Married to a Stranger by Laura V. Hilton (Buy Now)
Date: July 2, 2019
Kindle, Paperback
Whitaker House Publishing
He’s desperate for help.
She longs to escape. Love wasn’t an option.
After her father accuses a
stranger of dishonoring her, Bethel Eicher finds herself promised in marriage
to him, a man she’d never met. Not exactly what Bethel has dreamed of, but
since she spent several years caring for her handicapped mother, the good guys
were all taken and she’s considered an old maid at twenty-five. The alternative
to marrying an unknown man is a steady barrage of older widowers and none of
them appeal. Rather than fight for the truth and risk embarrassing/humiliating
her father, this marriage might be the perfect escape from a life of forever
loneliness and from being a permanent caregiver/ glorified housekeeper.
When newly-called Preacher Gideon
Kaiser learns he’s been accused of a dishonorable act toward an Amish woman, he
is horrified and the community is thrown into a tizzy. A young widower whose
wife died in childbirth, Gideon is practical enough to realize the necessity of
eventually having another woman in his life. While he lives with his parents,
his mother suffers from multiple sclerosis, and he has an infant. With Bethel
to manage the household and care for their family, Gideon and his father would
be able to run the Amish grocery store and deliver messages of hope to the
Amish in the small district, still reeling from a catastrophic fire. But marry
a woman he’s never met? One he doesn’t love? The very thought strikes him as
being unfaithful to his late wife. Still, he needs her. Plus he needs his good name cleared for the sake of his
ministry, so he does the honorable thing and agrees to marry her.
After Gideon submits to the
demands based on blackmail and pushes Bethel into a position as a glorified
nurse-maid, how can they possibly make a marriage work? When love is as hidden
as the ground buried under snow, can they ever see past their forced beginning?
When the truth behind the accusations is revealed, it threatens to destroy the
growing bond between these two former-strangers.
Reviewer’s Comments: Excitement
surges through the story and jumps off each page as you settle into the book.
Hilton is a gifted writer who makes the characters come alive and draw the
reader deeper into Bethel and Gideon’s plight. It’s a book you won’t want to
put down.
Laura V. Hilton is an
award-winning, sought-after
author with thirty Amish, contemporary, and
historical
romances. When she’s not writing, she reviews books
for her blogs.
Her most recent series is set in Mackinac
County, Michigan, and includes
Firestorm, The Amish
Candymaker, and Married to a Stranger (July 2019).
Laura and her pastor-husband have
five children and a hyper dog named Skye. They currently live in Arkansas. One son is in the
U.S. Coast Guard. She is a pastor’s wife, and homeschools her two youngest
children.
When she’s not writing, Laura
enjoys reading, and visiting lighthouses and waterfalls. Her favorite season is
winter, her favorite holiday is Christmas.
For more information about Laura V.
Hilton and her books, visit her at:
Laura V. Hilton is an
award-winning, sought-after