The people of Cedar Cove know how to celebrate Christmas. Like Grace and Olivia and everyone else, Beth Morehouse expects this Christmas to be one of her best. Her small Christmas-tree farm is prospering, her daughters and her dogs are happy and well, and her new relationship with local vet Ted Reynolds is showing plenty of romantic promise.But…someone recently left a basket ï ¬  lled with puppies on her doorstep, puppies she’s determined to place in good homes. That’s complication number one. And number two is that her daughters Bailey and Sophie have invited their dad, Beth’s ex-husband, Kent, to Cedar Cove for Christmas. The girls have visions of a mom-and-dad reunion dancing in their heads.As always in life—and in Cedar Cove—there are surprises, too. More than one family’s going to have a puppy under the tree. More than one scheme will go awry. And more than one romance will have a happy ending! 

Against the peaceful night sky, a barn burns…Sarah Kauffman sought permission from her church elders to paint murals on a few of the Amish community’s barns. Each was designed like an old–fashioned quilt square, representing a piece of the Amish traditions Sarah loved. The works of art were intended to draw more tourists to the Home Valley in the struggling economy. But instead, they invited a menace. One by one, each barn is set ablaze and destroyed… 

The arson fires spread fear through the community— amongst Amish and Englischers alike. Now Sarah wonders if she’s being punished for her pridefulness…or whether there’s a more malevolent will at work.

As an outsider, arson investigator Nate MacKenzie struggles to investigate the crime scenes while adhering to Amish ways. With Sarah as his guide, he warms to the Plain People and their simple ways. As the fires rage, beliefs are challenged, a way of life is questioned and family secrets are exposed. In the aftermath of the destruction the people of the Home Valley must join together to raise their barns and their hopes for the future.

My Comments: Again, I like books about the Amish, but I don’t know how often people “leave the faith.”  I had a difficult time engaging with this book and kept finding myself getting distracted, so it took me quite a while to finish it.  I’ve read other books by Karen Harper and enjoyed them.  This book has many of the elements of fiction that I love it’s an Amish  mystery.  It just seemed to drag along for me.  I was able to predict the barn burner early on, so the end wasn’t a surprise for me.  I will keep reading books by Karen Harper.  Sorry to say this one just didn’t do it for me.

In this first book of a three-book series, author Vannetta Chapman brings a fresh twist to the popular Amish fiction genre. She blends the familiar components consumers love in Amish books—faith, community, simplicity, family—with an innovative who-done-it plot that keeps readers guessing right up to the last stitch in the quilt. When two women—one Amish, one English—each with different motives, join forces to organize a successful on-line quilt auction, neither expects nor wants a friendship. As different as night and day, Deborah and Callie are uneasy partners who simply want to make the best of a temporary situation. But a murder, a surprising prime suspect, a stubborn detective, and the town’s reaction throw the two women together, and they form an unlikely alliance to solve a mystery and catch a killer. Set in the well-known Amish community of Shipshewana, Falling to Pieces will attract both devoted fans of the rapidly-growing Amish fiction genre, as well as those who are captivated by the Amish way of life.

My Comments: This book included my two most favorite genres – Amish fiction and cozy mystery.  What a captivating read!  Chapman’s characters combine a good mix of Englisch and Amish.  The women characters were strong and even though married and Amish – they were independent thinkers.  The mystery is engaging but not over the top.  I found it interesting to follow the development and  friendship between the Amish and Englisch main characters.  I heartily look forward to the next two books in this series!

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women: 

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

My Comments: I must be one of the last women in America who read this book, but I was determined to read it before I saw the movie, so yesterday about an hour after I finished, my daughter and I went to see the movie.  This is a great story!    I won’t dissect it as some do, but I enjoyed it – I laughed and I cried and I was 100% engaged throughout even though the movie cut out twice (I think it was the heat!).

I felt the movie came pretty darn close to the book – all couldn’t be captured and of course books are almost ALWAYS better, and I’m not sure the Constantine story line in the movie had quite the same impact as the book, but the movie captured the two slices of pie scene wonderfully.

Speaking of books that have become movies, there sure have been a lot of them.  Wondering which ones you liked the best and the least?  Please leave quick comment.

I’d have to say, the one I like least is the Rizzoli and Isles television show based on the GREAT books by Tess Gerritsen.  I have to look at that show as completely different than the books because no way could I imagine Maura Isles in the books to be like the one on the TNT series.  Jane is a little closer with Angie Harmon, but still not quite capturing the character.  The stories are also much milder on television.

What do you think?  Let me know!

Everyone needs a safe place to call home

When her mother passes away, Ella’s forced to auction off her family’s farm. Her father died years ago, and she could never manage the fifty acres on her own. But after she moves to town, she can’t deny the pain she feels watching the new owner, Loyal Weaver, repairing her family’s old farmhouse—everything Ella had once dreamed of doing.

What Ella doesn’t know is that Loyal secretly hopes she will occupy this house again . . . as his wife. He begins inviting her over, to ask her opinion on changes he wants to make. As their friendship blooms, Ella starts to wonder about Loyal’s intentions, especially when her best friend, Dorothy, hints that Loyal is not who he seems. There’s no way the golden boy of their close-knit Amish community could be interested in Ella, long the wallflower, hidden away caring for her ailing parents.

Should she trust the man she’s always yearned for, or the friend who’s always been by her side? When one of them threatens to disrupt the independence she’s finally achieved, Ella is faced with a choice. She can protect her heart and keep things the way they’ve always been. Or she can come out of her shell, risk everything for the love she’s always wanted, and finally have a place to call home.

My comments: Shelley Shepard Gray is one of my favorite writers of Amish fiction.  Her books keep me engaged from beginning to end.  I love this series!  The characters, although Amish, are easy to relate to.  I can especially relate to the fears and concerns of Ella.  She’s not sure who to trust, who to believe, and her self-esteem is low.  She is lonely and devastated when she has to sell the family farm, and at best finds it difficult to watch somebody else outside of the family fix it up.  It’s fun reading about how her life changes.  I look forward to other books by Gray including the third book in this series.  It’s fun keeping up with the characters.

Seek a fresh start with Amish widower Samuel Fisher as he journeys from Lancaster County to Bluegrass Country, hoping to find a balm for the grief he’s carried with him. Will this single father, burdened by yesterday’s memories, discover a new and perhaps better life in Kentucky, the land of tomorrow? Esther Beiler, who helps watch Samuel’s children, develops a crush on Samuel and a true affection for his kids. Can she win his heart, or has she already lost it to an English woman? How will God untangle star-crossed lovers when jealousies and misconceptions threaten to tear them apart?

My Comments: