"Love Finds You In Homestead, Iowa" Book Review

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa

Summerside Press (March 1, 2010)

by

Melanie Dobson


MY REVIEW:
I have read quite a few Love Finds You In... books and there is one common thread between all of them - they have nothing in common. Each story is set in a different town, in a different time with different characters and vastly different storylines. The beauty of this is that you may or may not like one of the books, but you pick up another one and it is a totally different scenario. Some I have liked, some have been okay and others I have truly enjoyed... like Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa. One of the things I love about this particular book is the setting, the Amana Colonies in Iowa. Living in Nebraska, I have heard about the Amana Colonies - my Grandma even bought a blanket for one of my daughters when she visited the Amana Colonies one time. But in reality, I didn't know much about them, so this book was very educational for me as well as having a very entertaining and engrossing story. The characters were wonderful and I really liked getting to know Jacob and his daughter Cassie and Liesel as she helped orient them to life in the Amanas. There was enough mystery and intrigue to keep propelling the story forward while the characters kept me wanting to read on and on. This was one of my favorite Love Finds You In... books!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Melanie Beroth Dobson is the author of the inspirational novels Together for Good (2006), Going for Broke (2007), The Black Cloister (2008), Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana (2009), Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa (2010), Refuge on Crescent Hill (2010), and The Silent Order (2010) as well as the co-author of Latte for One and Loving It! A Single Woman's Guide to Living Life to Its Fullest (2000).



Prior to launching Dobson Media Group in 1999, Melanie was the corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family where she was responsible for the publicity of events, products, films, and TV specials. Melanie received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Liberty University and her master's degree in communication from Regent University. She has worked in the fields of publicity and journalism for fifteen years including two years as a publicist for The Family Channel.



Melanie and her husband, Jon, met in Colorado Springs in 1997 at Vanguard Church. Jon works in the field of computer animation. Since they've been married, the Dobsons have relocated numerous times including stints in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Berlin, and Southern California. These days they are enjoying their new home in the Pacific Northwest.



Jon and Melanie have adopted their two daughters —Karly (6) and Kinzel (5). When Melanie isn't writing or entertaining their girls, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, traveling, hiking, line dancing, and reading inspirational fiction.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Times are hard in 1894. Desperate for work, former banker Jacob Hirsch rides the rails west from Chicago with his four-year-old daughter, Cassie. When a life-threatening illness strands the pair in Homestead, Iowa, the local Amana villagers welcome the father and daughter into their peaceful society. Liesel, a young Amana woman, nurses Cassie back to health, and the Homestead elders offer Jacob work. But Jacobs growing interest in Liesel complicates his position in the Amanas. Will he fight to stay in the only place that feels like home, even if it means giving up the woman he loves? Or will Liesel leave her beloved community to face the outside world with Jacob and Cassie at her side?



If you would like to read the first chapter of Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa, go HERE.