Blessings by Kim Vogel Sawyer

It's New Book Tuesday (on Wednesday night)!

This third book in Kim Vogel Sawyer's Sommerfeld Trilogy returns us to Sommerfeld, Kansas, a fictional community just outside of my old stomping grounds. (And why'dya have to make the bad guy from Hillsboro, Kim? (she'll say he's not really all that bad...just tall.))

This time we get to follow Trina, a bubbly, happy girl who has a special touch with animals. Trina would like to study to be a vet, but the dictates of her Old Order Mennonite fellowship say she shouldn't even finish high school, much less go to college. It looks like if Trina decides to follow her heart--and God given gifting--she might lose everything else important to her.

For a look into the non-Amish Mennonite lifestyle and beliefs, I highly recommend this series. They are not dependent, but you will get to revisit the main characters of Beginnings and Bygones. Even I found myself learning more about this lesser known branch of Mennonite. (Of course this is a fictional fellowship, so reading this book won't necessarily make you an expert on the Old Order.)

Side note: may you never have to hear Hubs and I explain the Mennonites (some people are nodding vigorously right now) "First you have the Amish: they don't drive and they wear white caps, then you have the Holdeman that wear black caps and drive, but don't allow chrome or radios on their cars, and there's the Old Order that wear white caps, but aren't Amish and sometimes drive and sometimes don't and then you have the Mennonite Brethren--that's what we were--which is more like a Southern Baptist and then you have the General conference Mennonite that is often more like the Methodist...." And though we both think we know what we are talking about, we probably have very little clue outside our very specific experiences, but we feel like experts when talking to people who hear Mennonite and apparently think Martian.


Anyhoo, yeah, I like Kim's books. Because of the setting and her very gentle way of writing and her way of writing in the romantic element that leaves much to the imagination, but is more realistic to marital love than a lot of writers.

Well done, Kim. What's next?