Amish Cooking Class: The Blessing

There is such support for one another for those who live within the Amish community and often time it even extends to the Englisher's who reside within the city limits as well. That is what has always drawn me to Amish fiction is their strong faith and sense of community support. In Wanda Brunstetter's Amish Cooking Class series, The Blessing is the third book in the series that revolves around Heidi Troyer and her husband Lyle who live in Walnut Creek, Ohio. Learning that they may never have children of their own, Heidi decides to teach Amish cooking classes in small groups of 5 to supplement their income and to give her something to do. This is her second class she is preparing to teach and this time with different hopes.

She hopes that Kendra will follow through on her desire to give her baby up to the Troyer's to adopt since as a young mother she certainly can't afford to raise a young child on her own with her parents tossing her out once they learned she was pregnant. So in Heidi believes this might be her last class before she becomes a full-time mother. Again, she has 6 people signed up to join her class, Lisa Brooks is taking the class to inspire additional ideas for her catering business, Todd Collins is taking the class under the premise of wanting to learn how to cook, but has secret motives as a food critic, who wants to see just how good this food could be.

For Bill Mason, he's signed up because as the owner of a cabin he and a few buddies visit during hunting season, his cooking has left something to be desired and he hopes it might teach him to make something else that his friends won't complain about. Nicole Smith is the youngest and she is taking the classes to learn to cook as the oldest child trying to help out her family since her mom left for another man and alcohol, while leaving her to help raise her two younger siblings and still work on finishing up school. At least this gives her a much needed break from her family's expectations. For Allie Garret, her husband provided the cooking lessons as a gift to learn how to make some different dishes for her family. What they don't all realize is that this will be more than simply learning how to cook some delightful Amish meals but that they will also work towards helping one another out when they each have a need and all part of God's plan.

I received Amish Cooking Class: The Blessing by Wanda Brunstetter compliments of Net Galley and Barbour Publishing. In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, you should assume that every book reviewed here at Reviews From The Heart was provided to the reviewer by the publisher, media group or the author for free and were received, unless specified otherwise. Besides getting what I would call 6 different mini novels in one is the delicious mouth-watering recipes that conclude this novel, each of them being the very meals or dishes that the cooking class learns. I only wish I had an lovely Amish woman like Heidi to teach me how. It's almost like a therapy session for them as each person begins to share their burdens to one another and soon find themselves being helped along the way by one another. This is one of my bucket list items to spend a weekend on an Amish farm and learn more about their way of life and cooking by living off of what they grow and can make in most cases. I just don't think I'd be able to keep up. This is a wonderful series and worthy of 5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about Amish Cooking Class: The Blessing, Wanda Brunstetter or where you can pre-order a copy of this novel due out in early August 2017, please click on the links below:

Amish Cooking Class: The Blessing by Wanda Brunstetter

You can find Wanda Brunstetter on Facebook to stay up to date with all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on Amish Cooking Class: The Blessing, please visit Barbour Publishing's website. 

The Seekers

One of the things that have always impressed me about the Amish is that they keep basic home-making skills alive. Things like sewing, gardening, and cooking is such a vital part of their lives, it would be odd if it were missing in lieu of things like eating out instead of taking your food from garden to table and often wonder how amazing that food tastes when no preservatives are added. If you have ever wanted to cook like the Amish, you can find plenty of Amish cookbooks out there, but what if you could read a great novel about the friendships that form among various people who come together drawn initially by their love of wanting to know how to cook?

In The Seekers by Wanda E. Brunstetter, that is just what happens when Heidi Troyer realizes that she has quite a bit of time on her hands and learning from her friends that they have benefited from creating classes to teach others what they excel at, and for Heidi that is cooking! She has always dreamed of starting a family of her own, but at this time, it seems that will never happen. So now she imagines a small group coming together where she can teach them how to prepare some of the Amish beloved dishes.

She managed to incorporate her friends who burn more than they can successfully cook like Loretta Donnelly, who is a recent widow and mother of two very busy young children, who would love to utilize this class to help her prepare better meals for her family but also give her a much needed break from being a mom. Charlene Higgins is the most desperate of the group as it seems she can't do anything right. She needs to be able to at least cook seeing as a wedding to her Amish boyfriend Len is in her future and her future in-laws aren't the slightest bit impressed with anything she does, finding fault in everything. Eli Miller is tired of cold cereal and hard boiled eggs, now that his wife has died in an accident, a cooking class might be what he needs to get out of his slump and at least put a decent meal on the table for himself. Kendra Perkins needs this class since being tossed out of her Amish house when she became pregnant unexpectedly. This might help her find a true purpose in her life for now.

Ron Hensley needed to find a place to fit in and the Troyers seems just the place. Since they are a small family with no children and plenty of space on their farm, he anticipates they are just the right people to garner sympathy for a man living out of his RV that needs a place to park it while he tries to fix it. Only it is all a ploy so he can find the time to scope out their home and find just the right things they won't miss to sell at the local auction. Joining a cooking class might just be the edge he needs to get that kind of invitation. But will they be cooking up something else that he didn't expect?

I received The Seekers by Wanda E. Brunstetter compliments of Barbour Publishing and Net Galley. For me, the best part of this novel is the mouth-watering recipes that Heidi provides for each of her classes and ones you will find at the conclusion of this book as well as some great discussion questions perfect for book clubs. I love how this group of people come together to learn to cook and come away with so much more. For some, they will find the perfect friends, others will see that their perceptions of others aren't quite what they imagined and for others a dream come true. I give this one a 5 out of 5 stars in my opinion and this is the first novel in the Amish Cooking Class series.

For more information about The Seekers, Wanda E. Brustetter or where you can preorder a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Seekers by Wanda E. Brunstetter

You can find Wanda E. Brustetter on Facebook to stay up to date on his latest novels

To read more reviews on The Seekers, please visit Barbour Publishing's website.