Upon Bess's arrival, she is surprised to see her Grandma looking very well. Once Bertha explained her surgery was to her teeth, she put Bess to work right away helping her with her prize winning roses. She made her living selling them and making jam, and the extra hands were helpful. Bess didn't like it much until she met Billy Lapp, Bertha's helper. But even though Bess, young at fifteen, has her first crush, Billy is in love with another.
Lainey O'Toole used to live in Stoney Ridge until she was taken into foster care when her mother died. Her step father was a drunk and eventually shunned, but on her way to culinary school, her car breaks down in Stoney Ridge. God has something else in store for Lainey.
Lainey and Bess become quick friends, but Lainey is afraid that Bertha may tell Jonas a secret she has harbored for fifteen years, a secret that will affect many lives. When Jonas comes to town to bail his mother and daughter out of jail (I won't tell you why, I don't want to ruin the surprise) he runs into Lainey and is instantly smitten. But Lainey is an English girl and Jonas is looking for an Amish wife.
Two romances, a family of secrets, the strong love of God and faith lead the path of a poignant and heart-warming novel. I read it in one sitting, I couldn't stop turning the pages to see how the lives of these charming characters developed. Absolutely captivating and heart-warming.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In no particular order, Suzanne Woods Fisher is a wife, mother, writer, lifelong student of the Bible, raiser of puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, a gardener and a cook...the latter two with sporadic results.
Suzanne has loved to write since she was a young teen. After college, she started to write for magazines and became a contributing editor for Christian Parenting Today magazine. Her family moved to Hong Kong for four years, just as the internet was developing, and she continued to write articles in a 44-story high-rise apartment, sending manuscripts 7,000 miles away with a click of a key.
After returning from Hong Kong, Suzanne decided to give her first novel a try. For four and a half months, she worked on an antediluvian computer in a cramped laundry room. She didn't even tell her husband what she was up to. When the novel was completed, she told her family at dinner one night that she had written a book. "That's why there's no food in this house!" said her slightly insensitive sons.
Undaunted...Suzanne found a small royalty publisher for that book and wrote three more (all earned multiple awards). With help from an agent, she now has numerous books under contract with Revell. Also look for Suzanne's Amish non-fiction, Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World, a non-fiction book of stories and examples about the Old Order Amish, as well as Amish Proverbs, and coming in Spring of 2011, look for Amish Values for Your Family. The Choice and The Waiting are the previous books in the Lancaster County Secrets Collection.
Writing, for Suzanne, is a way to express a love of God and His word. With every book or article, she hopes readers get a sense of what faith really looks like in the daily grind. She hopes they realize that life can be hard, but God is good, and never to confuse the two.
Suzanne can be found on-line at: www.suzannewoodsfisher.com
Suzanne Woods Fisher's latest installment of the Lancaster County Secrets, The Search
, is just out and to celebrate Suzanne is hosting The Search iPad Giveaway!
One Grand Prize winner will receive an iPad Prize Package worth over $500 and includes:
- A brand new iPad (16KB with Wi-Fi)
- Signed copies of all three Lancaster Country Secrets books (The Choice
, The Waiting
, & The Search
- To enter, simply click on the icons below to fill out the entry form/s, then tell 5 or more friends about the contest. Oh, and enter soon! Winner will be announced on February 3rd at Suzanne's Everything is Coming Up Roses Facebook Party. (Did you know The Search takes place on a rose farm?)
Facebook Party:
Join Suzanne for the Everything is Coming Up Roses Facebook Party on February 3rd! She’ll be announcing the winner of the The Search iPad Giveaway, hosting a book club discussion of The Search, giving away copies of all three books and HEAPS of other readerly prizes! Including roses delivered to your door for three months for you AND a friend! Be sure to join us on Thursday, February 3rd at 5:00 PM PST (6:00 MST, 7:00 CST & 8 EST) at Suzanne’s Author Page.
I received a copy of The Search to facilitate this review at no cost to me. It did not affect my thoughts and opinions of the novel; those are my own.
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The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.
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