Second chances and the Christmas spirit abound in Mindy Steele's heartwarming novel, one of faith, love, and the power of community.
Grace Miller believed herself in love with the charming Englischer who eventually broke her heart. Now alone except for the secret life growing inside her, she arrives in the unfamiliar small village of Walnut Ridge, Kentucky, to hide and hopefully gain forgiveness.
She is pleasantly surprised, however, to find a tight-knit, welcoming group who help her heart grow right alongside her belly. And with the holidays around the corner, there's plenty of preparations to occupy her mind. Also occupying her mind? Her strong, protective neighbor, Cullen Graber, the town's blacksmith, who seems intent on not allowing her to ever suffer alone.
Cullen Graber gave up on love after too many losses early in life. He planned to live out his days focusing on his smithy business, yet the beautiful and mysterious Grace refuses to leave his thoughts. But can they open their hearts to God's grace and create a new family together before Grace must return home?
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 26, 2021 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781682815120
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781682815120
- File size: 511 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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November 15, 2021
A disgraced Amish woman seeks redemption and love in this lively romance. When single Grace Miller gets pregnant--and by an Englischer, no less, who promised to get baptized but then abandoned her and joined the military--she's shunned by her Indiana Amish congregation and exiled by her censorious dad to the Amish community of Walnut Ridge, Kentucky. There, her grim spinster Aunt Tess installs her by herself in a "sinner's shack," a ramshackle cabin on a remote hillside; seven months pregnant, Grace huddles in loneliness and penury but has the grit to fight off a pack of wild dogs with a broken broom handle. Fortunately, Walnut Ridge has a friendlier, less judgmental group of Amish, and a bunch of women help her out with provisions, light employment, and companionship. Even friendlier is Cullen Graber, a tall, handsome blacksmith with big biceps and a backstory of tragic love that makes him sympathetic to Grace's plight when he's not hypnotized by her blue eyes and saucy bare feet. Cullen fixes up Grace's cabin; she reciprocates with home-cooked meals; and the two talk through problems of faith and forgiveness. Meanwhile, she fends off the attentions of Freeman Hilty, the loathsome son of the man who owns the cabin, who tries to bully her into marriage by threatening to evict her. With Christmas and her delivery date looming, Grace's burgeoning love for the stalwart and obviously smitten Cullen starts to overcome her trust issues--whereupon the father of her child shows up, asking her to take him back. Steele sets her yarn against a richly textured view of Amish life, full of chores and quilting bees and knotty wrestling with religious values. It's a warm, closeknit community, but Steele's evocative prose also brings out a claustrophobic side that can turn on a dime to cold, unfeeling ostracism. ("Eyes darted past her, and bodies slid away when she went to take a seat on the lonely bench in the corner. Her friends and family avoided her as if she were poison ivy and her sins catching.") Grace is an energetic hero, and Steele deftly conveys her smoldering Amish eroticism--"the way his body strained and twisted sent another surge of heat over her"--as it grows in intensity by virtue of its being so buttoned up. An entertaining love story about a fallen woman who doesn't stay down.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)
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