Well Written! 'Ours for a Season' - by Kim Vogel Sawyer

About the book:

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 enjoyed this story that dealt with some hard topics but ultimately had hope.  I really liked all of the characters and especially that we got the viewpoints of Marty, Anthony and Brooke.  I felt for Marty as she struggled with knowing she'd never have children and she questioned why God wouldn't give her this desire of her heart.  She was really struggling in her faith.  Anthony was a wonderful guy who wanted a child also but didn't seem to struggle as much; Brooke wasn't a Christian and had never really thought about God until she got cancer.  I loved that her love of music was an important part of her personality.  There were also some minor characters, some Mennonite and others English.  I liked that there was a mix of people from different backgrounds and views of God.  There's a couple of wonderful passages about faith, one where Anthony was feeling like a failure because Brooke and Elliott hadn't come to faith and he realized he was being prideful and was trying to do it himself instead of in God's power and another passage where Brooke and Marty have a great conversation about God and the prodigal son.  There was some suspense as someone was stealing food on the property and sex trafficking and homelessness are brought into the story.  I liked how Marty realized how sheltered she's been and that seeing the pain and evil in the world propelled Marty, Anthony and Brooke into action.  Here's my favorite quote from the book from a stained-glass artist they met, "these projects are like life, with some days more broken than others, but when a master designer puts the pieces all together again, something of beauty emerges."  This was a great story I recommend. 

I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah.  I was not required to write a positive review and  have not been compensated for this.  This is my honest opinion.