A Simply Enchanted Life

Woman of Courage by Wanda E. Brunstetter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Suggested Age: 17+
Genre: Christian, Historical Fiction

I adore Wanda Brunstetter. She’s super friendly and engaging on social media and just such a dear.

I’ve read most of Wanda’s Amish fiction and I’ve never been disappointed with her books. I had never read anything about Quakers before but I was excited to give this book a try. I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed the book. It was well written and I’d read more Anabaptist or Quaker fiction that is written by this author.


Amanda was set to marry Nathan Lane, but the day before their marriage he announced that he had fallen in love with another woman. As if adding insult to injury—Penelope claimed to be Amanda’s close friend!

Brokenhearted, Amanda talks to her father about leaving their State of New York to be missionaries to the Nez Perce Indians. Along the way, tragedy befalls—multiple times. It’s no real surprise, really. A three thousand mile journey is no easy feat—especially in the 1800’s. Traveling was fraught with danger and Amanda has seen her share of it.

To fulfill a promise to her dying father, Amanda continues on her journey. She is rescued from a precarious situation by a mountain man by the name of Buck. She is taken, by Buck, to the home of another local mountain man, Jim and his wife, Mary.

Mary is a skilled herbalist, in truth, her name is Yellow Bird and though she is pregnant with their first child—Jim is positively awful to her. You see, Yellow Bird is an Indian maid that was traded to Jim. Jim is a hard man, he blames himself for the death of his first wife and in his grief, and he won’t allow himself to love his young wife.

As time goes on, Amanda finds herself being able to witness to Mary and Jim. She becomes great friends with Mary and even gets to help with the birth of Mary’s son, Little Joe. It is after their son is born that Jim comes to accept Christ and agrees to help Amanda reach her destination –the Spaulding Mission.

Once again, Amanda is on the trail. Unfortunately, tragedy seems to strike at every turn and during an hour of great need, Buck is once again thrown into Amanda’s life. Amanda finds herself falling for the intriguing “half-breed” but it isn’t his parentage that is a problem. It is his lack of faith.

This is a beautiful love story that emerges from the ashes—actually, there are three love stories. Beautifully written and like real life—filled with heartache and joy.

I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to friends of historical and Christian fiction
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A nationally recognized authority on the Amish community, Wanda E. Brunstetter has seen her book sales over the two million mark. Wanda enjoys an uncommon kinship with the Amish and continues to visit their communities throughout the country. Her books have won numerous awards and topped several bestselling charts. http://www.wandabrunstetter.com/

I received this book free from the publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own

A Vow for Always by Wanda E. Brunstetter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A Vow for Always is the conclusion to Wanda E. Brunstetter’s Discovery series and I have absolutely loved the story line!

Once again I, in good conscious, must say that I’m still not pleased with how much these little 124 pages novellas cost.

However, aside from monetary value and in terms of the story line it is definitely a 5-star read! It’s been a pleasure to be given the opportunity to read these and I thank Barbour Publishing for letting me review them!

Following the birth of her son, Meredith is finally moving on with her life. To the dismay of her Mother-In-Law she is seeing Jonah—an old friend from years gone by. I thought there were times with Luke’s mother was downright despicable in how she treated Meredith and even to Jonah! OI! That woman sure knew how to get under my skin!

Luke is hurling straight forward to complete recovery and his memory is returning very quickly—but will he be in time to get to Meredith before she walks down the aisle with Jonah? Oh, the nail biting tension that was culminating in this book! It had me on the edge of my seat even though I logically knew that things would turn out as they should!

I really can’t brag enough about the story. It kept me engaged throughout all six of the novellas and I read through them all in just two days. I was rooting for Meredith and Luke to get back together and pulling for the perfect resolution to the circumstances that pulled them apart in the first place!

An absolutely fantastic and light summer read that will pull you into the lives of these characters. You may feel anger and at times—sadness but that is just proof of such a well written story! Two thumbs up and 5 stars for the story line!
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Amazon|CBD|Barnes&Noble

A nationally recognized authority on the Amish community, Wanda E. Brunstetter has seen her book sales over the two million mark. Wanda enjoys an uncommon kinship with the Amish and continues to visit their communities throughout the country. Her books have won numerous awards and topped several bestselling charts. http://www.wandabrunstetter.com/

I received this book free from the publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own

A Revelation in Autumn by Wanda E. Brunstetter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I’m up to book five of the Discovery! I can’t believe how fast I devoured this little series—literally within days!

I actually have delayed writing my reviews because I enjoyed them too much and wanted to savor the story by musing over it and thinking about what to write!

Once again I’ll point out a disclaimer on this review (for those that haven’t read the other reviews of this series) that while the story is fantastic—the price is a bit expensive for mini-novellas! Hopefully they’ll be released in a combined book format at a later date!

Luke finally remembers his name but he has no recollection of his life otherwise. At this point I was getting a little frustrated because things were starting to progress a bit with Meredith and Jonah! Granted, I really felt that Jonah was a bit too pushy and I started to dislike him at this point.

Meredith’s baby has been born and life is going on for her. I began to seriously dislike her Mother-In-Law at this point though. While I agreed she needed to slow things down a bit—she was totally obnoxious and possessive of Meredith to the point that I wanted to reach through the pages and give her a good whack!

All in all, I really have loved this series. Some of my frustrations with characters are peeking through in this review but I must say—emotion evoked in a reader is the mark of a good writer! The feelings I have expressed are not a bad thing!

If you can find this little series at a bargain price then they’re well worth the read! You won’t be disappointed with the story but as I said prior—you may be frustrated if you pay full price for them as they are only around 124 pages long with a $6.99(ish) price tag!
View all my reviews|Excerpt

Amazon|CBD|Barnes&Noble

A nationally recognized authority on the Amish community, Wanda E. Brunstetter has seen her book sales over the two million mark. Wanda enjoys an uncommon kinship with the Amish and continues to visit their communities throughout the country. Her books have won numerous awards and topped several bestselling charts. http://www.wandabrunstetter.com/

I received this book free from the publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own

The Pieces of Summer by Wanda E. Brunstetter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Pieces of Summer is book 4 in the Discovery series by Wanda E. Brunstetter.

These books are a part of a six month mini-novella saga.

If you have seen the reviews for the first three books in this saga then you’ll know I have been seriously enjoying them—however, I am concerned about the price of these little novellas.

I’ve let my distaste for that be known in all the other reviews so I will skip right into what I thought about the story!!!

Luke has finally woken from his coma but has no idea who he is or where he comes from. He’s staying with the family of the nurse that cared for him during his time at the hospital. I know I shouldn’t seriously dislike the nurse but I did. I can’t even pinpoint why but I just wanted to scream at Luke to wake up and remember who he was so he could get back to Meredith.

Meredith has been preparing for childbirth with her sister acting as her birth coach. This are going “okay” for Meredith but her Mother in law was seriously grating on my nerves in this book. At the same time however, Jonah was equally as pushy and annoying to me for some reason!

I think that the reason I was so disgruntled about possible love interests is because I was just waiting for Luke and Meredith to finally get back together! Even though some of the characters got on my nerves I really enjoyed and loved this book and finished it within a day so I could pick up the next one!
View all my reviews|Excerpt

Amazon|CBD|Barnes&Noble

A nationally recognized authority on the Amish community, Wanda E. Brunstetter has seen her book sales over the two million mark. Wanda enjoys an uncommon kinship with the Amish and continues to visit their communities throughout the country. Her books have won numerous awards and topped several bestselling charts. http://www.wandabrunstetter.com/

I received this book free from the publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own

The Hope of Spring by Wanda E. Brunstetter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I pretty much just kept devouring these little novellas. I LOVE the storyline and I had to keep reading. As I have said in my previous reviews of these however, I’m frustrated that they’re broke up in 120ish page stories.

Economically, it just isn’t a good value! The story is fantastic but my continued gripe about these is the price. At 6.29 a piece (on amazon) this set of six would cost a hefty 37.74 (not including shipping) so that is my continual gripe/warning in regards to this series.

Meredith has returned to her home and is awaiting the birth of her and Luke’s baby. She’s excited to meet her child but she still feels so lost and alone. She never thought she would be raising her baby alone.

Meanwhile, "Eddie" is still in a coma and his nurse seems to be getting a serious attachment to him—this concerned me from the get go! I was worried about a romance blossoming between the two of them.

Jonah also is another concern of mine—to be honest, I started almost disliking him at this point in the story. I know he isn’t meant to be pushy and obnoxious but that is how I kept reading his character. I felt he was a tad too pushy with a woman who hasn’t been a widow even a year and is still pregnant with her husband’s child.

Nonetheless—I really enjoyed this little novella and looked forward to picking up the next installment right away!
View all my reviews|Excerpt

Amazon|CBD|Barnes&Noble

A nationally recognized authority on the Amish community, Wanda E. Brunstetter has seen her book sales over the two million mark. Wanda enjoys an uncommon kinship with the Amish and continues to visit their communities throughout the country. Her books have won numerous awards and topped several bestselling charts. http://www.wandabrunstetter.com/

I received this book free from the publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own