A Healing Touch

I will read anything by Suzanne Woods Fisher and I am never disappointed!  A Healing Touch is a standalone that is set in Stoney Ridge and has some familiar characters in it. A Healing Touch has three main storylines and chapters alternate between the two. Dok Stoltzfus is the town's doctor, she serves Amish and Englishers and is beloved by both. Having grown up plain she knows how to connect with her community. When an abandoned baby is found on her office doorstep, she and her husband find themselves as temporary foster parents. Her husband is enamored with the idea but she is not, she feels that she is well past that stage in her life and wants to focus on being there for her community. Will a baby get in the way? Annie is Dok's trusty assistant. Even though she is plain she LOVES helping people and learning everything medical. When she discovers an Amish EMT she feels called to become one as well - but how to convince her family and her boss? Finally there is Bee. She is recently widowed and is undergoing chemo for breast cancer.  To top is off, her meddling doctor (Dok) has forced her to have grief sessions with an Amish widow down the road and has found a man to help her take care of her horses, the same man that sabotaged Bee's career early on. These three storylines are heartfelt and will tug at reader's hearts. Another wonderful inspirational read from Fisher! 

Lost and Found

While not technically part of a series, Lost and Found takes place in the same quaint Amish community as A Season on the Wind and Anything But Plain. So while it can easily read as a stand alone, it's nice to see characters from novels past. In Lost and Found, Micah and Trudy discover that their beloved pond filled with birds (they are avid bird watchers) is about to be bulldozed to make way for a neighboring Amish Church. They are about to lose their livelihood and a big piece of their community. On top of that, Trudy's older sister has started leaving voicemails for Micah asking him to rescue her. She ran away a while back to become a singer and no one has heard from her since. He's determined to somehow save her himself, rather than let the Bishop or her family know. Micah has so much on his plate he can't even begin to focus on trying to save Wonder Lake. He's irritable and unable to focus on anything, not even birding and especially not on Trudy. Wholesome, sweet with a side of intrigue. Can't go wrong with Amish romance! 

Anything But Plain

I genuinely enjoy a good Amish tale and this was the right amount of fluff. There are slight misunderstandings that get turned into disasters, crossed wires, meddling old mothers, and "forbidden" romance. Lydie Stolzfus feels she has to leave the Amish order - she doesn't fit in. She's been fired from more jobs then she can count, she's impulsive, forgetful, and can never finish a task without starting 4 others first. She feels like she's a disappointment to everyone - especially to her family and the boy she's loved since she was a kinner, Nathan. The local doctor has offered to let Lydie be a temporary secretary and she seizes the job as it gets her out of the house and away from her meddling grandma and it gives her time to prepare to leave the order. While there the doctor observes Lydie's behavior and realizes that she must be suffering from adult ADHD - it makes so much sense. But is it too late to do anything about it? The parallel storyline is told through Nathan's perspective and how he deals with his father splitting the farm in half and allowing each of his sons to decide how best to farm it. Mick wants all the chemicals sprayed on his fields and Nathan wants to try his hand at organic. Which will do better?? Predictable, sweet, and a good read.  

Season on the Wind

I really enjoyed this inspirational Amish romance because it discussed the dynamics of strict orders versus more lenient and forgiving sects. It also had Englischers (non-Amish) as an integral part of the story as well as birding - two things we don't always see a lot of. Ben Zook fled the Amish way of life years ago and vowed never to return. But when a rare bird stops in Stoney Ridge he can't stay away - it would be perfect in his latest book on rare birds. He convinces his cousin to come with him because she needs a change of scenery as she copes from the mess her life is in. They rent a guest house on the property of Penny and Micah two kind hearted Amish siblings. Micah is an eighteen year old birding prodigy and Penny is a 35 year old woman looking after the homestead and her baby brother. When she sees Ben Zook she is stunned speechless - she hadn't seen him since she was 12. She is convinced that God sent him here for a reason. Unfortunately Ben doesn't seem to recognize her at all. Filled with blossoming romance, birding, and coming back to God. This inspirational romance is heartfelt and fluffy. 

At Lighthouse Point

At Lighthouse Point is the third installment of the Three Sisters Island series and focuses on the baby sister of the family, Blaine. Blaine returns to the island after being gone for two long years studying in a world famous French cooking school. She's reinvigorated and looking to make big changes on the island, starting with the summer camp that her family owns. She's bringing along a surprise, her good friend Jean-Paul will be staying for the summer. Her family is taken aback, who is this French boyfriend?! They in turn have some surprises for her, the family kitchen that she was hoping to remodel and use for fancy dinners has already been remodeled by her older sister who doesn't know the first thing about cooking. It's a mess. And to make matters more complicated her former best friend, Artie, is back on the island but he won't even look Blaine in the eye. Her homecoming isn't at all what she expected but she's gotta have faith in her family and hope that everything will turn out for the best. A clean christian romance. 

The Imposter

Normally I am all in on Amish fiction but this one just didn't do it for me. I don't know if my "belief" was suspended by all the modern conveniences (washing machines, pregnancy tests, bobby pins, etc.) or if I just didn't love any of the characters. Our sweet and innocent protagonist turns out to be carrying a pretty big secret that was never alluded to and was in fact, the most scandalous thing ever. My favorite character is hands down, Birdie. The gentle giant that falls for David. I'll continue with the series and hope the rest resonates with me. 

Stitches in Time

I see Suzanne Woods Fisher books ALL THE TIME at my library. She's got like three full to bursting shelves and library patrons love her. Generally I'm not to keen on Amish romance but I decided to give this one a whirl. I was more than pleasantly surprised! This is the second in the Deacon Family series, but I honestly couldn't tell; it read easily as a standalone (I'm assuming book one focused on different people in the community). Stitches in Time focuses on a few different people. Recently married, Izzy and Luke, Mollie who is new to the community and the school teacher, and Sam brother to Luke and has a better relationship with his horses than he does any member of their community. Luke has just been tapped as Deacon and it is already putting a strain on his and Izzy's relationship. Luke is constantly gone working or helping others and the addition to their house isn't getting worked on and neither is Izzy (she DESPERATELY wants a baby). Mollie and Sam meanwhile are falling for each other, although both are a little too scared ans stubborn to make anything come from it. To complicate things for the whole community; ten foster kids come into their community and shake everyone's lives up. Sweet, endearing, and dealing with harder issues then I thought I would read about in an Amish romance, this book took me by surprise and I look forward to reading the rest in the series!