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An Amish Cinderella–sweet focus on family
An Amish Cinderella
by Shelley Shepard Gray
Levi Beachy is humble, but he has achieved fame as a blacksmith and a welder, His sculptures are valuable and sought after. He takes on Clayton as his apprentice, a young man who spent most of his years as an orphan in a children’s home. Levi has not thought through the details of the apprentice’s stay—food, lodging, etc. His sweet adult daughter Heart refuses to have Clayton stay in a small unheated attic room over the workshop with spiders, mice, dust and no bathroom facilities. Levi and Heart have been on their own for four years since Heart’s mom Katie passed away. Heart reminds Levi that his wife would never have allowed his treating the young man that way.
Although Levi is physically large and strong and his demeanor is gruff, he actually has a soft spot for children and animals. Levi is patient with his apprentice who works hard and appreciates all Heart does for him. Another important character is Mary who lives close by. She is a widow who helps take care of people in their final days, as she did for Katie Beachy, and those recovering from injuries and sickness. She involves the Beachy family in taking care of a white pet “fancy” rat and also her dog Virginia with five new pups.
An Amish Cinderella displays the trust the characters have in God even during hard times. It shows that God is not a magic genie to deliver wishes, but He does have a plan for our lives and we can count on Him. There are two gentle romances within this tale that is both pleasing and a page turner. This book showcases Amish and English being able to interact to pull together and help others.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance, Christian
Notes: #3 in The Amish of Apple Creek series, but perfect as a standalone because, judging by the publisher’s summaries, the characters do not overlap—just the setting. In fact I thought it was a standalone until I was finished and did a little research.
Publication: September 26, 2023—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
That was the thing about Levi Beachy. He was a mess of contradictions. He was the biggest man she knew and twice as gruff, but never harsh. Actually, she’d never heard him raise his voice to anyone. Likely, it was because he had no need to. Between his size and his continual scowl, most people in the area were anxious to do what he wanted and get out of his way.
Though most people’s childhoods were the same, it was different in a home. There were two realities that permeated every waking hour. One was that his parents hadn’t wanted him, and the other was that no one else seemed to want him, either.
Why hadn’t he ever let go of his control enough to feel such joy?…Laughter felt good. It felt cleansing. Hopeful, even. The Lord sure worked in amazing ways.
Hopefully Ever After–struggling against a past
Hopefully Ever After
by Beth Wiseman
This novel has a lot going for it:
- So many important themes including: forgiveness, faith, love, security, family, abuse, goals, healing, independence, maturity, drugs, love of books, respect.
- Interplay of Amish and Englisch characters with several experiencing one culture and considering or actually changing to the other.
- Temptations for both Amish and Englisch characters.
- Contrast of Amish lifestyles with Englisch lifestyles.
- View of how technology, especially cell phones, has affected the Amish.
- A great plot centered around a 16 year old girl, Eden, with a difficult upbringing who stays for a month with her Amish cousin and her husband. She discovers what a real family could be like.
- Lots of characters with their own difficulties—Samuel, a 17 year old with overly strict parents; Yvonne and Abraham who take in Eden for a month; Emma, a much older cousin who is Eden’s guardian; and Eden’s mom, a currently imprisoned drug addict.
- Emotional tale as Eden and Samuel struggle with their attraction to each other. Eden, who is determined to not be like her mother, has a past to overcome. Samuel is unsure of God’s will and is anxious to see the world outside his home community as it must be so exciting.
- The setting is described so well. Without air conditioning, beautiful Indiana farmland can be very hot in July. It was easy to imagine the characters with sweat pouring off them, trying to rehydrate and get a little cooling from battery operated fans.
- There are lots of twists along the way, and as the book moves toward its conclusion, a happily ever after seems out of reach. Thanks to some surprises, although problems are not magically solved, the ending is quite satisfying.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Christian, Romance, Religion, Fiction
Notes: #3 in the Amish Bookstore Novels, but the author fills in background quite well so it could be read as a standalone.
Publication: April 18, 2023—Zondervan
Memorable Lines:
Eden didn’t even try to make friends at school these days. What was the point? They’d eventually find out her mother was in prison—a fact that seemed to define Eden, whether it was fair or not.
She could either choose to be a victim—life surely hadn’t treated her fairly—or let go of the past and commit to being the best person she could be. Eden chose the latter, but it wasn’t without a struggle.
“I know that everything changed for me once I found a relationship with God. At first it was like having a new friend, someone I could talk to about anything. And the more I talked, the more I knew God was listening.” She didn’t verbalize the last thought in her mind, probably the biggest change in her life since she had found God: she was no longer alone.
Seeing Beautiful Again–encouragement
Seeing Beautiful Again
by Lysa TerKeurst
Are you going through a hard time, something that is devastating and you have no control over? Do you wonder if you’ll ever “see beautiful” again? Lysa TerKeurst experienced three of those, two physical and one relational, in a short period of time. She has written several books that describe her journey. In Seeing Beautiful Again, she has drawn from her experiences and writings to compose a devotional book to guide readers through fifty days of their struggle. The goal is to give hope and demonstrate that by clinging to God’s promises, readers can stay the course and trust God.
Seeing Beautiful Again is divided into sections and each section begins with a letter to the reader from author Lysa TerKeurst. Each devotional begins with Scripture and ends with a prayer. In between Lysa shares her thoughts on the topic. These passages sometimes include parts of her personal story and always draw the reader to God’s truth which can be applied to a personal situation.
TerKeurst’s other books like Forgiving What You Can’t Forget examine in depth our response to hurts. This devotional is a daily dose of encouragement to fight the good fight and to remember God’s love and His promises in the middle of the trauma.
I would like to extend my thanks to Edelweiss and to HarperCollins Christian Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Religion, Christian Life, Women’s Issues
Notes: Devotional
Publication: March 30, 2021—Harper Collins Christian Publishers
Memorable Lines:
Their victory never hinged on their ability or any of their well-thought-out plans. It was solely dependent on their unwavering obedience offered to a loving and mighty God.
My job is to be obedient to God. God’s job is everything else.
Father God, thank You for reminding me I can trust You in the waiting. I know I can entrust every season of my life into Your hands. Thank You for being present in every moment, strengthening me in the places that I feel inadequate to keep going. When I feel uncertain about what’s ahead, remind me of who You are. I know it will get me through. In Jesus’ name, amen.
God Will Help You–overcoming the hard times
God Will Help You
by Max Lucado
Even in the best of times, we all have troubles, difficulties to face. In this pandemic, many are overwhelmed by the chaos, the darkness, the isolation of lockdowns. For some, the depths of despair have led to suicide, but Max Lucado has a better answer for this “winter of our discontent”….God. In God Will Help You, Lucado says “No matter the challenge or the question, by God’s grace you can face it. He is up to the task. And he will help you.”
Lucado is, by nature, a storyteller, and he uses stories, both from the Bible and from encounters he has had with others, to demonstrate some of the ways God can intervene in our stories. In each chapter, he addresses a different issue and then provides questions for reflection and Bible verses to remind you of God’s help. He closes each chapter with a prayer that you can pray in those circumstances, because sometimes we are so overwhelmed that we just don’t even know how to frame our petitions. Lucado has a way with words. In talking, for example, about God’s grace, he says we have been “doused” with it. What a perfect description!
So, if you’re feeling anxious, fearful, stuck in your circumstances, lonely, sick, or filled with grief, Max Lucado can’t fix those problems, but he can direct you to Jesus. You see, God already knows about your unsolved problems and your struggles to negotiate everyday life. He sees your heart and understands your needs. He is there to give you guidance. In his book God Will Help You, Lucado shows how God will come alongside you each and every day.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Christian, Self-Help, Inspirational
Notes: Having gone through a lot of changes in my life, especially in the last twelve years, I found this statement particularly meaningful: “So make friends with whatever’s next. Embrace it. Accept it. Don’t resist it. Change is not only a part of life; change is a necessary part of God’s strategy. To use us to change the world, he alters our assignments.”
Publication: December 29, 2020—Thomas Nelson
Memorable Lines:
The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional. Anxiety is not a sin; it is an emotion. (So don’t be anxious about feeling anxious.)
…celebrate his goodness, faithfulness, and forgiveness. These characteristics of God remain true no matter what you are going through.
But if you see your troubles as opportunities to trust God and his ability to multiply what you give him, then even the smallest incidents take on significance.
Had Jesus chosen to do so, he could have proclaimed a cloud of healing blessings to fall upon the crowd. But he is not a one size-fits-all Savior. He placed his hands on each one, individually, personally. Perceiving unique needs, he issued unique blessings.
Stay: Discovering Grace, Freedom, and Wholeness Where You Never Imagined Looking
Stay: Discovering Grace, Freedom, and Wholeness Where You Never Imagined Looking
by Anjuli Paschall
A spiritual journey is such a personal adventure. Anjuli Paschall shares hers in the book Stay. She also reaches out to other women encouraging them to lean into God through the irritations of daily life and the times of actual trauma and to stay with the pain of hard places because you’ll find God there. She suggests that, instead of building up walls of protection and withdrawing from the fray or working harder to force things to happen, we need to stay with Jesus and “drink life-giving water.” With intriguing chapter titles like “The Guard Shack: An Invitation to Make Mistakes” and “Old Spaghetti Factory: An Invitation to Hold On,” this book is filled with anecdotes and Paschall’s descriptions of how God led her to grow spiritually.
Paschal is a good writer and very effective at drawing the reader into her frame of mind as she navigates the various circumstances in her life. I highlighted many passages and agreed with most of the things she said. I am amazed at the number of turns in her life journey. She is the mother of five, wife of a pastor, photographer, founder of a social media site that helps other moms in truly desperate straits, and a spiritual counselor. Now add writer to that list.
Realizing that I am isolating statements that come from a rich context, I feel I must point out what I perceive to be a major conflict. Towards the end of the book, the author states “My one and only purpose in life is to be loved by God.” I disagree with that and she does too as earlier in the book she states: “We all have one calling. One deep, right, true, foundational calling in life—to love God and to love others.” That philosophy is found in the Bible in Matthew 22 in the New Testament and in Exodus 20 and Leviticus 19 in the Old Testament. Although, I have a few points of disagreement, in general I find this book to be refreshing in the author’s honesty and transparency. She doesn’t try to appear to have it all together. She shares her fears and vulnerabilities as she also shares her hopes and dreams. She encourages women to abandon shame over never being enough and stay the course resting and trusting in Jesus.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Bethany House for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Christian, Self-Help
Notes: Discussion questions are included.
Publication: March 31, 2020—Bethany House
Memorable Lines:
I’m learning to be okay with my mistakes. They don’t define me or determine my worth, but simply direct me to God.
I believe we all can be placeholders of heaven for others. We can create a seat at a table, offer a single cup of coffee, leave bread on a doorstep, or clear an hour in our schedule. God will continually bring us people who are desperately in need of home. If we can embrace each other’s differences, move toward the disabled, welcome the foreigner, laugh with a child, talk with the elderly, all kinds of heaven can burst open like a flower in bloom here on earth. Even the tiniest spaces can become a place for others to taste eternity.
No amount of getting, accomplishing, or achieving will ever satisfy the soul. The soul focused on gaining power, influence, and admiration will only grow hungrier.
Where I End–A Story of Tragedy, Truth, and Rebellious Hope
Where I End
by Katherine Elizabeth Clark
In Where I End, Katherine Elizabeth Clark shares a chance accident, a moment in time, that altered her life and the lives of her family members forever. She describes and analyzes the event and her journey to healing from the viewpoint of a Christian. Although she did not have a “leap to her feet dancing” experience, she did eventually regain the ability to walk, which her surgeon regarded as a miracle: “I can take no credit. God did this.”
Although Kate is left with residual, fairly dramatic difficulties and constant pain, her progress has been remarkable. As she shares her story, she relates how God worked in her life through family, friends and strangers who ministered to her. She tells of the humiliation and frustration of being unable to do even the simplest things for herself. Before the accident Kate was employed as a writer by a Christian organization so her prose is excellent and well thought out and her ideas are clearly expressed. She backs up her theological positions with Scripture references and quotes from Biblical scholars. She shares her story not to put a focus on herself, but on Jesus, who was and is with her through the trials and pain of the accident, surgery, rehabilitation and daily renewal of her hope and trust.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Moody Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Memoir, Christian
Publication: January 2, 2018—Moody Publishing
Memorable Lines:
In that moment, my steady world, where bodies work in harmony with brains, was bartered for an unrecognizable universe, something resembling a Salvador Dalí painting; I felt as if I had slipped into a surreal, disorientated dream.
Yet though our Father promises to hear the cries of His children, He has not promised to exhaustively reveal His mind or plans. We must trust Him, and sometimes in the dark.
When Scripture speaks of not being afraid, it is always cloaked in the presence of the Lord. Be not afraid, not because the situation isn’t terrifying, but because you’re not alone. You have a Good Shepherd who hides you beneath His wing.
It is a great mercy of God that we cannot see the future.
education pathways 