Coming Soon: NAOMI'S CHRISTMAS

I'm so happy to announce that NAOMI'S CHRISTMAS, the next book in the Pleasant Valley series, will be out the first of October. You may have seen it listed as a November release, but it has now been moved up to October to allow more time for the Christmas title before the holidays. So I hope you'll look for it the first week in October!

Naomi's Christmas is the story of Naomi Esch, whom you met working in the bakery if HANNAH'S JOY. Since her mother's death, Naomi has devoted herself to caring for her father and raising her siblings, sacrificing any hope of having a home and love of her own. Still, with her work at the bakery and her beekeeping business, Naomi looks forward to a fulfilling life now that her siblings are grown and out of the house. Then, in the weeks before Christmas, Naomi's father announces his plan to remarry. He and his new wife will want the house for themselves, and Naomi's life is turned upside down.

But new opportunities come her way as well. Widower Nathan King offers his farmland to Naomi to continue and expand her beekeeping business--on the condition that she care for his motherless children. The set-up is so perfect that the community assumes a wedding will inevitably follow. But Naomi has vowed never to marry without love, and that promise is especially poignant because she has always cared for Nathan, whose wife was her best friend. And Nathan can't imagine loving anyone else after losing his first love. Someone else opposes the match as well, someone who won't hesitate to blacken Naomi's reputation to keep her away from Nathan.

With everything stacked against them, it may take a Christmas miracle to unite these two stubborn hearts.

NAOMI'S CHRISTMAS also contains extras for readers: an article on Amish Christmas customs; a Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas craft to make; and a collection of my family's favorite Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas cookies.