A Dangerous Season

For Every Season is book three in the Amish Vine and Orchards series.  Before reading this book, I read book one and got the following background:  This story is mainly about a beautiful Amish girl, Rhoda Byler.  Rhoda loves to grow things.  She had a wonderful garden at her parent’s home that was also a good income source, but it was destroyed by another Amish man bent on causing her grief.

A chance meeting with Leah King introduces her brothers Samuel and Jacob to Rhoda.  The brothers push hard for Rhoda to join them in business by canning and selling the apples from their orchard.  No sooner does this new business start than a tornado strikes destroying the canning business and most of that year’s crop.

Book three starts with a small group of Amish made up of Rhoda, her brother and family, the King siblings Leah, Samuel and Jacob and Rhoda’s Englisch helper, Landon.  They are attempting to start a new Amish community in an apple orchard in Maine.   Rhoda and Jacob have become an item, but serious trouble Jacob had gotten into before knowing Rhoda causes him to leave for long lengths of time.  While gone, situations Rhoda needs Jacob’s help with are filled in by Samuel.  Samuel falls in love with Rhoda, and kisses her right as Jacob returns from one of his trips.

Because of the kiss, tensions between Rhoda, Samuel and Jacob bring almost everything at the orchard to a crashing halt.  Since the small Amish community there depends on the success of the orchard for all their livelihoods, this is a serious problem.  Despite Rhoda and Samuel’s assurance that nothing will happen between them again, much of this book is spent on Jacob’s paranoia about Samuel and Rhoda.  Jacob wants to marry Rhoda, and turn everything in her life upside down.  He believes he must do this to feel confident about their love surviving.

I am glad I was able to read book one before I got this story, or I would have been really lost with all the characters and background stories.  As it was, since I wasn’t able to read book two, there are great gaps in the tale.  The story holds interest–although the relationship difficulty with Rhoda, Samuel and Jacob was stretched out too far.  I have a problem with Rhoda’s “gift,” which seems to be clairvoyance.  Additionally, Rhoda often “sees”–and sometimes hears–her dead sister.

I felt giving this ability to Rhoda put her on very shaky ground as a Christian, and the rationalization the story tried to use for her having this “gift” never rang true.  First Thessalonians 5:22 warns us to “stay away from every kind of evil.”  And it is written in Deuteronomy 18:9-12a:

“When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination [detestable] to the LORD…”

The Bible tells us that some things are dangerous.  The Lord does this to help us, not to be a kill joy.  When I made a decision to be a follower of Christ, I also accepted the Bible as instructions to be followed.  I cannot be happy with a Christian book that attempts to justify a Christian character with these attributes.  The occult is a treacherous area to dabble in, it is real and not to be underestimated.  Because of my strong feelings on this issue, I cannot give this book more than one star.

The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book through WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own, and I have not been compensated in any other manner.

Author’s website:  http://www.cindywoodsmall.com/

Author’s Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/authorcindywoodsmall

Author’s Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/cindywoodsmall/

Author on Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/117290.Cindy_Woodsmall

More Info:

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?work=208964