Ours for a Season by Kim Vogel Sawyer

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.

My thoughts: Reading Ms. Sawyer's story woven around members of an Old Order Mennonite community helps this reader grasp some of the similarities and differences between this Old Order group and Old Order  Amish. Anthony Hirschler is the male protagonist and owns a construction company. He drives a truck, has a cell phone, etc. Marty, his wife also drives and has a phone. They dress in a manner similar to the Amish (ladies cover their hair, have simple dresses, and aprons). They stand out in secular communities as being set apart yet not as set apart as their Old Order Amish counterparts.

The Old Order Mennonites in this story still defer to the local community's religious order for making decisions in life and business.

Now the story..... I found Marty's pouty disposition and standoffishness irritating and personally felt she should let go of her feeling so unhappy and unfulfilled because she and her husband were unable to have children of their own. She seemed self-centered in this attitude and unfeeling in regard to her husband's feelings.

What I related to in the story..... Marty's best friend during her growing up years was Brooke who has become a very successful business woman out in the secular world. She is  a worldly woman with no family. Then cancer strikes and she needs Marty's help.

The description of Brooke's battle with cancer and the treatments really hit home to me. Several years ago my husband had cancer with all its ugly effects and happenings - surgery, chemo treatments, radiation, sickness, and a tiredness and weariness that only those who are brought low with chemo can know. My daughter also had cancer and these awful times. So it was hard to read this story that carried Brooke's story and her battle.

The story ends on a high note - and the story ends on a low note. Just as in life their are the high moments and there are the low moments. The story of redemption is alive and well in Ours For A Seasonn and the characters who need redemption so much. The thread of abuse and homelessness and the need to address  these issues is a major part of the story.

This is a good read that can have one experience a roller coaster of emotions during the reading.

About the book: 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?

DISCLOSURE: As part of the Ours For A Season launch team I received a complimentary Advanced Reader's Copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are my own alone and are freely given.