With Winter’s First Frost (Every Amish Season #4) by Kelly Irvin
Published by Zondervan on February 5, 2019
Genres: Amish & Mennonite, Christian, Literature & Fiction
Pages: 352
Format: ARC, eBook
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From bestselling author Kelly Irvin comes the fourth and final book in the compelling Every Amish Season series.
Will the long, cold winter prove to be Laura and Zechariah’s season of renewed purpose and love sweetened with age?
Laura Kauffman has been a widow for eight years–since her husband of forty-five years passed away in his sleep on Christmas Eve. She tries to keep herself busy with her nine children, fifty-two grandchildren, and twenty-eight great-grandchildren. But she can’t stop wondering: What does God expect her to do with her days now? Has her usefulness been expended? Why leave her to carry on alone? Those are questions she can’t answer until a friend suffers complications during childbirth and needs someone to help care for her newborn twins and three older children. The twins’ great-grandfather, Zechariah Stutzman, a widower himself, seems to need some upkeep as well. Suddenly, Laura has her hands full, and the long winter days don’t seem so long.
Zechariah suffers from Parkinson’s disease. When his wife died of breast cancer two years earlier, his children insisted he live with one of his grandsons and their growing family because of his disease’s progression. He’s not allowed to drive, chop wood, or build fires. He feels he has outlived his usefulness. Then Laura comes along and seems determined to change that.
Both Laura and Zechariah must seek God’s will to find the purpose for this season in their lives. They have to be willing to trust and to accept that second chances for romantic love are possible–even probable–when they give control of their lives to God.
Today’s book is With Winter’s First Frost by Kelly Irvin, and it’s the fourth book in the series, Every Amish Season. When I saw it available for review on NetGalley, I knew I HAD to read it since I’ve already had the opportunity read the first book, Upon A Spring Breeze (see review HERE), the second book, Beneath the Summer Sun (see review HERE), and the third book, Through the Autumn Air (see review HERE).
Usually my mother reads the books about the Amish that I receive, but she’s having some medical issues with her eyes right now, so I have to step up and handle them. This book was released February 5th, so I wanted to be sure to get my post out for everyone.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” Ecclesiastes 3:1 NRSV-CE
The Every Amish Season series itself has been about a group of women who are all in different seasons of life. The women all differ by age and number of children, but they all share one thing in common – they have all lost their husbands and are now facing life after loss. This book will be the conclusion to this series.
Laura Kauffman and Zechariah Stutzman are both in their 70’s and have both lost their spouses. They have both faced loss and heartache, but perhaps they might face it together. Both Laura and Zechariah are strong and caring people who really want to feel needed and useful in their older years. As they got to know each other, I really enjoyed the banter between Laura and Zechariah, starting as acquaintances but developing into much more.
Each of Laura and Zechariah’s children are a bit overprotective of them and find it a struggle to figure out how to take care of them while at the same time allowing them to take care of themselves and to live their own lives. I really felt that the author did a great job of writing this story in a very caring and realistic way.
While it’s not totally necessary to read the entire series in order, if you have read the other books in the series, you will see appearances by the rest of the group of four widowed friends and their relationships are discussed from previous books. If you enjoy Amish fiction that provides an emphasis on family, faith and love, this will be the series for you.
A graduate of the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism, Kelly wrote nonfiction professionally for thirty years. She studied for three semesters at the University of Costa Rica, learning the Spanish language. As a journalist, she worked six years in the border towns of Laredo and El Paso, where she was exposed to culture and language that serves as fodder for her fiction writing.
Kelly has written hard news, features, entertainment pieces, restaurant critiques, editorials, and weekly columns. Writing awards include the Silver Star Award from the Texas Mental Health Association for articles pertaining to mental health and numerous awards in news, feature, and editorial writing from the Texas Press Association and Texas Press Women.
Kelly has been married to photographer Tim Irvin for almost twenty-nine years, and they have two young adult children and two grandchildren. In her spare time, she likes to write short stories, read books by her favorite authors, and visit the babies. You can connect with Kelly on social media ~
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I received a complimentary advanced readers digital copy of this book from Zondervan through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to provide a positive review and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
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