Serena Miller's Fearless Hope ~ Reviewed

Fearless Hope: A Novel Paperback
by Serena B. Miller (Author)
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Howard Books (April 8, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1451660375

Description:

When an Amish woman falls for the New York crime writer who buys her family farm, she must decide whether to follow the longings of her heart or the rules of her faith.

When Hope Yoder loses her husband, she is left trying to support her two small children—and one on the way—however she can. She ends up taking a job as a part-time housekeeper for the Englisch man who has bought the farm that once belonged to her family. 

Logan Parker is a bestselling crime fiction writer from New York City who accompanies his fiancée on a trip to Holmes County, Ohio, but the trip takes a strange turn when he sees an Amish farmhouse for sale. Intrigued by a strong sense of familiarity, he enters the house and is overcome with a feeling of deep peace. He’s never been to Ohio before, but something in this house feels right, and he purchases the farm to use as a retreat. Something about the peacefulness of the house frees him from the crippling writer’s block that threatens to ruin his career, and something about the quiet Amish woman who comes to clean his home makes him less and less excited about returning to New York and the woman he is supposed to marry. 

Slowly, Logan and Hope are drawn together, and when they discover that they share a strange past, they must decide how that affects their future. Will Hope overcome her fear of embracing love again?

Review: 

Fearless Hope tells us about a young Amish woman named Hope Yoder. Her husband is tragically killed by a bull, leaving her with two young children and one on the way. Not wanting to take Alms from the community, she puts out an advertisement as a housekeeper. Meanwhile, Logan Parker, a bestselling fiction writer from New York, is going through a dry spell, and after a visit in Holmes County, buys a home that used to belong to Hope's family, hoping to find rest from the hustle and bustle of New York, and hopefully to overcome the writer's block he has been experiencing. After a chance meeting, he hires her as his housekeeper, and they settle into a routine. Obviously, they begin to develop feelings for each other. Even more strangely, Logan keeps having a sense of deja vu, on top of a strange sense of peace, like he's been to this community before. As they begin to grow closer, pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, revealing secrets that have been kept from Logan for most of his life.

I had a hard time putting this book down. I believe it was part of a series, and I had not read the previous books, however, that didn't make it difficult to get into this story. At times, I would get caught up in the everyday parts of the story and forget that there was an underlying mystery to be solved and that would pique my interest anew each time. I really enjoyed this book and how it ended, and the tone of forgiveness by the people in it.

Reviewed by: Sarah Meyers