Summary
Edna, Verna, Wilma and Mary gather together every couple weeks to bake cookies for Sunday worship services. Family and friends flippantly call it their “cookie club,” but it’s more like cookie therapy. As they gather and bake, they share one another’s burdens.
Mary’s daughter is painfully shy and probably over-protected. The women wonder how she’ll ever make her way in the world. Wilma’s twins seem to be in constant battle with one another. Perhaps Wilma’s own abrasiveness has rubbed off too much. Edna grieves that she was never able to raise a daughter. Her sons are almost all grown, but they don’t seem to have any interest in courting or starting a family. And Verna’s daughter, Myrna has just lost ANOTHER job. Her strong and vocal opinions cause her problems with employers and customers alike.
Edna has the idea of helping Myrna find a job in an Amish home where her hard work might be appreciated and she could learn some more agreeable methods. And Ezekiel Riehl’s farm could be the perfect solution. Ezekiel has four children including a baby less than a year old. The story is that his wife developed cancer, and Ezekiel refused to let her get treatment, insisting they pray and trust it to God. Myrna doesn’t quite like the sound of that, but she doesn’t have to agree with him to watch the kids and clean the house. She needs a job, and he needs help at home. It’s just a business arrangement.
Review
This was delightful! I loved Myrna! Her strong opinions and organizational skills felt very familiar to me. She needed a place that both needed AND appreciated those skills. And she found that.
The author does a good job of setting up the four moms and their concerns which will be covered in future books while also focusing on Myrna’s story. The balance between those threads was great. Personally, I got a little tired of Wilma. I’m glad the next book (An Amish Cookie Club Christmas, out now) will focus on Mary’s daughter and Edna’s family.
It’s clear early on that this medical care situation is going to be a factor in Myrna’s relationship with Zeke. As often happens in novels, gossip, assumptions and lack of communication go a long way towards thwarting love. Readers will have to check this book out to see if Myrna and Zeke can triumph.
This is another fantastic Amish story from Sarah Price. She is now a must-buy author for me. I love her work! I recently read the second book in the series – An Amish Cookie Club Christmas – and it was just as good! (♥♥♥♥½)