HUCKLEBERRY SPRING – Jennifer Beckstrand
The Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill , Book 4
Zebra
ISBN: 978-1-4201-3649-4
February 2015
Inspirational Romance (Amish)

Present Day Wisconsin

Octogenarians Felty and Anna Helmuth are the forebears of four generations, and with large families running in the family, that makes a lots of descendents. But the pair love them all and want to see them make loving marriages just like theirs. Anna has successfully made love matches in the past, but now her heart turns to pairing up their grandson Ben with the girl he broke off with last year before he left for Florida. Anna is not above scheming, but she falls short of outright lying. So when she writes Ben to come home to help his g randfather on the farm, Felty is in for some minor surgery.

Emma Nelson, Ben's ex-fiancée, still suffers a broken heart. The only reason she can give to Ben's flight is that he cannot love her with all her faults. Faults? Emma is a beautiful girl, caring and generous, so what if she's a bit accident prone…well, maybe more than a bit. She once set fire to a chicken coop; then there were accidents with a truck and a boat… One might begin to wonder if her love for Ben distracts her. When Anna Helmuth asks her to help her grow a huge pumpkin, it's the first she's been up on Huckleberry Hill since Ben left. And who else is there but Ben himself!

We do learn that Ben still loves Emma, but that he left for her own good. Why does he think he's not good enough for her when he knows he broke her heart, and that he still wants to protect and care for her?

That's a question that doesn't get answered for quite some time. That wait aside, the story has the same charm, warmth, humor and quirkiness as the first three books, HUCKLEBERRY HILL, HUCKLEBERRY SUMMER, and HUCKLEBERRY CHRISTMAS. The characters who make up this Amish community present a kind world that strives to do good. Though this fourth book promotes more anxiety than found in the earlier works, I highly recommend the Huckleberry Hill series for the pleasure and peace they bring.

Jane Bowers