Nancy Mehl's Simple Secrets ~ Reviewed

Simple Secrets: Can Love Overcome Evil in the Mennonite Town of Harmony, Kansas? (The Harmony Series, Book 1) [Paperback]
Nancy Mehl
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc (June 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602605122

Description:

Can graphic designer Gracie Temple have it all: the big city life and a job at a successful advertising firm? Just when she feels life coming together she receives an unknown uncle’s inheritance in a quiet Kansas Mennonite community. The house comes with a dark legacy and a cast of interesting neighbors, including farmer Sam Goodrich.

Can Gracie shake off the dust of this town or will its secret charms pull her in to stay?

REVIEW:

As most of you would know, Amish fiction is not my favourite genre, and although Nancy Mehl's new mystery series is set in a Mennonite community rather than Amish, I still opened the novel with minimal expectations. I'm pleased to say I was in for a nice surprise! Simple Secrets is a cozy mystery with an inevitable outcome but provides a sweet and enjoyable read as Gracie experiences a new community far removed from her own, the appealing and mysterious Sam Goodrich and unearths an uncomfortable secret that affects the town and her own family. I will be returning to Harmony in the continuing stories, Simple Deceit and Simple Choices.

Reviewed by: Rel Mollet



BONUS REVIEW:

The title of Simple Secrets means so many different things in the complex threads of this novel. This is my first introduction to the writing of Nancy Mehl and it will not be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed her foray from mystery into romantic suspense. She knows her stuff. Each chapter and page was another hook that made me need five more minutes to find out what happens next all the way to the very end.

Love at first sight was palpable between Gracie and Sam and I look forward to see...more The title of Simple Secrets means so many different things in the complex threads of this novel. This is my first introduction to the writing of Nancy Mehl and it will not be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed her foray from mystery into romantic suspense. She knows her stuff. Each chapter and page was another hook that made me need five more minutes to find out what happens next all the way to the very end.

Love at first sight was palpable between Gracie and Sam and I look forward to seeing how their relationship evolves in the next book, Simple Deceit: A Mennonite Community's Way of Life Is Threatened by Outsiders. Set in a mostly Mennonite Town of Harmony, Kansas readers are taken on an educational journey into the reals of Mennonite personalities versus assumed stereotypes. Every piece of the puzzle was enlightening and interesting.

Though the story revolves around something not so pleasant watching how evil can be used and turned for good in the end was enjoyable. Keeping the faith and listening for God's will to come through while attempting to find the secrets between the darker side of the town will keep readers entertained in full.

Reviewed by: Margaret Chind