Amish Romance Book Review ~ The Calling

About the Book

"Book Two in the Inn at Eagle Hill series.

Bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher delivers her trademark twists, turns, and tender romance in this delightful and exciting visit to the deceptively quiet community of Stoney Ridge. 

Twenty-year-old Bethany Schrock is restless. Her love life has derailed, her faith hangs by a thread, and she is spending the incredibly hot summer days wading through a lifetime’s accumulation of junk at the home of five ancient Amish sisters. About the only thing that holds her interest is the spirited and dangerously handsome Jimmy Fisher–and he seems bent on irritating her to no end.

When the sly old sisters and a guest at the Inn get Bethany involved in running the local soup kitchen and starting a community garden, she suddenly finds herself wondering, Shootfire! How did that happen? Despite her newfound purposefulness, a gnawing emptiness about a childhood mystery continues to plague her. Encouraged by Jimmy Fisher, she will seek out the answers she craves–and uncover a shocking secret that will break her heart, heal it, and point her to love."

Amber's Review

With the first book in this series taking a while to grow on me and turning out not to be a favorite (although it was still good), I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. I did hold out hope, though, that Bethany and Jimmy - characters whose potential romance I was interested in - would save the day and make this an enjoyable read. And all in all, my hopes were happily fulfilled! While this series does have a different feel due to the uniqueness of the characters, family situations, and the B&B, I felt like The Calling was a reminder of (and a return to) what I love about Fisher's books.

We've got an interesting cast with this story: a young Amish woman who likes to organize things, is a bit sassy, and doesn't like to step out of her comfort zone; her younger sister with a couple of big secrets involving some letters and a crush; a young Amish man who's torn about his future and about his feelings for a certain headstrong girl; and a female preacher who comes to stay at the Inn at Eagle House when she loses her job. And those are just the main POV perspectives! There's also the rest of Bethany and Mim's family, Jimmy's overprotective and determined mother, the neighbors, a group of older women bent on helping others at the cost of a cluttered home, a group of "outcast" girls, an attorney, and a "villain." One thing's for sure - Fisher knows how to create some authentic but quirky characters! And she demonstrates once again in this book that she can make the reader care for them.

I really enjoyed seeing these characters grow, watching them interact and respond to revealed secrets, and observing them live in love. There are some intriguing twists in the plot, with a dash of suspense to boost the pace of this character-driven novel. And the lessons learned through it all are really touching - about the importance of truth and of reaching out in compassion and understanding.

The Calling is a great continuation of "The Inn at Eagle Hill" series, one that held my interest and won me over much more than Book 1. Fisher continues to write fascinating Amish novels!

*With thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion, to be shared during the Litfuse Publicity blog tour.*

Extras

• You can buy the book now on Amazon!

• This review was posted at Seasons of Humility on February 7th for the Litfuse Publicity blog tour. Click HERE to read that post and view the author bio and related links. (Note that the contest has already ended.)

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Suzanne Woods Fisher: The World I Write In

My office is a little tiny laundry room. It’s so narrow that if someone wants to use the washer or dryer, my chair gets bumped as they pass. (A good excuse for typos!)

People think I’m crazy, that I should move into a bigger space and spread out. Especially, they point out, as my children have gone to college and space is freeing up. It does seem crazy—I have typed fourteen novels in this laundry room and I host a weekly radio show in it.

But I just can’t seem to move. I’ve tried a couple of times and find myself migrating back to the laundry room.

One of the reasons is very practical: the laundry room is in the heart of the house, right off the kitchen, so I can jump up and get the phone, get dinner started, answer the door. The laundry room is painfully short on horizontal surface space, I admit, but it is valuable real estate.

There’s another reason that is harder to explain.

Years ago, when I took the plunge and decided to write a novel, I kept it a secret. I spent four months in that little laundry room, quietly typing away. I didn’t tell anyone I was writing a novel. Not my husband, not my sister, not my children, not a single friend. When I was done with the first draft (remember—the first draft is the ugly draft), I made an announcement at the dinner table one evening. “I wrote a novel,” I proudly said.

My sons, who are so extremely sensitive, looked at each other and said, “That’s why there’s no food in this house!” True story.

I’m getting sidetracked. Like usual.

Fast forward a year or two. One Monday afternoon, the doorbell rang and set the dogs off on their typical bark-fest (Labrador retrievers take greeting responsibilities very seriously). I opened the door to the UPS delivery guy. He was grinning ear-to-ear. Next to him…were six stacked boxes of books.

My first published novel.

The laundry room is off the kitchen, but if you were to look at the footprint of our house, it’s actually situated only a few yards away from the front door. I’ll never forget, as I held my first novel in my hands, with that fresh-from-the-printer-y smell, the realization that it all started in that tiny laundry room, with an idea. It traveled to an agent, to editors, back with zillions of rejection letters, at long last, back came an acceptance, then revisions to the manuscript, back and forth with the editor. And here it was, back home again in another form. What a long journey!

And that’s why my office will stay in the laundry room. It just…works.

Suzanne will be giving away a copy of her latest release, The Lesson, on Friday. Be sure to stop by The Borrowed Book for your chance to win!

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