She holds an MFA in creative writing and enjoys church history, research trips, and hiking in the Pacific Northwest. Ivy’s story is only book one, and I’m very curious to see what will come next. The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jaime Jo Wright METROPOLITAN AFFAIR JOCELYN GREEN LESLIE GOULD BRIGHTER DAWN With a notorious forger. Leslie Gould is a Christy Award-winning and 1 bestselling author of over 35 novels, including four Lancaster County Amish series.

This is the first of Leslie Gould’s books that I’ve read, and I will certainly be on the lookout for more, especially in this particular series. Instead, I was swept away into a world I know little about, populated by characters who feel not only real but deeply sympathetic. I’ve seen enough Amish romances in bookstores that I thought this would be mainly a romance with some historical detail and mystery tossed in for flavor. The more she thinks about it, the more certain she becomes her parents’ deaths were no accident. From the story, Ivy learns not only things about the Mennonites’ history she hadn’t guessed at before, but also gains inspiration and courage. With the encouragement and inspiration of the women who have gone before her, Ivy seeks justice for her parents, her sisters, and herself. On the way, she hears about a trip one of her relatives took to Germany almost a hundred years before: in 1937, as the Third Reich came to power.

After her parents’ die in a car crash, Ivy Zimmerman travels across the country to stay with her father’s distant family before an international Mennonite meeting in Germany.

A Brighter Dawn by Leslie Gould