/product/9781420139419

Chapters http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/a/9781420139419-item.html

IndieBound  http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781420139419

Powell’s  http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9781420139419

Kensington Books  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/32120

 Ebook:

Kindle  http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Lodge-Charlotte-Hubbard-ebook/dp/B00Y6RB2PA/

Nook  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/promise-lodge-charlotte-hubbard/1121998591?ean=9781420139426

iBooks  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/promise-lodge/id1013564715?mt=11

Google Play   https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Charlotte_Hubbard_Promise_Lodge?id=mZOmCQAAQBAJ

Kensington  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/32119

Kobo https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/promise-lodge

WEBSITE   www.CharlotteHubbard.com

Facebook    www.Facebook.com/Charlotte.Hubbard1

About The Author

Many moons ago—like, in 1983 while she was still a school librarian—Charlotte Hubbard sold her first story to True Story. This launched her into writing around seventy of those “true confessions” stories over the years, and she’s been a slave to her overactive imagination ever since. Over the course of her writing career, she has sold nearly 50 books—most recently, Amish romance series she’s written as Charlotte Hubbard or Naomi King.

Charlotte lived in Missouri for most of her life, so her Amish stories are set in imaginary Missouri towns. These days she lives in St. Paul, MN with her husband of 40 years and their Border collie, Ramona.

 My Review

I just finished the first book in Charlotte Hubbard’s new series, and now I can’t wait for the next. I’m also ready to rent a room here, and stay forever, love the word pictures here, and the story was so good!
Can you imagine being attacked, and because you look a mess you father tells you to leave, no explaining from you, just go. When the book opens Deborah has taken a chance and headed to Promise Lodge, a new plain settlement that her former boyfriend’s mother and sisters have purchased and are fixing it up for new families.
Deborah broke up with Noah, he had kept her on the fence to long, and she was tired of waiting for him to marry her. What happens when she shows up and finds him, he is trying to forget her, and wonders what she is doing there.
Will Deborah’s secrets come out, and will the people here understand, when her own father didn’t. Where will she go and what is going to happen to her?
There are some sweet chuckles here, and was ready to sit down and eat the fabulous meals that were described. There is also so violence and you wonder how long it is going to go on, and how will they ever stop it. Yes they stop it once, and that is quite funny, but will Deborah have to leave to end the threat to this community.
We wish for the best, and feel the tension of evil, but will peace come, and more will be revealed in the next book. I really enjoyed this page-turner!
I received this book through the author, and was not required to give a positive review.

Excerpt:

Rosetta lifted the lid of the cedar-lined chest Dat had made for her thirteenth birthday, just as he’d given one to Mattie and Christine when they’d reached that age. The pungency of cedar and sachets wafted up from the quilts she’d made and the linens she’d embroidered, looking toward the day when she married. Such high hopes and sweet dreams she’d had while she’d stitched these pieces—

And it’s time to fulfill my intention for them, Rosetta thought as she picked out two quilts and sets of sheets that would go with them. With a resolute smile, she carried the linens to the adjacent rooms, where her parents’ bedroom set and the nicest pieces of their guestroom furniture had been arranged. Someday soon, new residents could enjoy the cozy ambiance these hand-crafted pieces gave to their rooms while their apartments were being remodeled. As Rosetta made up the double bed in the smaller room, her spirit felt light and happy. When she’d stitched this quilt as a teenager, her tastes in color and design had run contrary to traditional Amish patterns—

The clatter of footsteps and her nieces’ happy voices made Rosetta straighten to her full height. She prayed she could answer the girls’ questions with wisdom and a positive attitude.

“Aunt Rosetta! Look what we found!” Laura called out when she’d topped the stairs.

“You won’t believe the boxes of awesome—” Phoebe stopped midsentence when she spotted Rosetta. “And where did you get that quilt?”

The girls set aside some planks of wood they’d carried upstairs, and Laura chuckled as she approached the bed to look at it. “Those are butterflies! Made from folded hankies—some of them with cool crocheted borders! I can’t see Grandma working on a bright, flowery piece like this one.”

“Jah, she tried to talk me out of using prints, saying they’d be impractical when I got older,” Rosetta replied as she gazed fondly at the quilt. “I was maybe fifteen when I made this one, from hankies that had belonged to my mamma’s mother and her sisters when they were in their rumspringa. Can you tell I really loved pink back then?”

Phoebe ran a reverent finger over one of the butterflies. “So you folded the hankies to make their wings, and then embroidered the body and their antennae—”

“And stitched them onto pale pink squares before you put them together with this bright pink calico,” Laura finished with a grin. “What a wonderful way to save these hankies—and they’re in prettier prints than the ones you find in the catalogs now.”

Rosetta smiled, pleased that her nieces shared her love for family pieces that would otherwise have grown yellow with age in the attic. “I thought it was time to use these linens instead of hiding them away in my chest,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t waver. “I won’t be getting married, but I will be welcoming new renters—”

“Oh, Aunt Rosetta, you can’t mean that!” Laura blurted.

“You should never give up hope that the right fellow will come along,” Phoebe insisted as she held Rosetta’s gaze with her blazing blue eyes. “I’ve been praying for that, and I believe it will happen now that we’ve moved away from Coldstream!”

Part of Rosetta wished she hadn’t gone down this conversational trail, because she recalled feeling the same romantic fervor, the same endless hope, when she’d been her nieces’ age. But it was time to let the girls know that she felt happy and fulfilled with the maidel life God had granted her—time to explain that the single life offered opportunities rather than a reason to feel shame or loneliness.

“Truth be told, the right young man was courting me when I was twenty—your age, Phoebe,” Rosetta replied with a wistful smile. “Tim was helping my dat take down a dead tree. He was climbing up high to saw off some of its branches, and the top section of the tree gave way. When Tim hit the ground, his neck broke—and the accident broke our spirits for a while, too.”

Laura’s face fell and tears filled Phoebe’s eyes. “I—we had no idea,” she murmured.

Rosetta smiled sadly. “We didn’t talk about it much. You were a wee little girl when it happened and Laura wasn’t yet born,” she explained. “A few years later, both Mamm and Dat started having health problems, so it was the natural order of things for me to stay home and look after them—not that I wanted to get serious about anybody after Tim passed away. I was sure he’d been the man God intended for me to marry.”

Rather than get into a theological discussion about why God had allowed her beau to die, Rosetta smoothed the butterfly quilt beneath the two pillows with their embroidered cases. “Mamm and I enjoyed sewing together, so I cherish the pieces we made because we passed many happy hours,” she remarked. “Several of those quilts are still in my trunk, and now I’ve got the perfect place to use them.”

a Rafflecopter giveaway