Ours For a Season - Kim Vogel Sawyer

An Old Order Mennonite couple's vows and beliefs are challenged in this stirring contemporary novel for fans of Cindy Woodsmall or Shelley Shepherd Gray.
  Anthony and Marty Hirschler are part of an Old Order Mennonite community in Pine Hill, Indiana. The couple has grown apart since a doctor confirmed they would never have children. Marty longs to escape the tight-knit area where large families are valued, and the opportunity to do so arises when her childhood friend, Brooke Spalding, resurfaces with the wild idea of rebuilding a ghost town into a resort community. Brooke hires Anthony to help with the construction, drawing the Hirschlers away from Indiana and into her plan, and then finds herself diagnosed with cancer. Moral complications with Brooke's vision for a casino as part of the resort and the discovery of a runaway teenager hiding on the property open up a world neither the Hirschlers nor Brooke had considered before. Will they be able to overcome their challenges and differences to help the ones among them hurting the most?

MY REVIEW: I always love Kim's books and Ours For a Season is no exception! Amish/Mennonite is not my favorite, but this one surprised me. There was more depth in the story with an unexpected range of topics. Marty's longing for a child has colored her world with a bitter outlook and has placed a strain on her marriage and her faith in God. So when her childhood friend offers the chance for Marty and Anthony to get away with an offer for his company to rebuild an abandoned community, Marty hopes to rebuild the relationship both with her husband and with her non-believing friend, Brooke.

The story of the tightly-knit group of Mennonites, along with a couple of people of no faith shows the bonds growing even stronger as Brooke battles a cancer diagnosis and a runaway discovered on the property sheds light on the plight of runaway teens and human trafficking. The challenges faced by the various characters bring new insight and strength and leads to surprising changes in their lives. I highly recommend this one!

I received a copy of the book at no cost to myself as part of the Waterbrook Launch Team as a #PRHpartner. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.