Summer Reading Book #4

Plain and Fancy is the third book in the Brides of Lancaster series by Wanda Brunstetter and the fourth book I have read on my summer reading plan. Wanda usually picks a character from the books before to write about in the sequels and usually it is a woman. This time, she chooses to write about a male character from the last book. A son of Mary Ellen, the best friend of Rebekah in book 2, is one of the main characters in this book. The other main character is Laura Meade, who comes from a very wealthy family and is going to school for interior design in Lancaster. She is fascinated with the Amish and decides to go to the Farmer's market. At the farmers market, she meets the other main character, Eli. Eli is plain and she is fancy, hence the name of the book, Plain and Fancy. Eli becomes Laura's friend and they soon fall in love, but how will ever be together with him plain and her fancy? Laura really has never known God, and only went to church on Easter or Christmas, so she asked Eli to leave his faith and even though he has not joined the church, he can not leave his faith, so Laura does the only thing she knows to do, she decides to join his church, but she does not realize how much she will have to sacrifice as she makes this decision. The rest of the book goes into how she becomes Amish and how things work out for her and Eli. Really, I do not know how Wanda makes all of these books so different, but everyone of them sooo good! Yes, I loved this book as well and as I said before, would recommend any of her books. They have all been very faith lifting to me. I am so excited to get to read the final book in the series, The Hope Chest, but also sad because I have so enjoyed this series. As usual, Wanda includes a recipe at the end of the book here is the one from this book.

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Laura's Pickled Beets

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3 quarts small beets

3 cups cider vinegar

2 tablespoons salt

4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

2 cinnamon sticks

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Cook the beets in a large pan until tender and put into clean, hot canning jars. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate pan and boil until it becomes a syrup. Pour the boiling syrup over the beets, then seal. Cold pack them for 10-15 minutes.