Review: Tall, Dark and Determined by Kelly Eileen Hake

Tall, Dark, and Determined (Husbands for Hire) is the second in the Husbands for Hire series, which follows four women who have left everything to journey west to Hope Falls, to build a sawmill and find husbands. I found the first three chapters of this novel were quite confusing, as I had not read the first book in the series (Rugged and Relentless (Husbands for Hire)), so had a little trouble working out the different characters and the relationships between them.  The book would have benefited from an introduction outlining the characters and the main points of the first book.

Eighteen-year old orphan Lacey Lynam sold her family home and moved West to be with her brother following the news that he had survived the deadly mine collapse in Hope Falls.  With her three friends, she has planned to turn the failed mining town into a saw-milling town to take advantage of the plentiful lumber and convenient railway line.  The ladies posted an advertisement to recruit God-fearing men with lumber experience to cut the trees – and marry the ladies. 

Chase Dunstan lost his brother-in-law in the mine collapse, and is convinced that it was no accident that left his sister a destitute widow.  He journeys to Hope Falls to discover who is responsible for the mine collapse, and bring them to justice.  However, Chase is surprised to find that the town appears to be under the total control of the four women, led by Lacey, and that only employees are permitted to live there.  His job leaves him little time for investigation – but gives him too much time with the frivolous chatterbox who controls everything and everyone.

Overall, Tall, Dark, and Determined (Husbands for Hire) is a fun read that will appeal to those who enjoy Christian historical fiction set in the American West, although some might consider this book to be a little light on the romance and on the Christian content.  For maximum enjoyment, I recommend that the first book in the Husbands for Hire series, Rugged and Relentless (Husbands for Hire), is read first. 

Thanks to Barbour Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook version of Tall, Dark, and Determined (Husbands for Hire) for review.  The paperback will be published on 1 December (which gives you plenty of time to read the first book).

Review: Lonestar Angel by Colleen Coble

Eden met handsome Clay Larson in Hawaii six years ago, and a holiday romance led to an unplanned pregnancy and a quick-fire marriage.  But the marriage rapidly disintegrated after the abduction and death of their six-week-old daughter, Brianna.  Now Clay has walked back into her life, disrupting a romantic dinner to tell her that he never signed the divorce papers, and that Brianna is still alive, and staying on a ranch in Texas.  Who sent the information, and how do they know?

Their daughter is one of five small girls staying on the Bluebird Ranch, which caters for children in the foster-care system, and which is looking for a married couple to take over as counsellors for the group of five-year-old girls.  A friend of Clay’s puts in a good word for them with the ranch owners, enabling them to get close to the girls to discover which is their daughter.  When a rattlesnake appears in their bedroom on their first night at the ranch, they begin to suspect that someone does not want them there.  Working so closely together gives them the opportunity to get to know each other in ways that they never did when they were married, as well as the chance to talk through why their marriage failed – and what they will do if and when they identify Brianna. 

Lonestar Angel is an excellent romantic suspense novel.  The previous Colleen Coble novels I have read have either been more thriller than romantic suspense, or have been part of a series that has been difficult to pick up.  This was a welcome change, with two flawed characters with a difficult shared history, united in their desire to find and care for their daughter. Lonestar Angel is well-written with strong characters, a fast-moving plot, plenty of suspense with a number of twists and an unexpected yet satisfying conclusion.  Although clearly a Christian novel, it was not preachy, with subtle lessons on trust woven throughout. 

I really enjoyed Lonestar Angel.  What I liked best was how an extremely difficult event (the kidnapping and loss of a child, followed by their separation) led both Clay and Eden to become Christians and to grow as people without becoming bitter, despite their great loss.  This meant that when they met up again, they were both able to put aside their differences to work together. I liked the romance, the faithful way Clay was still hooked on Eden.  I also liked the twists in the story, the unexpected links between Clay, Eden and the kidnappers that really filled the story out.

Lonestar Angelis the fourth book in Colleen Coble’s Lonestar series (following Lonestar Sanctuary, Lonestar Secretsand Lonestar Homecoming), but it can enjoyably be read as a stand-alone (although, like me, you may then want to add the previous books to your wish list).

Thanks to Booksneeze® and Thomas Nelson for providing a free ebook to review. 

Review: A Stranger’s Gift by Anna Schmidt

You will have heard the old joke about the guy who is on the roof of his house during a flood or hurricane, and his neighbour comes along in a rowboat to rescue him.  ‘No, God will rescue me,’ the man says.  Next come a crew in a speedboat, but again he says ‘No, God will rescue me’.  Finally a helicopter hovers overhead to winch him up, but he sends that away too.  So, the guy drowns, goes to heaven and is really upset.  He asks God, “why didn’t you rescue me?”, and God says “I sent a rowboat, a speedboat and a helicopter – what were you waiting for?”.  The first part of joke forms the basis for the plot of this novel (well, you can hardly kill off the hero!).

A Stranger's Giftbegins with Hester Detweiler working with the Mennonite Central Committee, a national disaster relief organisation, to prepare for Hurricane Hester, which is due to hit her hometown of Pinecraft, Florida.  Hester is the local MCC leader, a role that causes some consternation among the more conservative members of the Mennonite congregation her father pastors.  They believe that a woman of her age should be channelling her energies into a husband and children, but Hester, at 33, shows no signs of marring (even though there are whispers that her father expects her to marry Samuel Brubaker, the new carpenter he has recently hired).

John Steiner has been banned from his Amish community because he wants to experiment with self-sufficient living in the style of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.  He has spent the last two years working alone on his property near Pinecraft, repairing and restoring it, and has no intention of leaving despite the impending arrival of Hurricane Hester.  

Although the Amish and the Mennonite faiths are linked by a common Anabaptist heritage, plain dress and a simple, separatist lifestyle, the differences are clear.  Hester, a trained nurse, has a college education whereas most Amish leave school when they reach thirteen.  The Mennonites also appear to interact much more with the outside community, as evidenced by Hester’s voluntary work for an aid charity.  However, Hester is still frustrated by the weight of expectation upon her, to fulfil her place in “a community where sameness was not only preferred by also expected”, when her personal longing was for “something beyond the norm”.  John has his own frustrations and an overwhelming sense of guilt that he must overcome.  As John and Hester get to know each other, they find that perhaps they can work together for the good of others.

A Stranger's Gift is not at all preachy.  Obviously, when a novel is based on the lives of a very conservative Christian denomination there is going to be some religious or spiritual content, but it is not overwhelming or out of place.  It is a story of two individuals who don’t quite fit in with the way they were raised, and who individually and together come to realise (and convince those around them) that God can work though many different types of people.  Overall, this was a very enjoyable novel and I would certainly read more from Anna Schmidt.  The second novel in The Women of Pinecraft series, A Sister’s Forgiveness, is due to be published in May 2012.

Review: The Healing by Wanda E Brunstetter

Samuel Fisher has just lost his beloved wife, Elise, mother of their four small children. Living in their shared family home has too many reminders of their life together, so he decides to move from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, to the Amish community where his younger brother, Titus, now lives. Once there Samuel begins working as a painter and general handyman for an ‘English’ woman, Bonnie, who is opening a Bed-and-Breakfast in her grandmother’s old home. Samuel hires Esther, a local Amish woman, to look after his children while he works, and Esther rapidly forms an attachment with the grieving children who are being virtually ignored by their father. She develops feelings for Samuel as well, but will he heal from his loss and see what could be? And if he does, will he return Esther’s feelings, or will he form a bond with Bonnie despite her not being Amish?

The only Amish books I have read until now have been by Beverley Lewis, and have been exclusively set in the Old Order Amish communities of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This book was set in a less conservative Amish community, and there were a number of noticeable differences, particularly the way the Amish characters in this community appear to know and are able to quote appropriate Bible verses, so this was a pleasant change. (I find the rules of the Old Order Amish to be very restricting, similar to the Jewish law outlined in Leviticus).

The Healing is the second book in the Kentucky Brothers series, following The Journey. Although it is obvious that it is part of a series, it reads well as a stand-alone (although I suspect from the way further back-stories are hinted at that some of the minor characters are part of other Brunstetter books, and it is clear that the Timothy/Hannah sub-plot existed only to set the background to the next book in the series). I’m sure that fans of Wanda Brunstetter or Amish fiction in general will enjoy this book, but I found the constant German phrases annoying, the ending was a complete cliché, and the Timothy/Hannah subplot came across as an over-engineered conflict that could have been solved by an honest conversation between Timothy and his father-in-law. Of course, that would mean there couldn’t be a whole book dedicated to it… As you have no doubt guessed, I won’t be reading the sequel.

Genre: Amish Fiction

I have a couple of reviews of Amish fiction coming up, with more due in early 2012. It has been a while since I read any, and as it is set in quite a different ‘world’ to most fiction, I thought I would start by giving a bit of an introduction to the genre for those who haven’t been exposed to Amish fiction before.

Amish fiction typically focuses on the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and other communities around the United States. The Amish are often referred to as ‘Plain’ or ‘Pennsylvania Dutch’, a corruption of ‘Deutsch’, as they typically speak a variant of German in their homes, although they also speak English. The Amish refer to non-Amish as ‘English’ (regardless of national or racial heritage) or as ‘Fancy’. The Mennonites have similar beliefs, but are more progressive in that they wear more contemporary clothes and use ‘worldly’ devices.

The Amish religion and traditions grew out of the Anabaptist reformers who rejected to what they felt were corrupt practices in the Protestant and Catholic religions of the 1500's. The Amish stress the importance of “keeping the body pure and spotless and free from the contaminating influences of the worldly aspects of life”. Common Amish rules include separation from the world, hard work, a woman’s submission to her husband and mode of dress.

Although the initial reason for leaving the established church was the Amish belief that congregation members are just as capable of interpreting the Bible as the clergy, they do not have “personal evangelism, personal Bible studies, and personal conversions… Such behaviour would threaten to elevate the individual over the community. Those who do attempt to show of their Biblical knowledge by quoting the scriptures are referred to as ‘Scripture Proud’…. They feel it would be an egotistical expression of vanity to ever claim they are certain of their eternal salvation. Instead, they feel it is their duty to live obediently to God's will and, in due time, God will reward the faithful.”

The Amish have no central church government, and live by a behavioural code called the Ordnung. The Ordnung covers every aspect of day-to-day living, and includes prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Rules might differ by district (for instance, one district might be allowed to use a telephone but another might not), and disobeying the rules can result in ‘shunning’ – removal from the community until the individual repents. However, the Amish freely forgive, most publicly following a schoolhouse shooting in 2006 that left five young girls dead, now the subject of the movie Amish Grace.

While the rules of the Ordnung often sound rigid and controlling (groups have apparently been known to separate over infractions as minor as the width of a hat brim), the focus is meant to be on building and guarding character, to guide people into more Christ-like behaviour. Gelassenheit, or submission to the will of God, is central to their beliefs, and is shown through obedience, humility and simplicity. Individuality, selfishness and pride are abhorrent. The Amish seek to live lives devoted to God, family and community, based on God’s laws, valuing freedom of heart, peace of mind and a clear conscience. While the rules may seem restricting to outsiders, there is much to admire in the Amish culture, and this attracts the modern ‘English’ reader.

Popular Christian authors of Amish fiction include:

Wanda E Brunstetter
Linda Byler
Vanetta Chapman
Mindy Starns Clark
Amy Clipston
Diane Christner
Jerry Eicher
Mary Ellis
Suzanne Woods Fisher
Katherine Fuller
Ann H Gabhart
Tricia Goyer
Laura Hilton
BJ Hoff
Beverley Lewis
Hillary Manton Lodge
Kelly Long
Judith Miller
Marta Perry
Shelley Shepard Gray
Ruth Reid
Gayle Roper
Anna Schmidt
Beth Wiseman
Cindy Woodsmall

Most Amish fiction is contemporary, with a focus on the juxtaposition between ‘Plain’ life and the modern world. Some authors write Amish fiction exclusively, with the plot and characters all or mostly Amish. Others may be set in Lancaster County, but with ‘English’ main characters and only bring in the Amish as minor characters or plot points. Some authors also write ‘regular’ Christian fiction (romance, romantic suspense, historical, contemporary).

(Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish. Quotes from http://www.welcome-to-lancaster-county.com/amish-religion.html).