Series Emma Raber's Daughter by Jerry Eicher, book #1 Katie Opens Her Heart



Katie Opens Her Heart by Jerry S. Eicher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Here is the touching story of an awakening young Amish girl, Katie Raber, who finds she wants more from life than to be known as simply "Emma Raber's daughter."  I enjoyed reading about Katie and her lonliness touched my heart.

A new series by Jerry Eicher "Emma Raber's Daughter" this book Katie Opens Her Heart....


Katie and her mother live alone after her father dies when she is just a little girl.  Emma Raber has a  secret from long ago that she has never told Katie.  Emma holds a little tighter reign on her daughter as she grows up wanting to protect her from the hurt that she had known.  Katie is feeling just a  little smothered and reached out to some Mennonite young people who want to be friends.
Emma knows that her daughter needs a father's guidance and has for a long time so when Jesse Mast comes around wanting her friendship and maybe a little more she is apprehensive at first and tells him she needs no help and is doing just fine on her own.  Jesse is a persistant man and he knows his children need a new mother after they lost theirs so he comes again and again and even suggest they marry.
This story tells of Hearts closed that needed to be opened and of God's forgiveness for old hurts...
Emma feels  she is too old to start over with another man but if it will help her daughter to stay away from the Mennonites she is willing to let Jesse come by and it doesn't take long for her heart to see that this good man would make a wonderful husband and father.
She has some problems though when another in the community sets her cap for this good man and makes it her business as a schoolteacher to butt into Jesse life trying to woo him by her attention to his children who like her as she is their schoolteacher.  They dont want their father to marry but if he must then they want it to be the schoolteacher....
Now we have much confusion added to the situation and poor Jesse is torn not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings...
It seems the Lord has many hearts to work on in this story and we all know that he can change us if we but accept and hear his still small voice.


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Found by Shelley Shepard Gray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Secrets of Crittenden County series and book #3!"Found" by Shelley Shepard Gray

In this series there was a murder that sort of hung around and got solved in this last book but ~ reading this book alone is possible as I did, still enjoying the characters and their anguish of this ordeal all were going through in the community. not knowing..........

Deborah had a brother go missing and because he was the type of person he was that always seemed to rub folks the wrong way, she assumed along with others that he had left the community.  Brother Perry had a way of making others feel small by his actions and words.  Deborah had always been late going to school with him and his friend Jacob Schrock,,but she didn't mind as she liked to watch Jacob, she thought him a boy that she wanted him to notice her though he didn't at the time.
Jacob was an only child which was unusual in amish lives as most folks had many children, his father doted on him and he always was around at the Schrock's variety store.  Growing up and seeing folks coming and going from the store he overheard many conversations and his father told him he must not repeat what others said and just ignore their conversations ..easier said then done and he knew things sometimes that he should not have and felt he was always keeping secrets...
Book #3 settled more on solving the murder of Perry, yes it had been decided it was a murder after his body had been found.  investigation in amish community was different it seemed from other places.  I enjoyed reading this story and seeing Deborah and Jacob come closer together because each needed the other and they did not realize this for some time.  Secrets became unraveled and love filled up the holes where deceit and untrustworthiness reigned.....


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The Wings of Morning by Murray Pura
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First time to read one of Murray Pura books but It won't be the last, he writes a wonderful historical romance that keeps you turning the pages to see what will happen next....
                If I take the Wings of the Morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.. even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me..Psalm 139:9-10

"The Wings of Morning" by Murray Pura

This is the story of Jude Whetstone who found he loved to fly aeroplanes at the time when there was much controversy if Amish should be in the clouds flying...
Lyyndaya Kurtz was a young woman of the Amish community where Jude and his father had come to be new converts, she was a girl that loved adventures and Jude grew up liking her spirit and how she saw life.
There are many wonderful characters in this story and you will enjoy reading about them like Emma who was a little flirty but the daughter of the Bishop and she found that she too liked this young man that grew up liking aeroplanes and wanting to fly more then anything else...
When Jude and his friends in the community are gathered and transported to an army base because they will not join the army and fight many folks have their faith tested ..The young men are not treated well while in custody and circumstances have Jude agreeing to join the army and fly for them even though in his heart of hearts this is not what he wants to do...He says he wants to save souls is the reason he joins and you will enjoy reading how his community's feelings change and change again about this young man who has became important in Lyyndaya's life.  The amish do not believe in fighting and this is war times.
Can Jude's faith sustain him through War-Persecution-misunderstanding, shunning and even being shot down in enemy territory?
Lyyndaya's faith is so strong and she believes in this young man, will it sustain her..while so many turn away ..can she hold on, waiting for Jude to return to the community?
Thank you Murray Pura for the many Bible verses about wartimes and the wonderful characters that flew with Jude....I enjoyed learning more about the early aeroplanes..


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"The Personal History of Rachel DuPree" by Ann Weisgarber

This is a debut novel about the harsh lands of the Dakota's in the 1900's  -a fictional story that tells us how so many might have moved there and tried to make a home for their families.

The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


New author for me Ann Weisgarber writes debut novel with "The Personal History of Rachel DuPree"

Not my usual type of book to read but decided when seeing it was about the badlands of Dakota in early 1900's it would be period I like to read.

Rachel is a strong determined young black woman who strives to get ahead and while working as a housekeeper she meets Isaac who is the son of the owner. He has been in the army and who can resist a uniform...she sees the charm which seems to flow from him as he never meets a stranger. She felt he didn't look at her as the help, only as a pretty young girl.
Others told her nothing would come of it and that she should not set her sights so high...
Isaac had heard about getting land in the Dakota's when you would work and settle there and decided when his army term was up soon that is what he wanted to do feeling in his heart of hearts that a young black man owning land would be respected for his determination to succeed in such a harsh enviroment.
Rachel can see that Isaac has a dream and she wants to help him and herself to a better life so she plans to make him want to take her with him when he goes. "I think here of -we need to watch what we dream and yearn for because we just might get it."
Isaac was not in love with Rachel but thought she could get just as much land as himself and then his would be doubled so they struck a plan she would give her land to him and they would marry for a year.
That first year stretched to 14 along with lot of hard work and several children born. I think Isaac admired the hard worker that Rachel was and just maybe fell a little in love with her....
Rachel fell in love with this man that could charm his way around her when she felt like giving up. times were harsh in the the badlands, lot of hard work and not much in the way of foods, they eeked out a living first in a sod house then finally after many years a wooden one was made -small but better then the sodhouse. They had many cattle and much land that Isaac was so proud to be the owner of.
in the year of 1917 pregnant again and in drought times with little food for her children Rachel knew she could not let this man charm her any longer, she knew he planned to leave her alone for the winter and go work in the mines far away-his way to help them survive and keep the land that was now over 2500 acres. Rachel had given up much to live in the badlands with Isaac and felt she and the children needed to go back to Chicago just for the winter to survive. On this they did not agree..
Rachel gave birth to that last child(a boy-stillborn) alone with the children. Isaac had told her he would be home in early morn after trip to neighbors but didnt get back, the oldest daughter ran out to find help and found an old indian woman who came and helped through the last of it. I cannot think of the pain and suffering that she went through with this birth and the anguish when she knew it did not live. Rachel needed Isaac's support and he was busy trying to get more land and cattle ...there would never be enough for him.

This is quite an intense novel for a first one for Ann and I think she told well of the times that Rachel and Isaac lived through and the hardships that folks had in those times.




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