December comes to quaint Hearts Bend, Tennessee, with a blanket of white and the glitter of Christmas lights.
For JoJo Castle there is no place like home. Her onetime love of adventure ended when her life in the big city came crashing down. Now that she’s home, she never wants to leave again.
Country music sensation Buck Mathews has charmed the world with his smile and his music. However, news of his mother’s illness brought him home to Hearts Bend for the holiday season.
Working with her cousin Haley in The Wedding Shop, JoJo has no aspirations of love. But when her high school crush returns to town, her buried feelings surface.
Busy with his career, Buck hasn’t had time for family and friends, much less love. Seeing JoJo in The Wedding Shop reminds him there are things more important than his career.
But JoJo and Buck have opposing life goals, and there’s no middle ground. Can love, especially the kind that touches hearts at Christmas, overcome her fears and his quest for greatness?
With the help of a very special wedding dress, there just might be a Christmas miracle.
THE WEDDING DRESS CHRISTMAS (The Wedding Collection Book #3.5) by Rachel Hauk is a heartwarming small town holiday romance novella. This story is a part of The Wedding Collection series which features a special magical wedding dress and while only novella length it packs an emotional punch. (Have the tissues ready.)
It is Christmas time in Hearts Bend, Tennessee.
JoJo Castle returned to the safety of her parents’ home after a horrific personal attack while working in Dallas. Her dreams of adventure and life in the big city are gone. While she is happy working with her cousin in The Wedding Shop and helping with projects around town, she has no interest in love or marriage for herself.
Buck Matthews left Hearts Bend with a dream of country music stardom. His dreams have come true, but he comes home for the holidays when he receives news of his mother’s illness. While his career is at its height, being home reminds him of the things that are missing from his life.
JoJo and Buck were close friends in high school, but life moved them in different directions. With opposing life goals and JoJo’s ever-present fear, can the magical wedding dress and the man in a purple shirt help these two realize a special holiday miracle?
For a quick novella read, this story has well developed characters, an emotional punch and a holiday HEA. Even though JoJo and Buck’s romance moves quickly, it is believable because of their previous friendship and the realistic adult discussion of feelings throughout. There are no sex scenes in this novella. The religious elements in this story are hinted at Christian values and not preachy. I normally do not give novellas more than a 4-star rating, but this one deserves all 5. I am glad I gave it a try and now I want to go back and read the full-length novels in this series.
I highly recommend this beautiful holiday romance novella!
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About the Author
Rachel Hauck is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author.
She is a Christy Award Winner and a double RITA finalist. Her book The Wedding Dress was named Inspirational Novel of the Year by Romantic Times Book Club. She is the recipient of RT’s Career Achievement Award.
Her book, Once Upon A Prince, was filmed for an original Hallmark movie.
Hauck has been acclaimed for her split time novels and royal romances.
A graduate of Ohio State University with a degree in Journalism, and a former sorority girl, Rachel and her husband live in central Florida. She is a huge Buckeyes football fan.
In other news, she’s recently learned how to hard boil an egg. She’s quite proud.
Ruth “Dok” Stoltzfus is the kind of doctor who still believes in house calls, addressing not just her patients’ physical needs but their emotional ones too. When newly widowed Bee faces a breast cancer diagnosis, Dok connects her with Fern Lapp for support. When her painfully shy assistant Annie finds herself drawn to a new calling, Dok goes to great lengths to help her achieve her dream. And when an abandoned newborn mysteriously appears at her office one frosty morning, Dok’s world takes an unexpected turn as ripples of change touch several lives.
A Healing Touch is a captivating tale of compassion, resilience, and the bonds that form in surprising places. Bestselling and award-winning author Suzanne Woods Fisher invites you into a new story that’s like medicine for the weary soul. Join Dok, Annie, and the tight-knit Stoney Ridge community as they navigate the twists of fate, discovering that sometimes the greatest healing comes from the heart.
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Elise’s Thoughts
A Healing Touch by Suzanne Woods Fisher is a compelling read. Ruth “Dok” Stoltzfus is the kind of doctor who still believes in house calls, addressing not just her patients’ physical needs but their emotional ones too. The story begins with Dok confronting one of her patients to get help. When newly widowed Bee faces a breast cancer diagnosis, Dok connects her with Fern Lapp for support. When her painfully shy assistant Annie finds herself drawn to a new calling, Dok goes to great lengths to help her achieve her dream. And when an abandoned newborn mysteriously appears at her office one frosty morning, Dok’s world takes an unexpected turn because her husband wants to foster care the infant. A Healing Touch is a captivating tale of compassion, resilience, and the bonds that form in surprising places.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: The idea for the story?
Suzanne Woods Fisher: I have a doctor in the storyline, a sister to the Amish Bishop who left home to pursue her education. In one of my previous books, she circles back into Stoney Ridge, becoming a doctor to the Amish. Even though this is not really a series, she will be a prevalent part of this book and the next. I wanted a book to be a hybrid, where modern medicine meets Amish wisdom.
EC: How would you describe the doctor?
SWF: She has a rural practice with a sense of appreciating the traditions and language of her patients. She does return to her roots in some ways. She must contend with the Amish patients who cannot afford to spend the money on medical procedures. She is coming with all the bells and whistles of modern medicine. It is not that they do not accept modern medicine but have more of a holistic view. The Amish will seek alternative treatments. With a serious diagnosis they are more willing to accept there is a biological end to life. Whereas with modern medicine, death is the enemy.
EC: Why the women characters in their fifties?
SWF: There are two women in their fifties. It says something about that stage of life. They are really seasoned and have a necessary viewpoint. They understand that life will have bumps ahead.
EC: How would you describe “Dok” Ruth Stolfzfus?
SWF: Practical, caring, responsible, an over helper, and an over worker.
EC: How did you come up with so many diseases?
SWF: I had mumps, behavior disorders, cancer, and anxiety disorders in the story. I am not a medical professional. I studied and did research to try to get the information correct. I hoped I addressed the information correctly.
EC: How would you describe Dok’s assistant, Annie?
SWF: Shy, has social anxiety, a loner, and lacks confidence. Yet she wants to make a better life for herself so has become unflappable. She must handle her mother’s crisis. After she sees an EMT who is Amish at work she had a sense of a calling. This is why she is pursuing to become an EMT.
EC: What about Annie’s mom?
SWF: Her mother is inflexible and cannot let go. She tries to put a guilt trip on Annie because she knows of nothing except to be a mom. She does not know how to deal with an empty nest. She is a person craving attention, which is why she is a raging hypochondriac.
EC: How would you describe one of Dok’s patients, Bee?
SWF: She is prickly, reclusive, introverted, and likes horses more than people. She is a former Olympic Equestrian. She has taken the love of horses to become a breeder of horses.
EC: Was part of the theme, letting go?
SWF: Annie’s mom could not let go. Dok could not let go of the child she was foster parenting, and Bee could not let go of her grief after her husband died. Bee also could not let go of selling the horses she breeds and cannot quite let go of her horse babies.
EC: Do you think the men in the story were similar or different: Matt, Damon, and Gus?
SWF: Matt is Dok’s husband. Damon is the horse trainer to help Bee while she is going through radiation treatment for breast cancer. Gus is the Amish EMT who opened Annie’s eyes. All three were a little more open to accepting.
EC: Next books?
SWF: The next book will come out in November, titled A Year of Flowers. It is four novellas combined in the print edition. Three teenage girls who worked in a flower shop had been mentored by the owner. They were the best of friends. Something dreadful happens in the store. They left. Each novella delves into the life of one of the girls seven years later. The fourth novella brings them back to the little town to face the owner.
In May of 2025 a book titled Capture the Moment will come out. It is the first in a series surrounding national parks. This story has a young woman who is a zoo photographer that has been asked to take a photo of a famous grizzly bear.
The next Amish book is out in October 2025. It does not have a title. Dok’s practice has been flooded ever since the local news wrote a story on her. To help, her husband gets the idea to send in an application to a program that will send two medical school graduates. She has two residents with all book knowledge and no people knowledge.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Brynn Haywood’s impulsive marriage to a man she’d known less than 24 hours leaves her with deep regret. She flees to Cape Cod, finding refuge with her loyal friend, Dawn Dixon. As Brynn grapples with her emotions, Dawn acts swiftly, eager to help secure a lawyer for her through her mother Marnie’s good friend, Lincoln Hayes. However, Lincoln’s preoccupation with his daughter’s lavish wedding brings unexpected challenges.
The arrival of Lincoln’s estranged son, Bear Hayes, stirs the waters further. Alarmed by his father’s extravagant generosity toward the Dixon family, Bear ignites friction between Marnie and Lincoln. As the wedding day arrives, Lincoln vanishes–and an unwelcome guest makes a surprise appearance.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Love On A Whim by Suzanne Woods Fisher is a delicious read. The quote at the beginning of the novel sums it up, “Eat ice cream. Read books. Be happy.” The book explores family, faith, romance, forgiveness, friendship, and second chances.
The plot begins with Dawn Dixon’s best buddy from college, Brynn Haywood, attending a civil engineer convention in Las Vegas. While there she, uncharacteristically, decides to leave the convention with someone she just met, see some of the sites, and eventually gets married. When she wakes the next morning, appalled by her behavior, she sneaks out of the room and heads to Cape Cod, hoping Dawn can help get her out of this mess. Dawn, an inveterate “fixer,” spends her energy plotting how to get Brynn’s marriage annulled, while her mother, Marnie urges Brynn to slow down and listen to her heart.
There is also Lincoln Hayes, Marnie’s boyfriend, whose estranged family is coming to town for his daughter’s wedding. He agreed to finance the wedding to ease his guilt for being a terrible absent dad. Although the daughter is willing to forgive and forget, the son, Bear, is very resentful, the epitome of what his father used to be: concerned only about himself, too busy for others, unkind, and trying to make trouble for the Dixon family.
Then the caterer gets Covid, and everything falls apart. The Dixon family to the rescue. Callie takes over the catering, Dawn makes the ice cream treats, and Brynn who is a good hobby baker, agrees to make the wedding cake.
Readers will be on the edge of their seats wondering what will happen to Brynn’s marriage, as well as other issues facing the characters that include Dawn’s infertility, Lincoln’s health problems, and can the family reconcile. The story is compelling, filled with wit and wisdom, and all the characters have their issues resolved in a satisfactory way, where the reader feels they are part of the drama. But there is also a humorous tone that lightens up the tension.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Since this is the last book in the series what do you want to say about it?
Suzanne Woods Fisher: The characters might be revisited in another series. I got the original idea because my husband is a professional ice cream maker. My editor said to write a book about ice cream in Cape Cod. It is a family saga. I enjoy writing books about outsiders who try to fit in. All the books in the series have family members who try to get back on their feet after a couple of bad mishaps. They are trying to make a go of it in a tourist town. This is all about people and relationships.
EC: Did you also put in important issues in the books?
SWF: Yes. People trying to recover from grief, having to deal with cancer, dealing with clinical depression, and infertility.
EC: How would you describe the heroine in the story, Brynn?
SWF: Sensible, responsible, impulsive, predictable, even keeled, and passionate. Because she is a civil engineer, she is logical, a planner, and organized. She is also insecure and does not like it when her heart tries to overrule her brain. She and Dawn bonded in college. Unlike what we know about her she meets and marries a guy in 24 hours and panics, fleeing to Cape Cod. She pursues her passion to be a baker.
EC: What role did Marnie, Dawn’s mom, who considers Brynn her adoptive daughter, play?
SWF: She pushes Brynn to think why she said yes to this man. She is telling her to slow down. She is a good counterbalance to the three young women. She plays the mother who is over-protective, leading them to come to a good decision, but she also will not be so direct and leads them with questions or hints to think what they want. Marnie has a quiet way because she cannot say too much, or the women will shut down. She relies on feelings, intuition, and faith.
EC: Dawn was the featured character in book 1, The Sweet Life, Callie was the featured character in book 2, The Secret to Happiness, and this features Brynn. What are the similarities and differences between each?
SWF: They are like a three-legged stool. They all are sister-like. They are all perfectionists, reasonable.
Dawn has always been in the shadow of her cousin Callie, where they both competed against each other. She grew up with a little bit of a jealous streak. She now sometimes feels like third man out. She does not look for good in people unlike Callie and Brynn. She is matter of fact. She is a perfectionist, logical, likes to find other people’s mistakes, stays on task, and is stable. Dawn likes to interfere because she likes to be in control. Readers appreciate her, but she can rub on them, very frustrating, meddling, and has blinders on because her way is the way. But she is very loyal to her friends and family and is always there for them.
Callie is a talker, positive, a perfectionist, bold, creative, effervescent, decisive, persistent, and like Dawn she also likes to be in control. She is good at time management.
Brynn is softer, gentler than Dawn and Callie. Yet, she has always been attracted to the family life of Dawn and Callie. She is logical, reasonable, relies on feedback, calm, reserved, and eager to learn.
EC: What about the relationship between Brynn and T. D., the man she impulsively married?
SWF: They were attracted to each other. The relationship was based on spontaneity and light-heartedness. They did trust each other. They had a real intimacy when they met and were able to share their real self with each other, bearing their souls to each other. They had a lot in common because they came from the same perspective of being from divorced parents and forced to be on their own. They did not want their future to be like their parents. But after Brynn left, she felt humiliated, helpless, and emotional.
EC: What about Bear, Lincon’s son?
SWF: He had a lot of baggage. He was defensive and feels abandoned. Now he is placed in a situation where he must deal with his father who abandoned him, and an over-bearing mother. He is a damaged guy. He is suspicious, distrustful, skeptical, cold, angry, uncaring, harsh, and condescending. He is incredibly loyal to his sister and his mom. He tries to protect his father because he is afraid the women are taking advantage of his generosity. Readers do see him as a good person in the way he reacts to the child, Cowboy Leo. Bear was like an older brother to him, and Leo thinks he is a caring person. Because of Bear, Cowboy Leo became baseball Leo.
EC: Does Marnie and her beau, Lincoln’s relationship take different turns in the story?
SWF: Lincoln’s daughter is getting married at Cape Cod. The wedding caused a lot of insecurities between them. Marnie relies on him. They are best friends. This is a second romance for both. She finally realizes how much he has changed over a decade. He previously put everything into his work, sacrificing his family, before he met Marnie. She sees him when he became a generous, caring person.
EC: Next books?
SWF: A series will come out with four novellas. The print version will come out in November, titled The Year in Flowers. Three girls work in a flower shop in the South. They are best friends, but around the time they leave for college something dreadful happens in the shop. Each novella has what they are doing seven years later.
I will also have an Amish book coming out in October titled A Healing Touch. It is about a doctor to the Amish, who makes house calls. She is the central character.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Moving to Montana is the chance Thomas Kemp needs to open his own business and seek a wife—while keeping his shameful past hidden. Except the beautiful Amish widow who catches his eye wants financial independence, not marriage. When Emma Fisher’s toddler bonds with the newcomer, she believes Thomas is everything she wants in a husband. But can she accept his past…for the chance at a future together?
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Book Description – The Amish Midwife’s Bargain
An accident on a stormy night
Will change the course of their lives…
Grieving after the loss of a patient, midwife Miriam Kemp returns to her Amish roots and vows to leave her nursing life behind. But when she accidentally hits Aaron Lapp on a rain-drenched road, she offers to help the scarred and handsome—if somewhat cranky—bachelor while he recovers. Could this arrangement allow them to heal…while finding a love they never expected?
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Elise’s Thoughts
Their Road to Redemption and The Amish Midwife’s Bargain by Patrice Lewis continues the story of the Kemp siblings. Both are books about forgiveness, hope, and how choices made can influence someone’s life.
Their Road to Redemption is the second book in the series. Thomas Kemp travels to the Amish community in Montana to redeem his life. He is ashamed of his criminal activities of the past. Now working as a bookkeeper, he meets an Amish widow and single parent, Emma, who has vowed never to get married. But her toddler, Hannah, bonds with Thomas and they become attracted to each other. He questions if she will accept his past where the three can become a family.
The Amish Midwife’s Bargain has one of the Kemp siblings, a nurse, Miriam, grieving after losing a patient. She decides to visit her Amish brother, Thomas, after vowing to leave the nursing profession. But when she accidentally hits Aaron Lapp on a rain-drenched road, she offers to help him recover. He has his own scars literally, after having his face burned in a barn fire. This story will remind readers of “Beauty and the Beast.”
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story, Their Road to Redemption?
Patrice Lewis: I had a three-book series of siblings, and this is the middle sibling. This is a story of redemption and making better choices. Everything someone does from morning until sleep is a choice. I wanted to show how the hero, Thomas, had his bad choices catch up and then his good choices turned it around.
EC: How would you describe Thomas?
PL: He was a juvenile delinquent when younger, but now he is redeemed. He is broken, subdued, quiet, shy, scarred, and humble.
EC: How would you describe Emma?
PL: High-spirited, outspoken, a go-getter, confident, independent, passionate about her skill of making soap, and determined.
EC: What about the relationship between the two?
PL: Emma does not want to rely on a man for financial support. She is gun-shy since her late husband was emotionally abusive, selfish, and stubborn. Emma is determined to remain single. She and her late husband never wanted to be married, but after she became pregnant, they did marry. Both she and Thomas have secrets and hold each other at arm’s length. Yet, they do admire each other. Thomas does not think he is worthy of her.
EC: What is the role of a secondary character, Jeremy?
PL: He is another redemption. In Thomas’ backstory, he feels he must pay it forward. He sees in Jeremy himself and wants to help him to redeem his life.
EC: What about the role of Hannah, Emma’s young daughter?
PL: She is instrumental in bringing Emma and Thomas together. Hannah sees Thomas as a father figure and becomes attached to him. Emma starts thinking maybe her daughter sees something in Thomas that she doesn’t. Hannah saw his kindness.
EC: What about the second book, The Amish Midwife’s Bargain?
PL: This is about the third sibling, Miriam, a nurse. I saw this reference to a private nurse, which enabled me to have Miriam and Aaron get closer. She helped him after she accidentally hit him with her car. This led me to a “Beauty and the Beast” theme. It became effortless to write. Hands down it is the favorite story I have written so far. My mother used to be a nurse and I saw how some have painful journeys.
EC: How would you describe Aaron, the hero?
PL: He has been terribly disfigured in a barn fire. Now he wants to be left alone. His became bitter with a very scarred face. He can be stubborn, grumpy, with emotional pain, prickly, lonely, and likes animals more than people.
EC: What was the role of the scar?
PL: I wrote two ways that children responded to his disfigurement. Hannah accepted him and never saw his scars. Then there was an “English” boy who runs away from him in terror. He realized with Hannah’s reaction that some could be accepting of him and not consider him a monster, a beast.
EC: How would you describe Miriam?
PL: Determined, patient, and a helper. She responds to those in pain, emotional and physical. She was devastated and doubted herself after she lost a patient.
EC: What about the relationship between the two?
PL: Miriam feels she must get past Aaron wanting to live in solitude. She wanted to show him that his outward scars did not diminish who he was as a person. Aaron helped her to realize she lost a patient because they were beyond help. Both have scars, admire, and respect each other. Both helped each other to get back on “their horse.”
EC: Next books?
PL: A book will come out in March, titled The Amish Beekeeper’s Dilemma. It is about a woman who became a property keeper for an old man. His nephew came to take over the farm. A conflict develops around it. Another book that has no release date but is titled, Uncovering Her Amish Past. The main character, Penelope, is “English.” She is adopted and an only child. She went to an Amish settlement, staying at a Bed & Breakfast. It turns out she is a twin to an Amish woman. THANK YOU!!
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
