The Lesson ~ Stoney Ridge Seasons, #3 by Suzanne Woods Fisher ~ iPad Giveaway

About Book

Centered on one of Suzanne Woods Fisher’s most loved characters, this is the story fans have eagerly anticipated. The precocious M.K. is all grown up (well, almost) and ready to take on the world–with surprising results. Fisher’s trademark plot twists and turns are as unexpected and satisfying as ever in this third book in the Stoney Ridge Seasons series.

In her wildest dreams, spunky and impulsive nineteen-year-old Mary Kate Lapp never imagined herself behind a schoolteacher’s desk. A run-in (literally) with the schoolteacher compels her to act as a substitute teacher, just as her restless desire to see the world compels her to apply for a passport . . . just in case. The only thing of interest to M.K. in the sleepy Amish community of Stoney Ridge is the unexplained death of a sheep farmer that coincided with the arrival of a mysterious young man into the community. Frustrated that no one takes the crime seriously, she takes matters into her own hands. Unfortunately, as tends to be the case for M.K., she jumps headlong into trouble.

Read Excerpt here.
Reading Group Guide here.

• ISBN-13: 9780800719890
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1/2/2013
• Pages: 304
• Series: Stoney Ridge Seasons , #3

• Where to buy: 
• Baker Retail
• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble
• Christianbook.com

About Author

Suzanne Woods Fisher is the bestselling author of the Lancaster County Secrets series and the Stoney Ridge Seasons series, as well as nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace. She is also the coauthor of a new Amish children's series, The Adventures of Lily Lapp. Her interest in the Anabaptist cultures can be directly traced to her grandfather, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Suzanne is a Carol Award winner and a Christy Award finalist. She is the host of internet radio show Amish Wisdom and a columnist for Christian Post and Cooking & Such magazines. She lives in California. For more information, please visit www.suzannewoodsfisher.com and connect with her on Twitter @suzannewfisher. Get Amish proverbs delivered right to your iphone or ipad! Download the Free App!

Celebrate the release of The Lesson with Suzanne Woods Fisher by entering to win one of TWO iPads!

Two winners will receive:

• A brand new iPad
• A $15 gift certificate to iTunes

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on January 20th. Winner will be announced on 1/22/13 at Suzanne's Blog.

Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning.

My Thoughts

Mary Kate Lapp still has discontent for her life in Stoney Ridge.  She has her sites and mind on faraway places.  She has even gone as far as to acquire an application for a passport.  Her mind and body are never still, they are always on fast forward.  Then one day as she was racing down the road on her scooter she heard a gunshot and saw a man lying presumably dead in a field.  She raced down the road to use the schoolhouse phone to call 911 and on the way back to the supposedly murder scene she encountered Alice Smucker the school teacher in the road. She had plowed over Alice with her scooter causing a supposedly concussed head injury causing her to have to go call 911 once again.

The Bishop decided since MK had caused the teacher's supposed injury MK then would take Alice's place as school teacher for approximately three weeks.  Now MK would have like to argue the fact that Alice was a hypochondriac, but you just don't argue with the Bishop.

She thought this was the worst thing that could ever happen to her.  She spent years trying to get out of the school house now she had to go back as a teacher.  Being a teacher was much harder than she could ever have imagined.  Her stepmother Fern suggested she speak to a wise old woman by the name of Erma. Erma was soon to be one hundred years old. She surprised MK by giving her some very wise advice about how to teach each individual child and as days went by she began enjoying her teaching position.

* * *

Jimmy Fisher an old schoolmate came to MK for some advice about how to get his new love of his life to notice him.  But as usual Jimmy jumped from one girl or job before you could blink an eye.  He had a habit of  sneaking off in the middle of a job or he would be checking out the race ponies. But he always had time to visit with MK.

With so much going on in Stoney Ridge not many noticed a couple of new residence.  Will and his young sister Jenny had taken up residence in their Grandpa Mitchell's old home place.  Everything should work out fine for them if he can keep a low profile a few months longer that is until he turns twenty-one then the old home place will be legally his.  If his mother finds out where they are living she could cause a lot of trouble.  That was what she was good at and had left him and his sister in foster care since he was eight years old and Jenny was one. This was not something he wanted the people of Stoney Ridge to know about them.

MK had met Will the same way she had plowed over the teacher, but this ended Will upside down in a muddy ditch.  MK had no idea that Will was the new worker her father had hired to help with the farm.
Nor did she know that Jenny one of her students was Will's younger sister. Once MK found this out she invited Jenny to spend time at the her home until her brother got off work.  The more time she spent with Will the more attracted she became to him.  But for some reason he kept avoiding her which made her suspicious.  What was he hiding?  Here Mary Kate goes again!  She is determined to play police detective and find out who Will really is and what he is hiding. She wondered if he had anything to do with the death of the farmer she had seen lying in the field?

I would love to tell you more but then that would spoil the story for you.  So hurry and get a copy of this book and find out what secrets MK is able to uncover!

The author has outdone herself on this book.  My family kept trying to distract me from my reading but I just kept shooing them away.  In this book you have intrigue, intrigue and more intrigue.  Along with humor, romance, heartaches and reconciliation, secrets hidden and I emphasize secrets, and secrets revealed. It has an abundance love and support of family. But most importantly their Faith in God.

I highly recommend this book.

I rated this book a 5+ out of 5.

Disclosure
I received a free copy of this book from Litfuse Group/Revell/Baker Publishing for review.  I was in no way compensated for this review.  It is my own opinion.

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Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas! Day 1

Enjoy these Christmas "Pearls of Wisdom" from some of today's most beloved writer's (Tricia Goyer, Suzanne Woods Fisher, Shellie Rushing Tomlinson, Sibella Giorello and more)! Please follow the series through Christmas day as each contributor shares heartfelt stories of how God has touched a life during this most wonderful time of the year.


AND just for fun ... there's also a giveaway! Fill out this simple {form} and enter for a chance to win a beautiful pearl necklace and earring set ($450 value). Contest runs 12/14 - 12/25 and the winner will on 1/1. Contest is only open to US and Canadian residents. You may enter once per day.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we're all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls products (all GREAT gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.

***

A Christmas of Kindness

By Suzanne Woods Fisher

"You can give without loving, but you can¹t love without giving." Amish proverb

I do it every year.

I plan for a simpler, less stressful Christmas season and, every year, by Christmas Eve I'm exhausted! After our delicious and very-time-consuming-to-make traditional Swedish meal to honor my husband¹s relatives (think: Vikings), it's time to head to church. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but the last few Christmas Eve's, I have sent my husband and kids head off without me. The pull to spend an hour of quiet in the house feels as strong as a magnet.

It's odd. My children are young adults now. Wouldn't you think that Christmas would be simpler? Instead, it's just the opposite. Jugging schedules to share the grandbaby with the in-laws, trying to include our elderly parents at the best time of day for them, dancing carefully around recently divorced family members whose children are impacted by the shards of broken relationships.

The thing is: you can simplify your to-do list, but you can't really simplify people. We are just a complicated bunch.

Here's where I borrow a lesson about simplicity from the Amish. It's easy to get distracted with the buggies and the bonnets and the beards, but there's so much more to learn from these gentle people if you're willing to look a little deeper.

Yes, they live with less "stuff" and that does make for a simpler, less cluttered life. But it's the reason behind it that is so compelling to me: they seek to create margin in their life. Not just empty spacebut space that is available to nourish family, community, and faith. Their Christmas is far less elaborate than yours or mine, but what they do fill it with is oh so right.

Christmas comes quietly on an Amish farmhouse. There is no outward sign of the holiday as we know it: no bright decorations, no big tree in the living room corner. A few modest gifts are waiting for children at their breakfast place settings, covered by a dishtowel. Waiting first for Dad to read the story of Christ's birth from the book of Luke. Waiting until after a special breakfast has been enjoyed. Waiting until Mom and Dad give the signal that the time has come for gifts.

Later, if Christmas doesn't fall on a Sunday, extended family and friends will gather for another big meal. If time and weather permits, the late afternoon will be filled with ice skating or sledding. And more food! Always, always an abundance of good food. Faith, family, and community. That is the focus of an Amish Christmas.

And it's also how the story begins for A Lancaster County Christmas, as a young family prepares for Christmas. A winter storm blows a non-Amish couple, Jaime and C.J. Fitzpatrick, off-course and into the Riehl farmhouse. An unlikely and tentative friendship develops, until the one thing Mattie and Sol hold most dear disappears and then. Ah, but you¹ll just have to read the story to find out what happens next. Without giving anything away, I will say that I want to create a Mattie-inspired margin this Christmas season. Mattie knew inconveniences and interruptions that come in the form of people (big ones and little ones!) are ordained by God. And blessed by God.

Creating margin probably means that I won't get Christmas cards out until the end of January, and my house won't be uber-decorated. After all, something has to give. But it will mean I make time for a leisurely visit with my dad at his Alzheimer's facility. And time to volunteer in the church nursery for a holiday-crowded event. And time to invite a new neighbor over for coffee. Hopefully, it will mean that my energy won't get diverted by a frantic, self-imposed agenda. Only by God's agendathe essence of true simplicity.

And that includes taking time to worship Christ's coming at the Christmas Eve service. You can hold me accountable! This year, I will be there.

***

Suzanne Woods Fisher is the bestselling author of The Choice, The Waiting, The Search, and The Keeper, as well as nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace. Her interest in the Anabaptist cultures can be directly traced to her grandfather, W. D. Benedict, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Suzanne is a Christy Award nominee and is the host of an internet radio show called Amish Wisdom and her work has appeared in many magazines. She lives in California. www.suzannewoodsfisher.com.