Seeds of Hope by Barbara Cameron

Seeds of Hope (Gilead, November 2017)

A heartwarming tale of discovering love right in front of you

Miriam Troyer has had a secret crush on Mark Byler since she was a teenager, but she knows they can never have a relationship: Mark is a big-city attorney and an Englischer. Her Amish community is too far removed from all he knows–and she loves her quiet way of life.

Mark has always loved his visits to his grandfather’s farm, but he’s convinced the Amish life isn’t for him. There’s so much of the world to see and experience, and the excitement of his successful law practice can’t be matched by the slow pace of life found back home in the country.

But when things go wrong and his firm distances itself from him to try to save themselves, Mark finds himself back at his grandfather’s farm. Could life in this simple world be worth living after all? Especially when the teenager he remembers has grown into a woman that could be his future. Suddenly, these two people whose lives seem so far apart may get a chance to really see each other for the first time.

Learn more and purchase a copy.

{MORE ABOUT BARBARA CAMERON}

Barbara Cameron has a heart for writing about the spiritual values and simple joys of the Amish. She is the best-selling author of more than 40 fiction and nonfiction books, three nationally televised movies, and the winner of the first Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award. Her books have been nominated for Carol Awards and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award from RWA’s Faith, Hope, and Love chapter. Barbara resides in Jacksonville, Florida.

Find out more about Barbara at http://barbaracameron

My Take : This was a typical Amish and English falling in love story.  I enjoyed it and will be looking forward to other in this series.  I enjoy reading Amish book that are set in Lancaster County as I live in Lancaster County and like to see if I recognize any of the landmarks.  I found it interesting that the Englischer in this book is a lawyer as they usually don't have such a lucrative job.  I enjoy by luxuries but I also enjoy the simpler life.  I liked how the author made the romance to seem to be plausible.  This was a bit predicable but still enjoyable.  Recommended if you enjoy Amish love stories.  

I received a review copy from Litfuse in exchange for honest review. 

Home to Paradise by Barbara Cameron

Home to Paradise (Abingdon, February 2017)

Highly anticipated final book in The Coming Home Series from best-selling Amish author Barbara Cameron.

Rose Anna Zook has watched her two older sisters marry two Stoltzfus men and has always thought she and John, the third Stoltzfus brother, would marry, make a home together, and have children. But John has other ideas. He’s enjoying his Rumschpringe in the Englisch world a little too much and isn’t interested in returning to the Amish community—especially to marry.

Rose Anna is determined to bring her man back into the Amish fold. John is equally determined to live his life free and unencumbered. Who will win this battle of wills? Will love prevail?

Learn more and purchase a copy.

{MORE ABOUT BARBARA CAMERON}

Barbara Cameron has a heart for writing about the spiritual values and simple joys of the Amish. She is the best-selling author of more than 40 fiction and nonfiction books, three nationally televised movies, and the winner of the first Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award. Her books have been nominated for Carol Awards and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award from RWA’s Faith, Hope, and Love chapter. Barbara resides in Jacksonville, Florida.

Find out more about Barbara at http://barbaracameron.com.

My Take;  Even though this is the third book in this triology I was able to read it with no problem and I hadn't read either of the first two books.  I liked reading this book as it seemed to shed a little light on the practice of the Amish young folks taking some time to run around before they join the Amish Church.   It also showed the Amish doing volunteer work in the community which you don't read about very much.  I will probably go back and read the other two books in this series because I found this book to be very good.  

I received a review copy of this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review. 

Scraps of Evidence by Barbara Cameron

Book Info
About Quilts of Love: Quilts tell stories of love and loss, hope and faith, tradition and new beginnings. The Quilts of Love seriesfocuses on the women who quilted all of these things into their family histories. A new book releases each month and features contemporary and historical romances as well as women's fiction and the occasional light mystery. You will be drawn into the endearing characters of this series and be touched by their stories. About the book: Tess has taken some ribbing from her fellow officer, Logan, for her quilting hobby. He finds it hard to align the brisk professional officer he patrols with during the day with the one who quilts in her off-time. Besides, he's been trying to get to know her better and he'd like to be seeing her during those couple nights a week she spends with her quilting guild. Then one afternoon Tess and Logan visit her aunt in the nursing home and she acts agitated when Tess covers her with the story quilt. Aunt Susan seems to be communicating a message to them about Tess's uncle. There's a story behind this quilt, they realize, one that may lead them to a serial killer. Will they have a chance to have a future together or will the killer choose Tess for his next victim before they find him? Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/tB3KX About the Author: Barbara Cameron is the CBD, CBA, and  ECPA bestselling author of 24 books including the new Stitches in Times series for Abingdon Press. Barbara has written fiction and non-fiction books for Abingdon Press, Thomas Nelson, Harlequin, and other publishers. She sold three films to HBO/Cinemax and is the first winner of the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award. Barbara's first two novellas won the 2nd and 3rd place in the Inspirational Readers Choice Contest from the Faith, Love, and Hope chapter of  RWA. Both were finalists for the novella category of the Carol Award of the American Christian Writers Award (ACFW).  Learn more about Barbara at: http://barbaracameron.com My Take:  I am really enjoying all these Quilts of Love books.  This story takes the cozy mystery genre and adds in quilting.  Every quilt has its own story and this one has a mystery attached.  This is a bit of a separation from the Amish fiction that Barbara Cameron but she has done a wonderful job with this mystery and it kept me turning the pages and I would read another mystery by Barbara Cameron.   I received a review copy of this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest  opinion.

Enter Today | 2/17 - 3/8!

A Road Unknown by Barabra Cameron

Book Info

About the book: Book 1 in the new Amish Roads series Elizabeth is at a crossroad. She's been given the chance to experience life outside of her community, away from the responsibility to care for her eight younger siblings, but Elizabeth Bontrager can't decide which road to take. Goshen has its charms and pressures, but Paradise, Pennsylvania, sounds . . . well, like paradise. And it's also home to her Englisch friend, Paula. Decision made. Elizabeth is Paradise bound. But will the small town live up to its name? When Elizabeth meets Paula's friend, Bruce, she quickly learns he wants more than a friendship. And the same might be true of Saul Miller, her new boss at the country story that sells Amish products to the Englisch community. As the two compete for her attention, Elizabeth is surprised to realize she misses her family and becomes even more uncertain about where she belongs. She has a choice to make: return home or embrace this new life and possibly a new love? Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/tj3vR About the Author: Barbara Cameron is a best-selling author who has a heart for writing about the spiritual values and simple joys of the Amish. She is the author of more than 38 fiction and nonfiction books, three nationally televised movies, and the winner of the first Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award. Barbara is a former newspaper reporter. Some of her non-fiction titles include theEverything Weddings on a Budget Book and Her Restless Heart: A Woman's Longing for Love and Acceptance. Cameron currently resides in Edgewater, Florida. Learn more about Barbara at: http://barbaracameron.com               My Take:  An Amish young women runs away from all the responsibilities that she has to do within her family.   Will she go Englisch or will she embrace her Amish life.  This is a great addition to the Amish Fiction genre and I look forward to to read the rest of the series.  This had a little twist to the focus of the book that was truly refreshing.  Great Book.  I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion from Litfuse Publicity.

Heart in Hand by Barbara Cameron

Heart in Hand be Barbara Cameron

From Goodreads.com
 After the wedding of her cousin Naomi, knitter Anna, a widow, finds herself missing love and the closeness of a husband. She feels a special connection with her grandmother as they both struggle to go on with life.

Is Anna on the verge of finding happiness when she realizes John Esh is interested in her? Love begins to warm Anna’s heart, but will she be so afraid of losing someone that she gives up the second chance that God has provided?

About the Author:

Barbara Cameron is the author of 35 fiction and non-fiction books, three nationally televised movies (HBO-Cinemax), as well as the winner of the first Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award. When a relative took her to visit the Amish community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she felt led to write about the spiritual values and simple joys she witnessed there.
Her latest book is the Amish fiction, Heart in Hand.

WEBSITE | BLOG

About the Book:

Anna, a knitter and the oldest of the three cousins, watches the wedding of Naomi and Nick the following fall and remembers her own wedding. A widow, Anna thinks about how short her time with her husband was; as she looks at her grandmother, she wonders if Leah is recalling her own marriage. Her grandparents were married for a longer time than she and her husband were, but Anna and her grandmother lost their spouses only months apart three years ago. Perhaps this is why they have always felt so close. Both know how hard it is to be a widow, to go on with life.  
    Gideon Beiler approaches Anna one day. Gideon is a wonderful, caring man. He, too, has suffered a loss – his wife, Mary, died and left him to raise their only daughter. Spring is a time for new beginnings, for love to bloom as nature thaws the earth and makes it come alive again after the long cold winter. As love begins to warm Anna’s heart again, she’s afraid to chance losing someone she has come to care so much about. Her grandmother tells her she believes Gideon may be the man God has sent for her to have a second chance at love.
    Stitches in time…and place: three cousins who laugh and love and learn about life together with their warm and wise grandmother, Leah, in their special shop. Two generations of Amish women who are bound by strong threads which bind them to their creativity and their community. 

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Book Excerpt:

            It felt like dawn would never come.
            When Anna first realized that it was going to be one of those nights . . . one of those awful nights that felt like it would never end, she reached for the book she’d been reading and read for a while with the help of the battery lamp on the bedside table.
            Reading didn’t help. Knitting didn’t, either, and knitting always relaxed her. Reaching for her robe, Anna pushed her feet into her slippers and padded downstairs to the kitchen. There was no need for a light for she knew her way from all the dozens—no, hundreds—of nights she’d gone downstairs in the dark.
            Even before the first time she stepped inside this house, she knew it like the back of her hand. She and Samuel had drawn the plans, spent hours talking about how he and his brothers were going to build it. As soon as the house was finished, he’d started crafting furniture for it. The final piece he’d made was a cradle for the baby he hoped they’d have soon.
            His sudden illness stopped him in his tracks. Leukemia, said the doctor. One day it seemed he was an agile monkey climbing up the frame of a barn he and other men were raising—just a few days later he could barely get out of bed and she’d joked he’d turned into an old man. She’d insisted that he see a doctor and reluctantly he’d done so.
            Six months later, he was gone and she’d shut the door to the room with the tiny crib. She buried her dreams the day she buried Samuel.
            She filled the teakettle and set it on the stove to heat. How many cups of tea had she drunk in the middle of the night? She wondered as she reached for a cup and the box of chamomile tea bags. 
            Before Samuel had died, she’d heard about the seven stages of grief. She’d been naïve. You didn’t go through them one by one in order. Sometimes you walked—faltered—through them in no certain order. Sometimes they ganged up on you when you least expected them.
            And sometimes—it felt like too many times—no one seemed to understand.
            She couldn’t blame them. The only way she got through the first month, the first year, was to put on a brave face and pretend she was getting through it. There was no way she could get through it otherwise—she’d shatter into a thousand pieces that no one would be able to put back together again.
            Humpty Dumpty, she thought wryly. Then she frowned, wishing that she hadn’t thought of the childhood story. A closed door didn’t keep out the memory of the tiny crib that lay behind it.
            The teakettle’s piercing whistle broke into her musing, its sound so sharp and shrill that she put her hands over her ears to block it while she got up to take it off the flame. She poured the hot water over the tea bag, took the mug back to the kitchen table and sat there, dipping the bag in and out of the water.
            Finally, she pulled the bag out and set it on the saucer. Sighing, she massaged her scalp and wondered if she should take an aspirin to stop the pain. Then she flicked her hair behind her shoulders and hunched over the cup. In a minute, she’d get up and get the aspirin. Her mind might be awake, but her body felt tired and full of lead.
            As she trudged back up the stairs a few minutes later, she heard something—it sounded like a laugh, a high, excited one that went rushing past her up the stairs. She watched, tired, leaning against the wall as she saw herself—lifting the hem of her nightgown so she wouldn’t trip—Samuel reaching for her as she flew up the stairs to their room.
            She blinked, not sure if she was dreaming or seeing a ghost of the two of them, so young and in love, so unaware that anything bad could touch them

My Take:  Although I haven't read any of the first two books in this series, I will be going back and reading them, I really enjoyed this book.  This is a sweet book that takes two Amish widowers and brings them together and although the road to true love isn't always smooth it has some cute help from a little girl.  I would highly recommend  this book if you like Amish romances or just stories about a simpler way of life.  You do not have to read the first two books in this series to enjoy this one but you will probably  want to go back and read them like I will be.  Since I live in Lancaster County PA much of this book rang true and I could literally hear the horse and buggies as I read this book.  

I was provided a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion from Pump Up Your Book. 

Book Spotlight - A Time to Heal by Barbara Cameron

A Time to Heal by Barbara Cameron

from Goodread.com:
Christopher Matlock is a weary and wounded ex-soldier who just wants some peace in his life, but then he meets Hannah Bontrager, a gentle, pacifist Amish woman who turns his world upside down. Born and raised on a Kansas farm, Christopher finally finds peace in this simple community helping with the crops. He expects resistance from the Amish but is appalled when he and Hannah experience threats. When he discovers who his enemy is, he realizes he must stay and reveal a secret that could take away everything.