The Guardian by Beverly Lewis

I am a huge fan of Beverly Lewis and have been anxiously awaiting this book in her Home to Hickory Hollow series.  This book took a totally different turn than I ever expected.  The first two books were great but I felt like I knew what had happened or was going to happen.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that was not the case in this book.  I didn't suspect the story to be more about 2 families than it was a girl.

I like how she brought two totally different women together all because of one little girl.  It was a beautiful story of setting aside differences and loving each other despite those differences.  We all go through grief and to see how they each dealt with it and how they came to terms with it was part of the larger story.  I think that's the part the readers can most relate to because we all face grief and hard problems.  We do have a choice in how we deal with the grief, as these two women demonstrated.

I am anxiously awaiting September so I can read the fourth book in this series!
____________
For more info:

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Guardian Bethany House Publishers (March 26, 2013) by Beverly Lewis

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Beverly's first venture into adult fiction is the best-selling trilogy, The Heritage of Lancaster County, including The Shunning, a suspenseful saga of Katie Lapp, a young Amish woman drawn to the modern world by secrets from her past. The book is loosely based on the author's maternal grandmother, Ada Ranck Buchwalter, who left her Old Order Mennonite upbringing to marry a Bible College student. One Amish-country newspaper claimed Beverly's work to be "a primer on Lancaster County folklore" and offers "an insider's view of Amish life."

Booksellers across the country, and around the world, have spread the word of Beverly's tender tales of Plain country life. A clerk in a Virginia bookstore wrote, "Beverly's books have a compelling freshness and spark. You just don't run across writing like that every day. I hope she'll keep writing stories about the Plain people for a long, long time."

A member of the National League of American Pen Women, as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of Evangel University, Lewis has written over 80 books for children, youth, and adults, many of them award-winning. She and her husband, David, make their home in Colorado, where they enjoy hiking, biking, and spending time with their family. They are also avid musicians and fiction "book worms."

ABOUT THE BOOK

When schoolteacher Jodi Winfield goes for a morning run, the last thing she expects is to find a disheveled little girl all alone on the side of the Pennsylvania road, clad only in her undergarments, her chubby cheeks streaked with tears. Jodi takes the preschooler home with her, intending to find out where she belongs. But Jodi is mystified when no one seems to know of a missing child, and the girl herself is no help, since she can't speak a word of English. It's as if the child appeared out of nowhere.

As the days pass, Jodi becomes increasingly attached to the mysterious girl, yet she is no closer to learning her identity. Then an unexpected opportunity brings Jodi to Hickory Hollow--and into the cloistered world of the Lancaster Old Order Amish. Might the answers lie there?

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Guardian, go HERE.

____________

I received this book free from Bethany House Publishers and CFBA in exchange for my honest opinion.