Welcome to the book tour for Christmas Comes to Morning Star, the third installment of the absolutely delightful Morning Star Amish series by Charlotte Hubbard. Today I have an excerpt for you as well as my thoughts on the book. And Charlotte is taking us into the lives of the twin heroines. Please let her know your thoughts and then be sure to follow the tour for even more. Best of luck entering the giveaway!
Founded by five unmarried and enterprising Amish maidels, the new Morning Star Marketplace in small-town Missouri is preparing for a joyous Christmas season. But will the holiday also bring unexpected tidings of love?
Twin sisters Molly and Marietta Helfing are eagerly anticipating Christmas, with Marietta fully recovered from cancer and their noodle making business thriving. But Molly clearly misses having former tenant Pete Shetler and his rambunctious dog, Riley, around. Marietta can’t ignore Molly’s feelings for Pete—or the anxiety it stirs within her. Convinced her illness has made her unmarriageable, Marietta wonders what kind of life she’ll have if her sister marries—despite Molly’s promise never to leave her behind. . .
Then a fire destroys the home of Amish neighbors and Molly and Marietta graciously make room for widower Glenn Detweiler, his dat, and his two young boys. When Pete returns to help the family rebuild, Molly relishes her reunion with the handsome carpenter, while Marietta delights in mothering Glenn’s boys—and is surprised by her poignant bond with their quiet, brooding father. Soon everyone is wondering if this season will bring the blessing of a merry double wedding to Morning Star . . .
Read an excerpt:
Pete cranked up his pickup, gunning the engine as he shot down the Helfings’ lane—and then he kicked himself. He was trying to act more mature, and driving like a clueless kid—he way he had when he’d lived in the twins’ dawdi haus—was not what he’d intended to do. But old habits died hard.
“Riley, we’ve gotta do better, boy,” he said as he slung his arm around the dog’s furry neck.
“Keep reminding me that Molly won’t take me seriously unless I turn over a lot of new leaves, will ya?”
Riley licked Pete’s face exuberantly. The dog loved to ride in the pickup every chance he got, and he’d been excited about returning to the twins’ place.
“Even though she and Marietta stick like glue, I have to admire the way Molly’s supported her sister,” Pete continued as he drove toward town. “Not many girls would’ve shaved their heads during Marietta’s chemo, knowing how that goes directly against the Ordnung! I love it that Molly broke the rules that way!”
When his dog’s eyes widened, Pete laughed.
“Uh-oh, I said that L word, didn’t I? Gotta watch that. Gotta toughen up my attitude,” he continued in a firmer voice. “Molly’s the bossiest girl I ever met—and there’s no prying those twins apart, anyway. So why act like I’m interested, right?”
Riley focused forward, gazing through the windshield as though he didn’t believe a word Pete had just said.
As always, the dog probably had it right.
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**My thoughts**
I just love this series. Each charming book picks up right about where the previous one left off. And yet you don't even need to have read the others to understand what is going on in this specific story. The main focus is always on the couple-at-hand (or in this case, make that double), but there's just enough of an explanation of those already paired off to help you understand, without giving away too much information. That being said, I would still recommend reading them all at some point.
A lot has happened to our maidels in just a few short months. It's been fun watching their relationships grow. You just knew early on that Molly and Pete were going to fall for each other because of the way they bickered and picked one each other. It's just Pete has an awful lot of growing up to do in spite of his age. You just want to kick him so many times.
And you hope that Marietta can find love. It's hard enough to be an older Amish woman, let alone one who is now considered deformed and cannot bear children. She has a big heart and you just want to see her happy. And you want the twins to figure it out around the same time so that their separation doesn't lead to a long isolation, since they have been together their entire lives. Christmas is often a magical time, even in the Amish realm.
Glenn is a tough one. His previous behavior has left a lot of a bad taste in my mouth, though I understand why he has been such a mess. It's not fair that some people seem to take a bigger hit than others, though that often leads to the person growing into a better version of himself.
As with the previous books in this series, I was left with a warm and fuzzy feeling and plenty of smiles throughout. Now we just need to find out what is going to happen with Jo! And what is going to happen to the Marketplace when all of our maidels are settled in their new lives.
Read an excerpt from book 1: Morning Star.
Read an excerpt from book 2: First Light in Morning Star
Molly and Marietta Helfing: A Day in the Life!
The twin heroines of CHRISTMAS COMES TO MORNING STAR follow a fairly predictable schedule from one day to the next—at least until heroes Pete Shetler and Glenn Detweiler come along to upset it! In the first two books of this Maidels of Morning Star series (MORNING STAR and FIRST LIGHT IN MORNING STAR) Molly and Marietta are carrying on their mother’s homemade noodle business in a small building behind their farmhouse—and they also have two dawdi hauses. Ordinarily a dawdi haus is built so the older generation can live there, but the Helfings have lost their parents, so they rent these small houses to tourists who come to Morning Star.
Ordinarily the twin sisters rise early, eat their breakfast, and go right out to the noodle factory. They make large batches of dough, run the dough through their rollers to flatten it into sheets, and then cut the sheets into strips so they can flatten the dough even more. Then they use knives to cut the noodles into whichever size they’re making that day. The noodles air-dry on screens, and then Molly and Marietta bag and label them so they’re ready to sell at their Marketplace shop on Saturdays. Meanwhile, they do their laundry and other housekeeping chores, raise a garden, etc. After her double mastectomy, Marietta feels no man will ever want a flat-chested woman who can’t bear kids, so she has resolved never to marry. Molly has vowed to remain single, as well, so Marietta won’t live alone…even though Molly secretly adores cute, blond carpenter Pete and his dog!
In earlier books, Pete Shetler lived in one of their dawdi hauses because his uncle, Bishop Jeremiah, believed he’d lead a more appropriate life and maybe be persuaded to join the Amish church. He and Molly are sweet on each other—trying not to admit it—so when Pete moves to his uncle’s place to remodel it, Molly’s life becomes a lot less exciting because he takes his rambunctious dog, Riley, with him.
Once CHRISTMAS COMES TO MORNING STAR gets going, however, it’s Glenn Detweiler who’s moving into a dawdi haus because his house burns down. He arrives with an elderly father, a seven-year-old son, and a newborn son because his mother and wife have died within the past six months. It’s December, and Marietta immediately realizes that warming bottles for a tiny baby on the hot plate in the little dawdi haus just won’t work—so the Helfing sisters’ usual schedule is disrupted in a BIG way by the arrival of four needy males!
As fate and faith would have it, Marietta becomes so attached to baby Levi and Billy Jay that her maternal instincts kick in—and Glenn is extremely grateful for her help. The twins even have Glenn’s elderly dad and Billy Jay helping them bag and label their noodles. Not once do they complain about the drop in their production because caring for the Detweilers takes so much of their time. The entire Amish community helps build—and completely furnish—a new home for this family. We also get to watch Billy Jay recite his verses of the Christmas story at the Christmas Eve program and share in his accomplishment.
CHRISTMAS COMES TO MORNING STAR is a romance, so of course both sisters get their happily-ever-after! But they don’t allow Pete or Glenn an easy time of it!
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Charlotte Hubbard be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. In addition to the GC, the author would like to select one female reader's name to use in her upcoming book, HIDDEN AWAY AT PROMISE LODGE.
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