The Heirloom + Giveaway

This heartwarming prequel to The Shunning is a tender story of love, belonging, and the courage to move forward.

After her widowed father remarries, nineteen-year-old Clara Bender is no longer needed to help run his household. Marriage seems like her best hope of moving out, but there are few young men in her tiny Indiana Amish community. When she comes across letters from her mother’s aunt Ella Mae Zook, she sets off to visit Lancaster County’s Hickory Hollow to decide where her future lies.

Ella Mae is not quite ready to move from the farmhouse where she and her recently deceased husband spent over fifty happy years, but her children are eager to resettle her, making Clara’s visit seem like an answer to prayer. The two women form a warm bond while restoring an heirloom wedding quilt and sharing their lives, with Ella Mae confiding about a tragedy from her courting years. Eventually, Ella Mae suggests Clara stay for the summer, allowing Ella Mae more time with her and giving Clara an opportunity to meet the area’s eligible young men. But when the unexpected happens, will Clara find where her heart truly belongs?

My Review:

First off, you don’t need to have read The Shunning or subsequent books set in Hickory Hollow in order to enjoy this ‘prequel.’ If you are a Beverly Lewis fan, however, Ella Mae Zook has already captured your heart and you will be thrilled to delve into her story pre ‘The Shunning’ era.

Life experiences have contributed to Ella Mae’s standing as the Wise Woman of Hickory Hollow. For decades she has served her community with sage advice, patient understanding and boundless compassion and now we’re finally offered a peek into this beloved character’s past.

Plus we get grandniece Clara’s story as well. Loved the contrast in ages of our two heroines and the inspiring friendship that develops between them. They are both at transitional points in their lives. Both grieving someone they loved. Both leaning on God to see them through, even when they can’t understand the why’s. The kind of faith thread that buoys a reader up and inspires her to reflect on her own transitioning times and how she can follow God’s leading in the midst of the confusion.

Lewis has a lovely, unhurried oral storytelling lilt to her writing. I always feel like I’m sitting with her characters over a cup of tea, listening raptly as they tell me their stories. It makes for a charming timeless tale that gently unfolds. Classic Lewis.

Book provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications Inc.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

This giveaway is for a paperback copy — open to any reader, anywhere in the world so…yay…another International Giveaway!

If you would like a chance to win a copy of The Heirloom, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it’s easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday October 14, 2023