Book Review & Giveaway: Family Gatherings at Promise Lodge by Charlotte Hubbard

 

Lester Lehman's past collides with his present in this fun and heartwarming story that brings two members of the Promise Lodge community together. 

Family Gatherings at Promise Lodge by Charlotte Hubbard finds the Promise Lodge community welcoming family and friends to celebrate weddings. But getting married again is the farthest thing from Lester Lehman's mind. Then enter two women from his past, and his quiet bachelor life is anything but pleasant.

Marlene Fisher came to Promise Lodge with her twin brother Mose for a fresh start after the deaths of their parents. Marlene's past plagues her, and she believes she is not meant to marry. 

But Marlene's witty quips about Lester's predicament disarm him, and he begins to think of a shared future. Scripture holds the key for this couple who may learn that love is kind and patient. 

This is my favorite Promise Lodge novel yet! It makes me want to go back and read the series from the start. 

I've always enjoyed how Hubbard writes Amish fiction from a feminist perspective, and the Promise Lodge series is the finest example of her work. The Bender sisters left their former community because of an oppressive bishop, and the continued success of their Amish community at Promise Lodge is a testament to the love, faith, and friendship that flows through every aspect of their lives. That's why it is such a riot to see Agnes Plank and Elverta Horst create such havoc as they pursue Lester. While the residents of Promise Lodge have faced adversity, they don't often come across such antics. And the way the Promise Lodge community considers everyone's feelings as they deal with the issue is a true display of their beliefs. 

With Family Gatherings at Promise Lodge, Hubbard provides fans, new and returning, with a fabulous story grounded in faith that brings two people together who thought love was in their past. And proving she is not afraid to tackle tough issues, Marlene's story is both heartbreaking and thrilling. 

Hubbard remains one of the most masterful storytellers in the Amish fiction/romance genre. I look forward to spending more time with the Promise Lodge community when the next installment, Hidden Away at Promise Lodge, arrives this summer. 

Read an excerpt:

Fully awake now, Lester swung his feet to the dock. When he could get a word in edgewise, he needed to deflate Agnes’s high-flying hopes in a hurry, because in her vivid imagination, she was already standing before the bishop with him, repeating her wedding vows. As he opened his mouth to speak, however, another urgent female voice hailed him. 

“Lester! Lester Lehman, it’s me—your Elverta!  I read about Gloria’s wedding in the paper, so it seemed like the perfect reason to come and see you!” 

Lester moaned. His sense of freedom, peace, and unencumbered living had just hit another serious snag. 

 As the national newspaper for Plain communities, the Budget was a wonderful way to keep track of far-flung friends and kin, but he suddenly wished that Gloria—and Rosetta Wickey, their community’s original scribe—hadn’t been quite so descriptive in detailing the Lehman family’s relocation. The tiny town of Promise, Missouri was out in the middle of nowhere, yet Agnes and Elverta had apparently followed every line of the newspaper’s weekly reports right to his doorstep. 

As Elverta Horst, dressed in deep green, strode toward his dock, her tall, skinny, ramrod-straight body reminded Lester of a string bean. He knew better than to express that opinion, of course, because the woman he’d broken up with to begin courting his Delores had never been known for her sense of humor. 

“Wh-who’s this?” Agnes asked him under her breath. 

Never one to beat around the bush, Elverta stopped a few yards from the dock. She glanced at Lester before focusing on the flustered woman beside him. “And who might you be?” she demanded with a raised eyebrow. 

Lester answered as indirectly as possible, because he knew these women would soon find out every little thing about one another. “Elverta, this is Delores’s best friend, Agnes Plank. She lives down the road from our former home in Sugarcreek,” he explained hastily. “And Agnes, this is Elverta Horst—” 

“And I was engaged to Lester before he took up with Delores,” Elverta put in purposefully. “First loves are often the strongest, ain’t so? The flame may flicker through the years, but it never really goes out."

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zebra (February 21, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1420154397
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1420154399
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Narrated by: Susan Boyce 

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I received a free Netgalley copy from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Charlotte Hubbard will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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