Showing results by author "Suzanne Woods Fisher" in All Categories

Katrina Stoltzfus thought she had life and love all figured out: She was going to marry John and live happily ever after. Those plans started to crumble when her father moved the family to Stoney Ridge then completely collapsed when John decided to marry someone else.

Welcome to a place of unconditional love and unexpected blessings. When widow Rose Schrock turns her Amish farmhouse into a bed and breakfast, she expects there might be problems. The reaction of her cantankerous mother-in-law for one. Disapproval from the church for another. But what she doesn’t expect is that the guests at the Inn at Eagle Hill will spill their problems into her life and into her heart. She also never expects the kind of help and support she gets from Galen King, the quiet and rugged horse trainer next door. Love, Rose discovers, can bloom in the most unexpected ways.

Impulsive Lydie Stoltzfus has always felt like a disappointment—a square peg in a round hole in her quiet Amish community. Leaving her family and church seems like her best move, even though it would mean leaving Nathan Yoder behind. Nathan claims he’s in love with her, but she knows she’s not good enough for him. And if she is ever in doubt, Nathan’s father reminds her frequently. Knowing Lydie is “between” jobs again, the local doctor asks her to fill in at the front desk for a few months. This gives Lydie time to figure out how she’s going to say goodbye to Nathan

Fifteen years ago, Lainey O'Toole made a split-second decision. She couldn't have known that her choice would impact so many. Now in her mid-20s, she is poised to go to culinary school when her car breaks down in Stoney Ridge, the very Amish town in which her long-reaching decision was made, forcing her to face the shadowed past.

Life on Windmill Farm hasn’t been the same since Julia Lapp’s father has had trouble with his heart. But that doesn’t stop Julia from hoping for a bright future. She has planned on marrying Paul Fisher since she was a girl. Now twenty-one, she looks forward to their wedding with giddy anticipation. But when Paul tells her he wants to postpone the wedding - again - she is determined to change his mind.

Bright, curious, and restless, Ruthie Stoltzfus loves her family but is stuck in a sea of indecision about her future: Should she stay Amish? Or should she leave? She's done all she can to prepare to go - passed the GED, saved her money - but she can't quite set her journey into motion. Patrick Kelly is a young man on a journey of his own. He's come to Stoney Ridge to convert to the Amish and has given himself 30 days to learn the language, drive a buggy, and adapt to "everything Plain". Time, to Patrick, is of the essence.

Camden Grayson loves her challenging career, but the rest of her life could use some improvement. "Moving on" is Cam's mantra. But there's a difference, her two sisters insist, between one who moves on...and one who keeps moving. Cam's full-throttle life skids to a stop when her father buys a remote island off the coast of Maine. Paul Grayson has a dream to breathe new life into the island - a dream that includes reuniting his estranged daughters. Certain Dad has lost his mind, the three sisters rush to the island.

On a warm spring day, Sadie Lapp returns home to her quiet, unassertive life in Stoney Ridge after spending the winter in Ohio. Gideon Smucker, an awkward schoolteacher, has been in love with Sadie since childhood and eagerly awaits her return. But does Sadie feel the same about him?Will Stoltz, a charming and impetuous college student, has been banished for a semester and sent to babysit endangered peregrine falcons nesting at the Lapp farm. He’d rather be anywhere else...until he befriends Sadie. As the hopes and ambitions of these three young people converge, life in Stoney Ridge may never be the same.

Nineteen-year-old Mary Kate Lapp yearns for adventure, but all she seems to find is trouble. Her dreams of travel have taken a backseat to her assignment to teach school this year. And nothing ever seems to happen in her sleepy Amish community. But when a sudden and unexplained death conveniently coincides with the arrival of a mysterious young man, M.K. is frustrated that no one takes it seriously. She’s determined to take matters into her own hands and get to the bottom of it. Will she find more than she bargained for?

In this collection, three former friends have found success in the floral industry, but happiness—and love—remain elusive.

New to Stoney Ridge, schoolteacher Mollie has come to town for a fresh start. When Luke Schrock, new to his role as deacon, asks the church to take in foster girls from a group home, she's the first to raise her hand. The power of love, she believes, can pick up the dropped stitches in a child's heart and knit them back together. Mollie envisions sleepovers and pillow fights. What the 11-year-old twins bring to her home is anything but. Visits from the sheriff at midnight. And then the most humiliating moment of all: the girls accuse Mollie of drug addiction.

Back and broke in Stoney Ridge, Jimmy Fisher has coasted as long as he could through life on charm, good looks, and deep-set dimples. They always worked just fine for him - until they didn't. His smile has no effect on the violet-eyed beauty he met at the Bent N' Dent, the one with that stunning horse. She's offered him a job, but nothing else. The last thing Sylvie Schrock King needs around Rising Star Farm is a grown boy working for her, especially her neighbor Edith's son. The woman holds a serious grudge against Sylvie and her son....

Convinced she’s found the missing piece in her life, Brynn Haywood finds herself saying “I do” to a man she’s known less than twenty-four hours. The dawn reveals a different truth, sending Brynn into a state of panic. In the quiet morning hours, she slips away, leaving her new husband in peaceful slumber, and flees to Cape Cod in a swirl of uncertainty and self-doubt. As Brynn strolls along the coastline, she realizes she’s been yearning for a radical change in her life.

For Madison Grayson, life is good. Newly licensed as a marriage and family therapist, she can't wait to start her practice. Despite the unfortunate shortage of eligible bachelors on the island - they're all too young, too old, or too weird - Maddie feels like she's finally found her sweet spot. Not even one panic attack in the last year. Not one. And then Ricky O'Shea drops in. Literally. Floating down from the pure blue sky, the one man in the world she hoped never to see again parachutes into town, landing on Boon Dock, canopy draping behind him like a superhero.

Of all the gifts that Jesus left us, his peace is most elusive. We long for it in our homes, in our relationships, in our life situations. One place we can look and see "living peace" is in the lives of the Amish. But you don't have to become Amish to bring these simple, practical ways of living into your own life--and make personal peace a reality. Organized around five central themes in Amish life, each section will include real-life stories, callouts of Amish proverbs, and interesting facts about Amish communities.

Luke Schrock is a new and improved man after a stint in rehab, though everyone in Stoney Ridge only remembers the old Luke. They might have forgiven him, but nobody trusts him. Amos and Fern Lapp allow Luke to live at Windmill Farm under two conditions. First, Luke must make a sincere apology to each person he's hurt - a four-page, single-spaced list. Second, he must ask each victim of mischief to describe the damage he caused.

When Anna Konig first meets Bairn, the Scottish ship carpenter of the Charming Nancy, their encounter is anything but pleasant. Anna is on the ship only to ensure the safe arrival of her loved ones to the New World. Hardened by years of living at sea, Bairn resents toting these naive farmers - dubbed "Peculiars" by deckhands - across the ocean. As delays, storms, illness, and diminishing provisions afflict crew and passengers alike, Bairn finds himself drawn to Anna's serene nature.

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.

Ruth “Dok” Stoltzfus is the kind of doctor who still believes in house calls, addressing not just her patients’ physical needs but their emotional ones too. When newly widowed Bee faces a breast cancer diagnosis, Dok connects her with Fern Lapp for support. When her painfully shy assistant Annie finds herself drawn to a new calling, Dok goes to great lengths to help her achieve her dream. And when an abandoned newborn mysteriously appears at her office one frosty morning, Dok’s world takes an unexpected turn as ripples of change touch several lives.

Dawn Dixon can hardly believe she's on a groomless honeymoon on beautiful Cape Cod...with her mother. Sure, Marnie Dixon is good company, but Dawn was supposed to be here with Kevin, the love of her life (or so she thought). Marnie Dixon needs some time away from the absolute realness of life as much as her jilted daughter does, and she's not about to let her only child suffer alone - even if Marnie herself had been doing precisely that for the past month.