Kim Vogel Sawyer, Waiting for Summer’s Return

Waiting for Summer's Return

Kim Vogel Sawyer

Bethany House, Jun 2006, $12.99

ISBN: 0764201824

In 1894 everything that meant anything to Summer Steadman is gone especially with the death of her sweet baby Tillie; her spouse Rodney gone; her family in Boston and his are gone though they still live. She believes she has no reason to live and would welcome death. However, she accepts a teaching position tutoring a child Thomas in the pious rigid Mennonite community of Gaeddert, Kansas.

Peter Ollenberger still mourns the death of his beloved Elsa. However, he welcomes the outsider to his community. His kindness towards Summer causes censorship amidst his neighbors. Still he feels he must help Summer understand that God loves her in spite of her losses. However, he soon wonders if God works in mysterious ways as he begins to fall in love with Summer while through him, Thomas and his grandmother Summer finds the warmth of human love once more.

WAITING FOR SUMMER is a deep character driven late nineteenth century inspirational romance. The cast is solid as the townsfolk make it clear how they feel about the outside female living in Peter's abode though a grandmotherly chaperone resides there too. Peter and Summer are terrific protagonists struggling poorly with grief and doubting God's intentions in which innocent good people die young. Thomas and grandma matchmake the mourning pair but not just with one another as they help Summer and Peter find their way back to God. This is a deep tale with an upbeat message that brings the sunshine on what starts as a very gloomy cloudy sky.

Harriet Klausner