Clutter Rehab

Here's my review for Clutter Rehab by Laura Wittmann.  I really enjoyed reading a nonfiction for a change!  It was a very motivational book!

Sarah's Garden by Kelly Long

Sarah’s Garden by Kelly Long is the first book in her A Patch of Heaven series. Sarah King is a 20 year old, shy Amish woman who loves her garden. Sarah’s sister, who previously ran the family’s stand, got married and Sarah’s parents decide that Sarah will take over the stand. Sarah can’t imagine it since she is so shy and spends most of her time by herself in her garden. Her father also decides that Sarah will make her sister’s soon to come baby its first quilt. Sarah can’t imagine this either, because her creativity has been limited to her garden and she gave up quilting a long time ago. But Sarah decides to do her best in both. While working her first day at the stand, she meets an English man who she discovers is her new neighbor and a veterinarian. It seems to be love at first sight for her new neighbor, Grant. Sarah likes him too. As they spend more time together, they fall deeper in love, but they know the love is forbidden. She is Amish and will be shunned if she leaves the faith to marry him an Englisher. So, they must make some decisions about that love. Read the book to find out what happens.


I’ve had this book for awhile and can’t believe I waited so long to read it. This is the first book I have read by Kelly Long and I really like her writing style. I really enjoyed the Amish details she brought to life in the story. I really enjoyed seeing Sarah go from this shy garden loving girl to a very creative woman. I thought it was awful that her parents made her run the stand with her shyness, but as usual parent’s know best and it was really good for Sarah. I also loved the quilting theme in the book and how it was compared to the creative of working a garden. Sarah had used garden to help her relax and get guidance from the Lord. I think eventually that she uses quilting in the same way and learns to love it. The only thing I would have liked more was a better description of the quilt. It seemed like it was this awesome thing, but I just could not picture it in my mind. Overall I loved the book and can’t wait to read the second book in the series, Lily’s Wedding Quilt, which comes out in March.

The Journey by Wanda Brunstetter

The Journey written by Wanda Brunstetter is the first book in her new series Kentucky Brothers. Titus Fisher is 22 years old and still lives at home with his Amish parents. Titus lacks confidence in himself and feels like he is always being compared to his twin brother. He has been in love with Phoebe, an Amish woman who he has waited a long time to marry. Phoebe feels she still is not ready to settle down and become a member of the Amish church or get married. She breaks Titus’ heart when she moves California to pursue her interest in the English world. Titus decides to take an offer to move to Kentucky to work with an Amish woodworker and move away from his life and heartbreak. While there he meets Suzanne Yoder a 22 year old Amish woman who is not the average Amish woman. She lacks the ability to cook, mostly because her mother does not have the patience to teach her. She also really does not want to learn because she wants to work with her grandfather and brother in the woodworking shop, but they don’t really feel that’s a woman’s place. These two get off on the wrong foot from the start. Mostly, because Suzanne looks so much like Phoebe. They soon learn to be around each other. Suzanne’s friend Ester takes an interest in Titus. The whole mix gets even crazier when Phoebe comes to Kentucky and tries to get Titus to take her back and marry her. Will Titus pick Suzanne, Ester, or Phoebe? And will he stay in Kentucky permanently, even though his mother really wants him home? Read the wonderful book to find out.


I really loved this story. You can usually tell in stories like this that if the guy starts out hating the girl they usually end up together, but I was really left guessing who he would pick until the end. The story also contains a mystery about some money that is found that I found really interesting too. I liked seeing how Titus really grew throughout the book and started really find his way in life. He included God in helping him make those decisions and I think that really helped him in the end. Suzanne also grows in this story and people learn to accept her for who she really is and not who she is expected to be. I really loved this story and would recommend it to people who enjoy Amish fiction or inspirational fiction.

I was given an advance copy of this book from Barbour Publishing through NetGalley. I was not required to provide a positive review. The Journey comes out on April 1, 2011.

Book review: Sarah's Choice

Sarah's Choice by Wanda Brunstetter is the third book in the Brides of Lehigh Canal series.  I did not read the first two books at all, so this book is fine to read alone.  Sarah's Choice is about Sarah Turner a mother of  three.  Sarah's husband got killed in an accident working the canal locks.  Sarah is forced to take his hard labor job and do the best she can for her children.  She also sells bread to the boatmen to help bring in more money.  She also dreams of opening a bakery someday as she is an excellent baker.  Sarah gets help from family and church friends to help with watching her children.  We also meet Elias who inherits his grandfathers boat and decides to give up his newspaper job to run the boat since he felt his grandfather wanted him to care for it.  We also meet the town blacksmith who grew up with Sarah and always had an interest in her.  Sarah has decided too many accidents have happened on the canal and she grew walking the mules on the trail.  She has bad meomeries of the canal and vws to get her kids out of there.  That means she will not marry a boatman.  She is asked by both Elias and the town blacksmith to marry.  What will she choose?  That's the choice Sarah has to make.

I have read a lot of Wanda Brunstetter's books.  They have all been about the Amish, so this one was a little different for me.  I had a hard time reading at first for several reasons.  First, there was nothing to tell you that she was changing scenes.  Like in the beginning it goes from meeting Sarah and her kids to meeting Elias with his family.  That may be because this is an advanced copy of the book, but that took me a little while to get used to that happening.  I also was kind of lost when she started talking about mules leading the boats.  This could be because I did not read the previous books in the series.  I did learn about the canal from reading this book though.  I also liked how this was a romance but without all the romance.  The characters did not really spend a lot of time together but fell in love.  I really liked this book.  It was a quick read once I got into it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Barbour Publishing for allowing me to read this book.  I was given the galley to read but not paid for this review.   The book comes out on December 1st.  I'd recommend it to readers who enjoy Wanda Brunstetter's other books.

Book Review-Seek Me With All your Heart

Seek Me With All Your Heart is the first book in a new series, Land of Canaan, by Beth Wiseman.  I have been waiting for this book to come out every since I read the last book of the Daughters of the Promise series.  In that book we learn that several of the characters are going to move to Colorado to start over and go where there is more farm land.  We learn the reason for those moves in this book.  We also meet the Detweiler family who move to Canaan for their own reasons.  There are several stories going on in the book, but I think the main one was the story of Emily and David.  David was a character from another The Daughters of the Promise series who feels he can never marry because he had a kidney transplant and it he might not live a long life and Emily is an new character who we learn was raped and her family moved to get away from the situation.  Emily feels she is unworthy to marry because of the rape.  David and Emily have a rocky beginning but soon become good friends.    When that friendship feels more like love what will they do since both have decided marriage is not the route for them?  You will find out in this book.

I really enjoyed getting to see the characters from the Daughters of the Promise series and really enjoyed meeting the new characters as well.  I have waited so long to find out why they decided to leave all they knew and loved to go to Canaan.  I did have some issues with the rape storyline.  I thought the Amish did not take people to court.  They tried to handle things in their communities.  So, that part of the story had me wondering a little. I did like how her parents handled the rape.  In other Amish fiction stories I've read, it felt like the parents would not even believe the girl. Other than that I totally loved the book and would recommend it to people who love Amish fiction. I look forward to reading more in this series. This is the first book I have bought for my Kindle for Android and I really enjoyed reading it that way.

October Gone! November Reads...

I have been so busy with my kids that my reading time has not been as much as I would like it to be.  November is half over too.  I got a lot read in October, but only have a few November reads.  A lot of things that  wanted to read over on Netgalley got poofed away.  So, here's my plan for November. 

Seek Me With All Your Heart- Beth Wiseman
The Thorn- Beverly Lewis
Shadows of Lancaster County- Mindy Starns Clark
Sarah's Choice- Wanda Brunstetter

Book Review: Blown Away By Nancy Mehl

Blown Away: A Curl Up and Dye Mystery by Nancy Mehl is the second book in her series about a hairstylist for the dead. Hilde is back and her boyfriend, Adam Sawyer is in the center stage in this book. Hilde goes to check on a grave at the cemetery and finds a dead body in a grave. Adam is accused of the murder. Hilde and her friend from the antique store, Gabe work to help prove Adam’s innocence. A lot of other things happen like a tornado, but why wouldn’t you add a tornado to a book with the name Blown Away. We also learn about Gabe’s background. Hilde has a lot of issues in the book that go back to her father leaving her family at a young age. She has to learn to trust men and especially Adam if their relationship is going to survive.


I thought this book had more to it than the first. I was hooked at trying to figure out who did it. I did have a few problems with the book. In the book, we learn that Hilde is scared of clowns. She learns it was from her stay in the hospital. Somehow though she magically puts that fear behind her and attends two clown funerals and is dating a clown. I also love inspirational books. The religious stuff in this book seemed very forced at times. There is also a lot of fluff stuff in this story to get to the heart of the story. While this stuff is sometimes cute it does get old after awhile. Finally, I really did not like the ending again. Like in the first book, Hilde says she knows who the murder is and then we go to a point in the future where they are talking about how it all went down. As a reader I felt like I missed something big and that was the big climax of finding out who the murder was in the action of the story not at a table with others when it is all done and said. Hilde is at it again in this book with her SPAM recipes. The reader is also given another recipe which I thought was kind of nice.

If you have not read the first book, Missing Mabel you will probably be okay reading this one on its own. The author does a really good job filling you in on what happened in the first book. I really enjoyed the first book though so you might want to check it out too.

Even though I had a lot of issues with this book, I still really enjoyed it, except the ending which was a letdown. I thought it was a pretty good cozy mystery. This book also says that it is part of the Hometown Mystery series. I really have not figured that out yet as there are a lot of hometown mysteries but they are not all about the same town. I’ll have to read another one on my list and see if I can figure that one out.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy cozy mysteries. I would like to thank Barbour Books for allowing me to read this book through NetGalley. This book comes out February 1, 2011.