Rhonda's Doings !

Review of  Trading Secrets by Melody Carlson Back in fifth grade, Micah Knight got an Amish pen pal, and over the years, they've exchanged many letters--and many secrets. At age seventeen, Micah finally has the chance to meet her pen pal face-to-face. The only problem is that because of confusion about her name when the pen pals were assigned, her pen pal was a boy, Zack Miller. And all this time, Micah's never told Zack that she's actually a girl! While she wants nothing more than to experience life on Zack's Amish farm, she's afraid he'll hate her for deceiving him all these years. But she makes up her mind to face the music--and that's where the fun really begins.  Bestselling author Melody Carlson brings young adults another fascinating tale of worlds colliding, secrets being revealed, and friendships forming. Teens will love this story of miscommunication and mishaps along the way to the truth. MY REVIEW:  This is a work of Young Adult Amis...

Giveaway for $5 Amazon Gift Card AND THE WINNER IS.....Sissie Prater who entered on my facebook page.  Congrats! and thanks to all who entered! To enter, tell me what you like best about autumn.  I love the changing colors here in Virginia.  you can enter here or at my facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/rhondasdoings?ref=bookmarks Giveaway ends Sept. 30, 2014 at midnight.   Leave an email with your comment so I can contact you.  The giftcard will be delivered via email as well.   

Review of   A Love Undone: An Amish Novel of Shattered Dreams and God's Unfailing Grace by Cindy Woodsmall A husband and son abandoned to forge a path alone. A young woman who sacrificed her dreams. How will the God of grace and hope help them find their way?   At nineteen years old, Old Order Amish Jolene Keim was on the brink of happily-ever-after when everything changed, stealing the future she expected and burdening her with an unbearable decision. For the next ten years, Jolene throws herself into family life—and then she meets Andy Fisher. The horse trainer and father to a sweet nine year-old challenges her and holds up a mirror to issues Jolene has been unwilling to face. Andy is cautious about his deepening friendship with Jolene, but he believes she knows the truth about him – that he is a grass widower. As a man whose wife has abandoned him six years past, he is unable to divorce or remarry according to the Amish ways. Andy has wrestled with God conc...

Review of NIV Once a Day Bible for Women The NIV Once A Day Bible for Women combines helpful summary information before each reading with application questions after each reading to deliver the most satisfying daily reading plan ever. It includes the full text of the most read, most trusted NIV translation. The NIV Once A Day Bible - Understand and Apply Edition for Women is a must-have Bible for any woman committed to growing in her relationship with God through the spiritual discipline of daily Bible reading, reflection and application. MY REVIEW:  This is a lovely soft-bound Bible designed for women in a beautiful shade of pink for the cover.   It is composed in the NIV, New International Version.  The NIV is one of  my personal favorites to read as it makes the Bible clear and easily understandable.  Each day is clearly marked, one through 365 for reading the Bible through in one year.   Each day's reading contains some chapters from the Old Te...

Review of 940 Saturdays  by Harley Robart, M. D.  There are 940 Saturdays between a child’s birth and the day he or she turns 18.   That may sound like a lot when there are adventures to plan and hours to fill. But as your child learns to walk, ride a bicycle, and drive, the years pass quickly. This beautiful package includes both a removable booklet with a thousand ideas for family activities that you and your child will love at every age, and a keepsake journal for preserving what you saw and did, thought and felt, so you can savor these memories in the years to come. My Review:   This is a beautiful hardcover journal for parents to record 940 fun Saturday events with their child/children.  The book consists of blank pages marked with the day (as in Day One).  The pages are lined for easy recording.   There is a small pocket at the back which holds a small paperback book with ideas for activities to do for children birth thru teens...

Review of The Brickmaker's Bride by Judith Miller Yearning for a fresh start, Ewan McKay travels with his aunt and uncle from northern Scotland to West Virginia, promising to trade his skills in the clay business for financial assistance from his uncle Hugh. Hugh purchases a brickmaking operation from a Civil War widow and her daughter, but it's Ewan who gets the business up and running again. Ewan seeks help from Laura, the former owner's daughter, and he feels a connection with her, but she's being courted by another man--a lawyer with far more social clout and money than Ewan. Besides, Ewan has resolved he'll focus on making the brickmaking operation enough of a success that he can become a partner in the business  and be able to afford to bring his sisters  over from Scotland. But when Hugh signs a bad business deal, all Ewan's hard work may come to naught. As his plans begin to crumble, Laura reveals something surprising. She and her mother may hav...

Review of A February Bride by Betsy St. Amant  Happily ever after guaranteed. Allie left the love of her life at the altar—to save him from a lifetime of heartbreak. When a Valentine’s Day wedding brings them back together, she struggles against her family’s destructive history. Can Allie ever realize that a marriage is so much more than a wedding dress? History repeats itself when Allie Andrews escapes the church on her wedding day—in the same dress passed down for generations and worn by all the women in her family—women with a long history of failed marriages. Allie loves Marcus, but fears she’s destined to repeat her family’s mistakes. She can’t bear to hurt Marcus worse. Marcus Hall never stopped loving Allie and can only think of one reason she left him at the altar—him. When the two are thrown together for his sister’s Valentine’s Day wedding, he discovers the truth and realizes their story might be far from over. Can Allie shuck expectation and discover who she is ...

Review of A Secret of the Heart by J. E. B. Spredemann Lillianna Zook and Thomas Girod had been secret friends throughout most of their Amish childhood, but they part ways when Lillianna’s family moves to a district in another state. She fears their friendship has been lost forever until a chance encounter brings them in contact once again. Lillianna learns that Thomas needs money – a lot of it – and it’s a matter of life and death. Lillianna is willing to do anything she can to help Thomas, so when an opportunity arises where she can make a lot of money in a short time, she doesn’t hesitate. But will her sacrifice be worth the trials this new opportunity presents. MY REVIEW:  This is a heart-wrenching story of forgiveness, loyalty, and love.  Lillianna goes above and beyond to provide the money Thomas needs for his cancer treatments.   She lives with an Englisch family to act as their nanny and what she receives is a broken heart in return.   This is a ...

Review of   A   January Bride by Deborah Raney Who can work in a house that's overrun by contractors and carpenters? Not Madeleine Houser, a successful novelist who gladly accepts the help of her octogenarian friend, Ginny, to arrange for a temporary office in the charming bed and breakfast owned by Ginny's friend, Arthur. Maddie’s never met the innkeeper––but a friendship grows between them as Maddie and Arthur leave messages for each other each day. To Maddie’s alternate delight and chagrin, she seems to be falling for the inn’s owner––a man who's likely many years her senior––and who she’s never even met. MY REVIEW:  What a delightful novella!   I love the way Deborah Raney uses humor throughout the novella.   This story is full of surprises for the characters and the readers.   I can relate to how Maddie and Arthur sort of "fell in love" with each other by writing notes each day even though they had not met in person yet.  My husband...

Review of A Light in the Wilderness by Jane Kirkpatrick Letitia holds nothing more dear than the papers that prove she is no longer a slave. They may not cause white folks to treat her like a human being, but at least they show she is free. She trusts in those words she cannot read–as she is beginning to trust in Davey Carson, an Irish immigrant cattleman who wants her to come west with him. Nancy Hawkins is loathe to leave her settled life for the treacherous journey by wagon train, but she is so deeply in love with her husband that she knows she will follow him anywhere–even when the trek exacts a terrible cost. Betsy is a Kalapuya Indian, the last remnant of a once proud tribe in the Willamette Valley in Oregon territory. She spends her time trying to impart the wisdom and ways of her people to her grandson. But she will soon have another person to care for. As season turns to season, suspicion turns to friendship, and fear turns to courage, three spirited women will disc...

Review of   A  December Bride by Denise Hunter What started as a whim turned into an accidental - and very public - engagement. Can Layla and Seth keep up the facade in Chapel Springs this holiday season - for the sake of her career . . . and his heart? Under normal circumstances, Seth Murphy, the best friend of Layla O'Reilly's ex-fiance would be the last person she'd marry. But the news of their upcoming (and phony) nuptials convinces a big client that Layla may be high-society enough to work for his agency, a coup that would put her fledgling home-staging business on the map. Seth has secretly loved Layla for years, even when she was dating his best friend. Maybe she'll never forgive him for the way he hurt her back then, but he has to try. And Layla is willing to keep up their engagement farce until she's landed her client. For Layla, it's the chance to save her career. But for Seth, it's his last chance to win her heart. MY REVIEW:  I love...

Review of Murder Tightly Knit by Vannetta Chapman When a local Amish man is found dead, the Middlebury Amish Artisan Village comes under suspicion. Two amateur sleuths—one Amish, one English—will have to work quickly to keep fear from dividing their community. As fall blankets the Pumpkinvine Trail with leaves of brown, gold, and orange, a local Amish man is found dead on the path. The only clues to the murderer’s identity point in two very different directions—toward the local survivalist group and toward the Amish Village—specifically the village’s knitting shop, The Cat’s Meow. The police call in a federal investigator, and he quickly puts everyone on the suspect list. Amber Bowman and Hannah Troyer know who isn’t guilty—they know this community down to the last buggy, but can find the guilty party before someone else is in danger? While Hannah helps Amber solve the mystery, she and Jesse Miller continue courting. But when Jesse’s prodigal brother returns to their farm...

Review of A May Bride by Meg Moseley She’s prepared for her wedding all her life … but she forgot a few things. Ellie Martin, a country girl in Atlanta, often de-stresses from city life by tending the flower beds of a church near her apartment. She has dreamed of a traditional wedding all her life, a wedding like the one her younger sister is planning back in their hometown. Their single mom will pay for Alexa’s wedding, but Ellie started her own wedding fund years ago. She only needs to find a groom. She bumps into a man who’s a guest at a wedding on the church grounds. She’s noticed him around the neighborhood, but today he introduces himself as Gray Whitby. They embark on a whirlwind romance, but her mother doesn’t trust freewheeling men like him. Standing up to Mom leads Ellie to stick up for Alexa too. When Ellie risks her own plans for her sister’s sake, Gray feels betrayed. Will he always play second fiddle? Will Ellie and Gray reconcile their differences so her dream w...

Review of A Dream of Home (Hearts of the Lancaster Grand Hotel #3) by Amy Clipston When she moves to Amish country to find peace and healing, Madeleine finds a special community and a special man who pull her out of her solitude into a new life. Moving to Pennsylvania wasn' t in Madeleine s original plans. She should still be in California and should have married her pilot fiance a year ago but death has a way of changing everything. Now the former Air Force flight nurse is living alone in Paradise, Pennsylvania, and working as a maid at the Lancaster Grand Hotel. She isn' t exactly a widow . . . but she sure feels like one. Saul Beiler isn' t exactly a widower . . . but his wife is long gone. His six-year-old daughter, Emma, doesn t know that her mother fled the Amish community and married another man but she does know that her dat is lonely, and that a pretty young maedel just moved in next door. Madeline s numb heart begins to thaw as she spends more time wi...