“An Amish Holiday Family” by Jo Ann Brown … and a GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to Friday Reads!

 

 

Jo Ann has offered to give away two (2) print copies of An Amish Holiday Family. You can enter by using the Rafflecopter link at the bottom of this post. (Contest ends December 11, 2020.) Click To Tweet If you’re the chosen winner, I’ll contact you for your information.

 

Blurb…

A Christmas she never expected…

Becoming a guardian to three children wasn’t part of her plan…

When Mennonite midwife Beth Ann Overholt went to Evergreen Corners to help rebuild after a flood, she didn’t expect to be taking in three abandoned children. But the bigger surprise is having Amish bachelor Robert Yoder by her side. Soon she can’t help but wish this temporary Christmas arrangement could turn into the loving family she never thought she’d have…

 

The story behind the story…

An Amish Holiday Family is the fourth and final book of the Green Mountain Blessings mini-series. The four books focus on a fictional town in southern Vermont and the after-effects of a hurricane and flood that devastated the town. It’s based very loosely on Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and the destruction brought by incredible amounts of rain cascading into the valleys from the Green Mountain peaks. My hometown on the New York side of the border was inundated as well, and seeing the damage done to familiar homes and the struggles of family and friends had an impact on me. Around the same time as the idea for the first book was floating around in my head, I saw an episode of Barnwood Builders about rebuilding their town in West Virginia in the wake of a flood. In that episode, plain people who’d volunteered to help with the rebuilding led me to researching the Mennonite Disaster Service, a joint US/Canadian agency that sends members of the plain community to help in the wake of natural disasters. My fictional organization, Amish Helping Hands, was born, and the stories along with the new Amish community in Evergreen Corners evolved from there. The first book, An Amish Christmas Promise, focused on both a plain resident and plain volunteers. The next two books, An Amish Easter Wish and An Amish Mother’s Secret Past, drew in more Amish volunteers to the growing community. It wasn’t easy, after spending more than a year with these good and generous people, to say farewell to them, but it helped that each had found a happy-ever-after when and with whom they least expected.

 

Excerpt…

Chapter One

Evergreen Corners, Vermont

“What do you think?”

At the deep voice behind her, Beth Ann Overholt almost blurted out the truth. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. The voice wasn’t a familiar one, and she was circumspect, even with friends.

She guessed the man’s question hadn’t been a personal one, and she realized she was right when he asked, “Do you think it can be rebuilt?”

A ruined covered bridge crossed Washboard Brook in front of her. Part of the span had vanished in last year’s flood, leaving only a board or two stretched across the huge arch closer to her. The other half of the arches was hidden within the tilting structure. She couldn’t remember if, when she’d been in Evergreen Corners last time, the wooden roof had one side lower than the other. The whole bridge tipped to the left in the direction of the brook’s current.

“I wonder,” she said as much to herself as the man behind her, “how long it can stand at that angle.”

“Not much longer, I’d say.”

Beth Ann looked over her shoulder when the man sighed. His face was craggy as if God had stopped sculpting it partway through, but his deep blue eyes were filled with honest regret. The cold wind blew black hair across his forehead beneath his hat of the same color. Even taller than she was by two or three inches, he wore a dark coat over work-stained broadfall trousers and worn boots.

Was he one of the Amish volunteers who’d come to Evergreen Corners to help rebuild after Hurricanes Kevin and Gail? She didn’t recall seeing him before. On her previous visits, she’d spent time painting new houses for families who’d lost everything. This time, she’d only been in the small Vermont town since yesterday.

The man gave her a smile. Though his expression was tinged with sadness, his whole face changed. What had been intimidating became friendly while his eyes glistened with what looked like mischievousness.

“Are you hoping it’ll fall in while you’re watching?” she asked.

“The opposite. I’ve been coming out every day or so to make sure it’s still standing.” He sighed. “I don’t know how much longer prayer can keep it from collapsing.”

“The village must be—”

“Doing nothing!” His cold voice lashed her like the November wind. “The bridge was damaged during the first hurricane, and the one this year did more harm. Look!” He stretched an arm past her to point at the closer end of the bridge. “See? The abutment is being undermined. If something isn’t done soon, the whole bridge will be lost. Where do they think they’ll find trees big enough to replace those arches?”

“They’ll have to use steel girders.”

“What gut will that do? A covered bridge sitting on metal arches? It’d be an abomination.”

His fervor overwhelmed her, and she wasn’t sure how to respond. She understood his admiration for the bridge. Traveling through the covered bridges of Lancaster County had been one of her favorite parts of living there. Many had been washed away by Hurricane Agnes in the 1970s. The replacements had been built to withstand flooding, their steel components hidden behind a wooden facade. Those using the bridges were none the wiser, and tourists still stopped to photograph the barn-red spans.

She doubted the man who’d moved to stand beside her wanted to hear that. He was on a quest to keep the covered bridge as authentic as possible.

So instead of replying to his outburst, she said, “I’m Elizabeth Overholt, but my friends call me Beth Ann.”

His smile rearranged his face again, and she couldn’t help being fascinated by how each emotion altered it. “My name’s Robert Yoder, and my friends who want to remain my friends don’t call me Robbie any longer.”

She considered telling him she’d come out on the cold day to be by herself and have a chance to think about her future. It seemed bizarre to be asking herself what she wanted to be when she grew up, but she was. However, as she stood by the bridge, her thoughts had been on the past.

About the job she’d already questioned if she wanted to keep before the doctor she’d worked for retired last year, closing the birthing clinic.

About her grandmother’s death a month later.

About her attempt to start her own freelance midwifery practice, which had fizzled out because the Amish women she’d assisted had decided to go to an established clinic overseen by a female doctor. It hadn’t helped that three women under her previous doctor’s care had lost their babies before birth. Each time, Beth Ann had warned the women of the fragility of their pregnancies and urged them to take precautions. Each time, the women had ignored her advice.

She’d heard the whispers. The doctor she’d worked with was too old and she was too young to be a proper midwife, though she was thirty-three.

None of those rumors mattered. What mattered was babies had died. She couldn’t imagine losing a child, because she wanted one of her own.

 

My review…

There are so many things to love about this book, from the holiday spirit to endearing children to relatable lead characters. And the incorporation of covered bridges and Beth Ann’s disability? That sealed the deal for me, as those are two things I don’t often read about in Amish fiction.

 

 

Upcoming project…

I’m so excited about my next book, A Wish For Home, which is coming March 30, 2021. The print version will be available exclusively at WalMart for three months and then everywhere you buy books in July 2021, but the ebook will be available on March 30 wherever ebooks are sold. This is the first book of a trilogy entitled “The Secrets of Bliss Valley,” and it will be the launch book for the new Love Inspired Trade line, which will be offering larger, more emotionally complex inspirational books in a variety of genres from Amish to romantic suspense to women’s fiction and historical romance. Look for some of your favorite Love Inspired authors there as well as newcomers.

            A Wish For Home’s cover copy (which explains it better and more succinctly than I ever could):

            Caught between who she is…and who she was.

            Lauren Nolt hasn’t forgiven the Amish community of Lancaster County for shunning her parents. But returning as a successful Englischer working for large developers is just what she needs to get a promotion and give her parents the life they deserve. Coming face-to-face with her childhood bully, Amish widower Adam Hershberger, is the last thing she wants. Yet when her world’s shaken by a shocking discovery, Adam’s the only one she can confide in…

            Adam’s never forgiven himself for the part he played in Lauren’s past, nor what drove him to do it. But as developers threaten his great-grossdawdi’s farm, she’s the only one who can help. And with his little girl determined to bring him and Lauren together at every turn, keeping his distance is impossible. Now they must learn to trust each other—even as their secret feelings grow stronger. But is love enough to bridge the gap between their very different worlds?

 

About Jo Ann…

Publishers Weekly best-selling author Jo Ann Brown has created characters and stories for as long as she can remember. After college, serving as an US Army quartermaster officer, getting married, and increasing her blessings with three children, she sold her first book in 1987. Since then, she has sold over 100 titles. Romantic Times called her “a truly talented author.” She loves teaching and established the romance writing course at Brown University. She divides her time between Florida and Massachusetts with her husband of over forty years. Find out more about Jo Ann and her books at www.joannbrownbooks.com

 

Where to find her online…

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