Rhonda's Doings !

A Long Bridge Home  (Amish of Big Sky Country #2) by Kelly Irvin Book Description: After her community in the awe-inspiring Montana mountains is suddenly consumed by a raging wildfire, one young Amish woman finds herself in a new town where she’s introduced to the Native culture of the Kootenai people.   When the Mast family is forced to evacuate their home in the West Kootenai region of Montana, Christine chooses not to move with her family to her father’s childhood home in Kansas. Instead, she wants to stay closer to home and to her beau, Andy Lambright, who has yet to ask for her hand in marriage and who seems to be holding tightly to secrets from his past.  Now, living with her aunt and uncle in St. Ignatius, Christine is on her own for the first time in her life. While working in her uncle’s store Christine meets Raymond Old Fox, whom she befriends, and he introduces her to his rich native culture with strong ties to the earth and nature. Despite the warning...

Mountains of Grace (Amish of Big Sky Country #1) by Kelly Irvin In the first of a new series set in the Amish communities of Montana, bestselling author Kelly Irvin explores what the Amish do in the aftermath of natural disaster. Schoolteacher Mercy Yoder loves her life in the beautiful West Kootenai region of Montana. But when a wildfire blazes outside her beloved community, she and her family are forced to evacuate and flee to the small town of Eureka. John Hostetler, Mercy’s beau, sorts through the damage left by the fire, helping Mercy set up a makeshift school to continue her passion. Eureka is filled with fire personnel, media, and rubberneckers—more contact with the outside world than Mercy has ever experienced. A chance encounter with a smoke jumper, Travis Cooper, leads to longer conversations about her Amish beliefs and life. As word arrives that their home was one of the houses destroyed in the fire, Mercy struggles to accept that everything they owned is gone. A l...

An Amish Summer  by Shelley Shepard Gray, Amy Clipston,  Kathleen Fuller, & Kelly Irvin Book Description: A Reunion in Pinecraft   by Shelley Shepard Gray When sisters Sharon and Sherilyn Kramer attend a wedding in Shipshewana, one of them returns with a new penpal while the other returns to her job at the bakery. After sending weekly letters back and forth, Sherry and Graham Holland arrange a reunion in Pinecraft. Upon Graham s arrival, however, he realizes he s been writing to the wrong sister. He decides to use the reunion as a way to get to know both sisters, but can he sort through the confusion in time to turn the worst vacation ever into something truly wonderful? Summer Storm   by Amy Clipston Arianna is counting down the days until her wedding to Jesse. They have been friends longer than Arianna can remember, and that friendship turned into love over the past couple of years. But when Arianna s brother Isaac, who happens to be Jesse's ...

Beneath the Summer Sun (Every Amish Season #2) by Kim Vogel Sawyer Book Description: Jennie Troyer knows it’s time to remarry, and with two men pursuing her, she doesn’t have to look far. But after the pain she’s experienced, can she open her heart to love? It’s been four years since Jennie’s husband died in a farming accident. Long enough that the elders in her Amish community think it’s time to shed her grief and remarry for the sake of her seven children. What they don’t know is it isn’t grief that’s holding her back, but rather a fear of a repeat of her abusive marriage. Paul Graber has known--and loved--Jennie since they were children, and he’d hoped to court her when they were teenagers. But when he was fourteen, Paul’s father died suddenly in his arms. Ever since he’s been afraid of the searing pain of loss that comes from opening himself up to love. Now Jennie’s free again and he’s fighting to have the courage not to lose her a second time. Nathan Walker is a Men...

An Amish Christmas Love by Beth Wiseman, Amy Clipston, Ruth Reid, & Kelly Irvin Book Description: Winter Kisses   by Beth Wiseman Three generations of Stoltzfus women are all living under the same roof. At twenty-five, Naomi has never been married, and both her mother, Barbara, and her grandmother, Ruth, have recently been widowed. Each nursing broken or lonely hearts, they also each have potential suitors. When a storm on Christmas Eve forces the three couples to take shelter in the basement of the Stotlzfus homestead, secrets are revealed, hearts are opened, and all three potential grooms drop to their knees for very different reasons a proposal, a prayer, and an epiphany. The Christm as Cat   by Amy Clipston Emma Bontrager is spending her first Christmas alone after her husband of 45 years, Henry, passed away in July. Although the Amish don't normally allow animals in their homes, a big, fat, orange barn cat keeps coming into Emma's house. She shoos the cat away...

An Amish Summer Book Review Four Novellas by Shelley Shepard Gray, Amy Clipston, Kathleen Fuller & Kelly Irvin A Reunion in Pinecraft by Shelley Shepard Gray When sisters Sharon and Sherilyn Kramer attend a wedding in Shipshewana, one of them returns with a new penpal while the other returns to her job at the bakery. After sending weekly letters back and forth, Sherry and Graham Holland arrange a reunion in Pinecraft. Upon Graham s arrival, however, he realizes he s been writing to the wrong sister. He decides to use the reunion as a way to get to know both sisters, but can he sort through the confusion in time to turn the worst vacation ever into something truly wonderful? My Review of A Reunion in Pinecraft :  This novella makes me want to visit the Amish community in Pinecraft, Florida, although I think I would want to go at some time other than summer to avoid the humidity!  This was a cute little story of two sisters who have an attraction to the s...