For fans of holiday romances and Amish life comes a new Christmas tale of surprising expectations and discovering miracles.Old
Order Amish Ivy Zook is wrestling with her need to shed her community's
ways so she can grow the business of her dreams: planning parties. As
long as she's stuck living without modernization, she can barely get her
business on its feet. But if she leaves too soon, she'd cause trouble
for her sister, Holly, who is planning her wedding to Joshua Smucker.
All of their plans become twice as complicated when an old car crashes
into the storefront of Greene's Pharmacy, carrying a Swartzentruber
(ultra-conservative sect) Amish man, Arlan, and his very ill sister.
The
Zooks take in Arlan and Madga, tending to the woman's illness and Arlan
begins helping around the family farm. Ivy and Arlan are on different
tracks, one wanting to leave her community and the other to return to
his. But both young people are trying to discover what God has in store
for their futures and what miracles might lie around the corner this
Christmas season.
Amazon
About The Authors
Her real-life connections with
Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families enrich her novels with
authenticity. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, seeds were sown
years ago that began preparing Cindy to write these books. At the age of
ten, while living in the dairy country of Maryland, she became best
friends with Luann, a Plain Mennonite girl. Luann, like all the females
in her family, wore the prayer Kapp and cape dresses. Her parents didn’t
allow television or radios, and many other modern conveniences were
frowned upon. During the numerous times Luann came to Cindy’s house to
spend the night, her rules came with her and the two were careful to
obey them—afraid that if they didn’t, the adults would end their
friendship. Although the rules were much easier to keep when they spent
the night at Luann’s because her family didn’t own any of the forbidden
items, both sets of parents were uncomfortable with the relationship and
a small infraction of any kind would have been enough reason for the
parents to end the relationship. While navigating around the adults’
disapproval and the obstacles in each other’s lifestyle, the two girls
bonded in true friendship that lasted into their teen years, until
Cindy’s family moved to another region of the US.
As an adult,
Cindy became friends with a wonderful Old Order Amish family who opened
their home to her. Although the two women, Miriam and Cindy, live seven
hundred miles apart geographically, and a century apart by customs, when
they come together they never lack for commonality, laughter, and
dreams of what only God can accomplish through His children. Over the
years Cindy has continued to make wonderful friendships with those
inside the Amish and Mennonite communities—from the most conservative
ones to the most liberal.
Cindy and her husband reside near the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains in their now empty nest.
ERIN WOODSMALL is a writer, musician, wife, and mom of three. She has
edited, brainstormed, and researched books with Cindy for almost a
decade.
My Review
I enjoyed this second book in this series, and love being updated in the
lives of the previous characters, and now moving on with some of the
other folks me met in Christmas Remedy, and note that they can stand
alone, but love having read both.
We meet a young man willing to
sacrifice all he has for the love and care of his sister, and an Amish
woman who feels the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
The
author treats us to some information about different groups of the
Amish religion, and with this story we see some of what it is like to be
a member of the strictest sect, Swartzentruber.
Most of all I so enjoyed the epilogue, we get to know the future after the books conclusion.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Waterbrook, and was not required to give a positive review.
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