I read a lot, so I have a lot of plots and characters running around in my head. Often is the case that a book is predictable, seeming to be about the same story line, with different names and plot enhancement details varying a just a tad. These tend to be forgettable for me. Once in a while, tho...
This was the first book by Suzanne Woods Fisher that I've read and it will definitely not be the last! This well-written book about an Amish couple and an English woman who meet in the doctor's office waiting room right before Christmas and end up spending Christmas Eve together is a quick, feel...
This book involving the Amish culture has a fundamental difference from others I've read. The characters are more prone to the human frailties (jealousy, anger, gossip, etc.). In some ways that is nice and probably more realistic, but in other ways it is kind of like discovering your hero has f...
This is the third book in the Stoney Ridge Seasons series. Mary Kate Lapp (known as MK to her friends and family), is now 19 years old. The only things of interest to MK in her quiet Amish community is the unexplained death of a sheep farmer, which coincides with the arrival of Chris Yoder, a mys...
This book consists of 2- to 3-page vignettes followed by reflection questions. I very much enjoyed this glimpse into the lives of the Amish. I drew my own conclusions on the principles and ignored the forced applications of the reflection questions but could see how this could be used as a tool...
Suzanne Woods Fisher has a wonderful way of allowing me to connect with whatever character she is writing about.The stories always seem real, and I always find myself thinking of the characters long after the final page is read. With Christmas at Rose Hill Farm, there is a bit of mystery, and of ...
This book was an unexpected treasure. It's a collection of Amish proverbs. The book is organized by category ex. money, faith, family, word & deed, work ethic, handling adversity, community, etc with a brief introduction to each chapter explaining background information regarding the Amish way...
She wanted to get out to the southeast corner of the cornfields before the rain broke. They counted on that corn to feed the animals through the winter, when there was no grass left to graze. If they didn’t get some more soaking rain soon, the corn crop would be even smaller than last year.The di...
This place was a wreck: dirty and dingy, musty-smelling, in need of fresh paint and a serious airing out. He frowned. It was his own fault for not making the time to get down to Stoney Ridge to see this property before he agreed to the lease. To a year’s lease, paid in advance, wiping out his sav...
The difficulty was finding it; there were people who carefully concealed that place. Sometimes, though, their guard slipped for a moment or two, and the way to a heart lay open. She saw such a moment today. She thought of such things as miracles, though she knew Bishop Elmo would disagree. But to...
They were on the top of the rise when Rose Hill Farm came into view. This was Lainey’s favorite vantage point. She could barely make out the rooftop of her cottage down below, hidden by trees, but it gave her comfort to realize how close their homes were. Suddenly a car honked loudly and careened...
Thelma and Katrina walked to the top of the hill and back each morning, regardless of foul weather. Some days, Thelma walked more slowly than others, some days she relied more heavily on her cane for balance than on other days. But she rarely missed that morning walk. As t...
Bethany felt she should know. “I went back and forth,” Bethany had said, “on whether I should tell you or not, and finally decided I would want to know if Jimmy Fisher took another girl home.”Mim only shrugged and gave her a flat look. Why should it matter? Danny had become the permanent substitu...
She said she had never stopped praying that he would return home someday, but she didn’t know when that someday might ever come.And Mammi Vera, why, she practically fainted at the sight of her favorite grandson. Wasn’t it a tonic for her? To have Tobe home—what better medicine could there be for ...
As soon as the suggestion to stay at Rose Hill Farm tumbled from her mouth, she saw a hint of something hard slide across Billy’s face. The ease and comfortableness they had shared briefly in the greenhouse was gone; his sharp edge had returned. She had promised herself th...
Anna trailed along in the line of Amish who followed Christian Müller, and remembered that Johann had told her on a cold winter afternoon that Rotterdam was once nothing but a small fishing village. “Now it’s the main access from Europe to England.” And now to America. &nb...
The day before Daniel’s funeral, the bench wagon was delivered by two men. They helped move out all the downstairs furniture to store in the barn. Then they set up the benches in the empty house. Neighbors stopped by all throughout the day, bearing dishes of food for the shared meal after t...
