Rhe’s Bookshelf – A Visit to Summer Grove with Cindy Woodsmall’s New Series


I am so excited to be doing a book review for ya’ll! It’s been awhile since we’ve paid a visit to my bookshelf and I’m really excited to bring you guys a new book from my favorite Amish-life author. Cindy first came across my bookshelf a couple years ago with the Amish Vines and Vineyards series which is the reason why I started reading Amish books in the first place. It never seemed like anything I would love but I did!! When the series was done I had some serious sadness and withdrawl issues. But Ms Woodsmall is back with what is going to be another amazing series; and I was lucky enough to check out the first two books.

summary


Twenty-year-old Ariana Brenneman loves her family and the Old Ways. She has two aspirations: open a café in historic Summer Grove to help support her family’s ever-expanding brood and to keep any other Amish from being lured into the Englisch life by Quill Schlabach.

Five years ago Quill, along with her dear friend Frieda, ran off together, and Ariana still carries the wounds of that betrayal. When she unexpectedly encounters him, she soon realizes he has plans to help someone else she loves leave the Amish.

Despite how things look, Quill’s goal has always been to protect Ariana from anything that may hurt her, including the reasons he left. After returning to Summer Grove on another matter, he unearths secrets about Ariana and her family that she is unaware of. His love and loyalty to her beckons him to try to win her trust and help her find a way to buy the café—because when she learns the truth that connects her and a stranger named Skylar Nash, Quill knows it may upend her life forever.

summary

The Old Order Amish life Ariana Brenneman loved vanished virtually overnight with the discovery that she was switched at birth twenty years ago. Now she’s immersed in the Englischer world, getting to know her mother and under the authority of her biological father, an atheist intellectual with resolute plans to expand Ariana’s worldview. Only Quill Schlabach, a childhood friend
living Englisch, can help steady Ariana’s tilting ground between the two worlds, but can she trust him after so many betrayals?

At the same time, Skylar Nash is forced to choose rehab or spend several months with her true relatives, the large Brenneman family and their seemingly backward life—no electricity, no technology, no fun. What the young woman can’t leave behind is her addiction to illegal prescription drugs and deep emptiness from the belief that she doesn’t belong in either family.
New ties are binding Ariana and Skylar to the lives they were meant to have. Can they find the wisdom and strength they’ll need to follow God’s threads into unexpected futures?


Review

So I didn’t read the back cover of book one, so I had no idea what was coming. Feeling emotional while reading a book is really one of the most important things I look for when reading fiction. I want to feel what these characters feel. That is what gets you through a book, makes you want to continue on and find out what happens. The writing, again, sucks you in as Cindy is so skilled at drawing you into the Amish world. The relationships of the family, and the love that the main character shows to the family draws you in. Quill is one of my favorite characters in Ms Woodsmall’s books. His passion and love for the faith, while in direct opposition to his life, was emotional. You could feel it coming from the book. I found myself simultaneously angry, imagining how parts of this book could never actually happen in real life….while also thinking, “What would happen if this was real life?”

Cindy’s books are an easy and enjoyable read, but don’t mistake that for simple or something that isn’t complex. The relationships are hard, and the reality of what these people are dealing with his powerful and very, very real. People might get angry at the way some of the characters behave, I know I did, but you have to understand the reality of the world these characters live in. It’s a very real world. Looking at these books as not only an enjoyable read but as an education as well is important. These books are an education for its readers, and Ms Woodsmall expertly does so.

have you read any Amish fiction? I’d love hear about it!! 
And one lucky reader will win their own copies of books 1 and 2 of this series!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



~Rheanna
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2014 – The Year of Books #FF

 Welcome to #FF, Feature and Follow, with Parajunkee and Allison Can Read! If you love to read, blog about books, or want to start…come join the fun!

Again people I failed to meet my challenge! Oiy!!! I didn’t realize how many novellas I read this year, ones that I didn’t really think qualified so I didn’t add them on my Goodreads. Boo Hoo people! But some good things happened, with me and books – I read some movie books before I saw the movies (and then realized how much I hate Nicholas Sparks – read the post here) , I read some really amazing books that I really loved, and I started a book club with some local military spouses. So, although I didn’t meet my challenge, I read a lot of books and I continued my love affair with books.  More books were read then last year, and we did a lot of kid book reading this year too.

Murder in the CIA by Margaret Truman 
I continued reading the Capitol Crimes series by Margaret Truman. Loving this series, and its particularly amazing because we live here, and I’ve been to a ton of the places mentioned in the books. That is pretty darn cool. This is a great series and I would recommend it to any mystery book lover.
Split Second by Alex Kava 
This is the second book in a new series that I started reading, at the suggestion of my mother. The subject of the book is a female FBI agent, and most of the books take place in the Virginia area. 
Steel Will by Shilo Harris 
Absolutely amazing book to read! A must read.
6304335 
I delved into my YA book reading side. Yes, I read twilight, yes I liked them. Don’t judge me! I knew that they had made a movie out of this book and I had always wanted to see it. So I read the book and then watched the movie with one of my girlfriends. They didn’t do a bad job. If they had really tried to do it justice the movie would have had to have been a million hours long. It is an extremely long book, but really good. I was going to read the second book, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Its on my list of to-dos for 2015!
Seasons of Tomorrow (Amish Vines and Orchards #4) 
The last in one my favorite Amish Series! I almost don’t want it to be over, and I’m not actually sure if it is. There would be some good spinoffs in there. Cindy was my first foray into Amish books, as I’d been hesitant because it didn’t really seem all that interesting. However, Cindy sucked me in and I became an addict.
So those were some of my favorite books of 2014! You can check out all the books on my challenge list by friending me on Goodreads. I’d love to check out all the books you are reading.
Did you have a favorite book of 2014? 

 

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Rhe’s Bookshelf – Seasons of Tomorow by Cindy Woodsmall

 Seasons of Tomorrow, Amish Vines and Orchards Series #4   -     By: Cindy Woodsmall

Summary 
Rhoda Byler feels freer than ever in the Old Order Amish settlement she helped to establish. Healed from past wounds, she focuses on nurturing the orchards in her care and pursuing God’s plan for her unusual gifts. When a horrible tragedy occurs, what will become of the bright future that just recently appeared?
The moving culmination in this popular Amish romance series, Rhoda Byler finally has the confidence and freedom she’s always longed for in the Old Order Amish settlement she helped establish with the King family. But can faith, hope, and most of all love prevail when a horrible disaster strikes?
Review

I have been waiting to read this book and I was beyond excited. I don’t want the series to end and Cindy keeps it going with Seasons of Tomorrow. I felt like it was all coming to a head with this book. By this time in the series you are totally invested in these characters and you genuinely love them. I felt myself going through the emotions a ton in this book. There were some lovely new additional characters introduced during this book. Even though I felt as though this was probably the last book in the series I definitely wanted more. Cindy is great with the happy endings and that’s why I like to read. There were trials and tribulations, hardships along the way, but all’s well that ends well. This series is what made me really fall in love with Amish fiction. Having never read one before this I wasn’t really sure that I would be interested. She won me over I love it. I’ve read several others from different authors ( you can find those on my bookshelf tab ). Thanks for another great book Cindy.

You can purchase this book through Amazon {affiliate link}

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Rhe’s Bookshelf: Christmas in Apple Ridge


  
synopsis:  Christmas in Apple Ridge is a 3-n-1 novella series.

The Sound of Sleigh Bells
Beth Hertzler is unable to let go of a past tragedy, but when she discovers a large, intricately carvedscene of Amish children playing in the snow, something deep inside Beth’s soul responds. Determined that her niece meet the gifted artist, her aunt tracks him down, but it’s not that simple – will Jonah be able to offer Beth the sleigh ride she’s always dreamed of and a second chance at real love?
  

The Christmas Singing
Mattie thought her childhood sweetheart adored her until he abruptly ended their engagement on Christmas Eve. Brokenhearted, Mattie moves away and pursues her longtime dream of becoming a cake
    decorator, and even finds a new beau. But when Mattie is forced to return home three years later, will 
    learning the truth behind Gideon’s rejection restore her Christmas joy – or open the door to even deeper       heartbreak?

 The Dawn of Christmas
Sadie enjoys her freedom away from home and her mission trips to Peru, but after four years, her Old Order Amish family insists it’s time to come home and settle down. Levi, a bachelor who distrusts women after a family heartbreak, also has no desire for romance. To keep their families from meddling in their lives, Sadie and Levi devise a plan—but soon discover that the walls around their hearts are breaking down. Can they let go of their prejudices, learn to trust each other, and embrace a future together?

What I Thought: 

I am becoming such a lover of these Amish stories, and most especially those by Cindy Woodsmall.  She is who really won me over in the first place.  Again her stories have had the ability to draw me into these beautiful and romantic stories.  Stories of promise and new beginnings.  These stories are always full of hope and warmth.  I really can’t get enough of them and am always anxiously awaiting when I can get my hands on another one.  I loved that the three stories intertwined with each other, and we were able to see what happened after another character’s book is over.  The last one, The Dawn of Christmas, wasn’t my absolute favorite.  I didn’t get into the characters like I did the others.  The book probably deserved to be a little bit longer.  It felt hurried during parts of it.

All in all these books, together, will hold a place on my “books I’d read again again” bookshelf.

Thanks Cindy!

5 out of 5 Stars

visit Cindy’s website and because I’m totally obsessed with Book Trailers (I really want to be in one now!)
here’s the one for this Novella

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Rhe’s Bookshelf – For Every Season

For Every Season
by Cindy Woodsmall

 

 

Summary
Working hard to develop a new Amish community outside of Unity, Maine, Rhoda Byler is fully committed to rehabilitating an orchard with business partner Samuel King. But an impulsive decision has created an unexpected strain in her relationship with her beau, Samuel’s brother, Jacob, threatening plans for the orchard. Amidst mounting tension in matters of the heart and business, Rhoda finds that this fledging settlement feels like the home she has always longed for, and she begins to embrace the God-given, heightened intuition that has always felt like a burden to her. She longs for Jacob to fully be free of his past, so they can work towards the future together.
But as Rhoda uses her gift to unpack an old secret with her Englisch neighbors, it is not her beau but an unlikely ally that cheers her on. With the orchard on shaky ground and Jacob’s plans in question, Rhoda is determined to see things through to harvest. But can she trust her insight to direct her path in matters of the heart?
What I thought
I was so thrilled to be able to continue reading this series, thanks to WaterBrook Press.  Cindy Woodsmall’s Amish Vines and Orchards series was my very first Amish book experience.  You can read my previous reviews from this series here and here.  I am so in love with these characters and how Ms Woodsmall portrays them.  You feel as if you are there with them and you truly wish nothing but the best for them.  Ms Woodsmall’s writing style is easy and familiar.  It isn’t simple though.   She does a fantastic job of weaving an intricate, complex tale with an ease about it.  I think this would be such a wonderful book for older teenage girls, however I love it at the age of thirty.  It isn’t all rainbows and sunshines in real life, and this series doesn’t attempt build some sort of fairy tale view of Amish life, or life in general.  It certainly isn’t a downer, but its real.  That’s what drew me, and kept me, with these stories in the first place.  As I’ve mentioned in past reviews, I’m not usually a Amish book reader.  I was concerned that it wouldn’t be relatable, or just plain boring.  Not the case.  I can not believe that I have to wait until April of next year for the next book in the series!!  I don’t want to wait!!!
5 out of 5 Stars!  ( I will read this book again!!)
Here’s a peak at the cover for Seasons of Tomorrow

 

  And *cough cough*, if you happen to read this Cindy, after watching the book trailer I know am hoping for a Hallmark Movie series based off these books!  It was torture watching this!!

 

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