Until then may I use my time as you desire . . .
In 1985, Old Order Amish couple Celeste and Vin Lantz have been married for six years. Vin is a carpenter by trade but an artist in his heart. He is especially captivated by drawing portraits, which the Amish consider idolatry. Knowing they could be shunned, Celeste is shocked to discover that Vin has secretly been sketching her and their sons. When she confronts Vin, they argue and Vin storms off . . . and seems to disappear, leaving Celeste to wonder if he chose his art over his family.
When he leaves the house that night, Vin seeks peace on his favorite mountain overlook. But he takes a fall and wakes to find himself injured and lost. Vin soon realizes just how far he has traveled―not only in distance but back in time, to 1822 Ohio, a place that provides the freedom he craved but where he is separated from his beloved wife and children. Vin is saved by the kindness of strangers and gradually learns to survive and even to use his skills to help his new friends in this unfamiliar time and place. But all the while he prays desperately for God to return him to his family, before Celeste makes a new life without him.
Eliza Bontrager and Jesse Ebersol have fallen in love and are determined to marry, despite the belief of their Amish community and respective families that there's a hidden curse―one that only shows up when an Ebersol and Bontrager marry.
Before the ceremony on the day of the wedding, Eliza's great-aunt Rose gives her a family heirloom quilt and tells her that she may use it to change one event in the past. Eliza appreciates the woman's heart, but she dismisses the strange conversation while keeping the beautiful quilt.
Several years later, mourning the loss of their third child, Eliza discovers her inability to deliver a healthy baby is genetic. Remembering her great-aunt's strange words, she decides that if she can go back in time and reject Jesse's proposal, she can save him the heartache of a childless marriage. Her sacrifice will allow him to marry someone else and raise a family. But once she puts her plan into action, she discovers the true impact of her decision―on Jesse and so many others within their community.
A New York Times best-selling author releases her first southern novel, a Steel Magnolias-meets-Sweet Home Alabama story set on St. Simons Island. After losing two loved ones in a devastating tornado and suffering a head injury, Tara Abbott flees to St. Simons Island, where her disorientation causes the lines between imagination and reality, past and present to blur. There she encounters island residents Julep Burnside, Luella Ward, Sue Beth Manning, and Dell Calhoun--The Glynn Girls--who have been friends since Bible camp, forty years earlier. When Julep's son Gavin identifies a troubled soul in need of help, can the Glynn Girls guide Tara back to herself?
The third and final book in the Amish of Summer Grove series, from The New York Times and CBA best-selling novelist Cindy Woodsmall, brings an Old Order Amish young woman and an Englischer woman who were switched at birth full circle, as they decide where their futures will lie. After several months living out in the world with her birth family, Ariana Brenneman is back living in the Old Amish community that she grew up in. The shock of discovering she and Skylar Nash were switched at birth has not worn off but both young women are regaining their footing and trying to determine what lies ahead-the Amish life or an Englischer one? Ariana must also decide if Quill Schlabach will play a role in hers or not.
This original Amish Christmas novella from best-selling author Cindy Woodsmall promises to warm the hearts of her many fans with its Old Order Amish ways, touching romance, realistic faith experiences, and holiday-season family drama. When Rose Kurtz first arrived in Joel Dienner's home four years ago, the Amish widower had been completely grief-stricken by the shocking loss of his wife during childbirth. At the recommendation of the bishop, Joel's father, Rose is asked to become his bride and take care of his two small children and newborn baby, nestled in the tiny Amish community of Forest Hill in the eastern Appalachian mountains, far from Rose's home. After four years in as just housemates, Rose is wondering if Joel finally has opened his heart again-but she fears it isn't with her. She loves the children she has been raising with a mother's love, and she may care for Joel more deeply than he cares for her. But maybe, with a Christmas miracle, Joel could see his "angel" as she really is.
The Amish of Summer Grove series continues as Old Order Amish Ariana and troubled college student Skylar face the reality that nothing about their lives is what they thought to be true. The second book in the Amish of Summer Grove series explores the changes in the Brenneman family as Skylar joins them and Ariana navigates the foreign and undesirable Englischer world. Can she help the Nashes learn about the God she loves? Series Overview: Tied together by an unexpected fire and the events surrounding their births, Englischer-raised Skylar Nash and Old Order Amish Ariana Brenneman are on a journey of identity and family in the Amish of Summer Grove series.
One night four lives entered the world by the hands of an Amish midwife, just outside North Star, Pennsylvania. Rebekah's Babies, as they are called, are now grown adults and in four heartwarming novellas each young person experiences a journey of discovery, a possibility of love, and the wonder of Christmas. Guiding Star by Katie Ganshert Curiosity gets the best of Englischer Chase Wellington when he investigates the twenty-five-year-old disappearance of an Amish baby.
When he finds adventurous Elle McAllister in Iowa will his discoveries upend her world? Mourning Star by Amanda Flower Eden Hochstetler slips from her parents' fudge shop to investigate the death of her friend Isaac. Who is guilty? Isaac's handsome great nephew Jesse, an angry Englischer, or someone else? In the Stars by Cindy Woodsmall Heartbroken Kore Detweiler avoids North Star after Savilla Beiler rejects his love. But when he is unexpectedly called to return home, he and Savilla must join forces to keep a family together.
Star of Grace by Mindy Starns Clark and Emily Clark Andy Danner left North Star to join a new Amish settlement in Mississippi. His little brother devises a scheme to bring Andy home for Christmas and unwittingly unleashes the power of forgiveness in a reclusive widower's life.
Ariana's comfortable Old Order Amish world is about to unravel. Will holding tightly to the cords of family keep them together-or simply tear them apart? Twenty-year-old Ariana Brenneman loves her family and the Old Ways. She has two aspirations: open a cafe 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 cafe-because when she learns the truth that connects her and a stranger named Skylar Nash, Quill knows it may upend her life forever. Ties That Bind is the first novel in the Amish of Summer Grove series.
A husband and son abandoned to forge a path alone. A young woman who sacrificed her dreams. How will the God of grace and hope help them find their way? At nineteen years old, Old Order Amish Jolene Keim was on the brink of happily-ever-after when everything changed, stealing the future she expected and burdening her with an unbearable decision. For the next ten years, Jolene throws herself into family life—and then she meets Andy Fisher. The horse trainer and father to a sweet nine year-old challenges her and holds up a mirror to issues Jolene has been unwilling to face. Andy is cautious about his deepening friendship with Jolene, but he believes she knows the truth about him – that he is a grass widower. As a man whose wife has abandoned him six years past, he is unable to divorce or remarry according to the Amish ways. Andy has wrestled with God concerning his reality, and he had found peace with the solitary future facing him…until he met Jolene. As Andy and Jolene find themselves confronted by difficult choices, will they trust in God's guidance—or will the allure of their deepening friendship only lead to further temptation?
As love restores Rhoda, a sudden tragedy is the test of faith she never saw coming.
More settled in her heart than ever before, Rhoda Byler feels a newfound confidence living in the Old Order Amish settlement she helped establish in Orchard Bend, Maine. Though it has been almost a year since one brother left, Rhoda is happy to be working alongside the other brother as they tend and nurture the settlement' s orchard. Time has helped to heal Rhoda' s wounds, and she finds that even her unusual gift of profound intuition is less of a burden as she continues to seek God' s wisdom and purpose for her life.
But when an Englischer friend' s grandchild is in extreme danger, can Rhoda' s gift make a difference or will it simply be a catalyst to another season of doubt and misunderstanding? As she resolves to stay on course, suddenly a shocking tragedy challenges the young settlement like never before, threatening to uproot Rhoda' s peace and the future of everything she holds dear.
This Christmas, experience learning to trust alongside the Plain folk of Apple Ridge, Pennsylvania in this heart-warming tale of second chances. 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?
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?
