A Place at Our Table (Amish Homestead #1) by Amy Clipston
Published by Zondervan on November 14th 2017
Pages: 327
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Kayla Dienner has suffered her fair share of heartache, which is why she vows to protect her heart at all costs . . . until she meets Jamie Riehl.
Along with his volunteer work at the local fire department, running his Amish farm keeps Jamie Riehl busy. He barely has time to eat at the family table, never mind find someone to date. But when he meets Kayla Dienner, he is smitten.
Kayla tries hard to deny her attraction to Jamie. After all, she’s spent the last year discouraging her younger brother, Nathan, from becoming a firefighter. The death of their older brother in a fire a year ago is fresh in her mind—she can’t bear the idea of putting her heart on the line every time the sirens blare.
Then tragedy strikes, and Jamie wants to extinguish any flame between him and Kayla. Can Kayla set aside her own fears to save the love she was determined to deny?
The first book in the Amish Homestead series, A Place at Our Table invites us to a quiet community in Lancaster County where love burns brightly no matter the cost.
Most of you know that I am a book blogger with the Fiction Guild’s Elite Reader Program, so it’s very often that I receive books that my mother and I love to read. Today’s book is a book by one of my mother’s favorite authors, Amy Clipston!
A Place At Our Table is the first book in the Amish Homestead series. The book invites us to a quiet community in Lancaster County where love burns brightly no matter the cost.
We meet the main characters Kayla Dienner and Jamie Riehl when a fire starts in the Deinner’s barn. Jamie Reihl is a 25 years old Amish volunteer fireman for the Bird-in-Hand fire department and was one of the fireman trying to save the barn and rescue Nathan. Jamie knew Kayla’s older brother Simeon who perished in a fire while serving as a volunteer firefighter earlier this year. . Along with volunteering at the local fire department Jamie Riehl is very busy. He does not have time to have a social life. I fell in love with the character Jamie, who struggles to being a good son and sharing his work load on the family growing dairy farm. Grieving and blaming himself for the death of his mother turns Jamie’s world upside down.
Kayla Dienner is not interested in romance as she recently broke up with her boyfriend. She’s focusing on her work at the restaurant the family owns. Kayla’s family is grieving the death of her older brother Simeon. Simeon’s wife Eva and baby lives in an apartment next to the Dienner house and works at the restaurant also. Her younger brother Nathan wants to become a firefighter. Kayla and her parents are discouraging him. She is attractive to Jamie but does not want to become involved with a firefighter.
This is a story involving two Amish families as both families are suffering from the death of their loved ones and how each family deals with death. Through their interactions a friendship bond is formed. I loved how their friendship grew through coping with their grief and sorrow. Jamie and Kayla’s friendship grows as they get to know each other better. As the book takes the reader on their journey of friendship and courtship turning into love. This is a sweet love story dealing with obstacles, misunderstandings, and great losses. Will their love and faith guide them forward to a life together?
Amy Clipston has a way of bringing you into the character’s life and you want to become friends with them. I enjoyed meeting the Dienner and Riehl family and look forward to reading more about them in the next series. Most of the time I really enjoy anything that Amy Clipston writes, but I give this book a four star as I did not enjoy this one as much as her other writings.
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AMY CLIPSTON is the award-winning and bestselling author of the Kauffman Amish Bakery series. She has sold more than 1 million books, and her novels have hit multiple bestseller lists including CBD, CBA, and ECPA. Amy holds a degree in communication from Virginia Wesleyan College and works full-time for the City of Charlotte, NC. Amy lives in North Carolina with her husband, two sons, and three spoiled rotten cats.
Be sure to visit Amy Clipston’s website Online / Facebook / Twitter
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