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BOOK REVIEW: Waiting For Summer's Return
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by: Vickie McDonough Dancing Word Reviewer
Title: Waiting For Summer’s Return Author: Kim Vogel Sawyer Publisher: Bethany House ISBN: 0-7642-0182-4 Genre: Inspirational/Historical/Romance
Summer Steadman's dream of a new start in Oklahoma with her husband and four children died on the Kansas prairie when her whole family succumbed to typhoid. Alone and grieving, she longs only to go where her children went. She has no desire to travel on to Oklahoma by herself, but instead stays in the small Mennonite town to be near her children's graves. Gristmill owner, Peter Ollenberger, has heard there's a learned woman staying at the hotel in town. Though not an eloquent speaker, the Mennonite man hopes to hire the woman to teach his son, Thomas. An accident left Thomas unable to attend school, and Peter worries the boy will fall behind in his studies. With no other options available, Summer agrees to teach the boy. But the small, dirt-floored shack Peter offers her to stay in is nothing like her fancy home back in Boston. And it's obvious Thomas’s great-grandmother and most of the private Mennonite community don't want her there. But Summer tends to her job and soon finds her cold heart thawing in the warmth of Thomas's smile and Peter's kindness. Peter says that God will help Summer with her pain of loss and comfort her, but Summer can't believe him since she pleaded for God to spare her family and they still died. As Peter shares God's word and continues to treat her with overwhelming kindness, Summer begins to hope she might one day be able to find happiness again after all her pain. When Peter sees how much his son loves Frau Steadman, he wonders if it might be time to consider marrying again and getting the boy a new mother. But after losing the woman he loved dearly, would it be right to marry just to please his son? Will Summer ever move out of her pain-induced fog to see there is life on the other side? Will she learn that even in the midst of excruciating pain that God is there for her? Waiting For Summer’s Return is a slower paced book that is sure to tug at your heartstrings. Though not fast-paced, it will surely hold the reader's interest with its deeply emotional storyline and interesting characters. Peter is a different type of hero. He's not an eloquent speaker, and he's big and hairy like a bear, but has a faith and heart as large as the state of Kansas. He's patient with Summer and wants to see her heart healed because he's knows what she's going through, having experienced the pain of losing a spouse. In her debut novel, Kim Vogel Sawyer deftly gives readers a rare glimpse into a tightly-knit Mennonite village. Peter's stilted dialect enhances the story's flavor and readers a taste of the difficulties in communicating in a language not your native tongue. Readers also experience what it's like to be an outsider through Summer's eyes. Many of the Mennonites were not open to having an outsider in their community and made things difficult for her. Waiting For Summer’s Return is a fascinating, heart touching story that shows readers God is with them, no matter what they're going through. (270 pages, $12.99) |
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