HUCKLEBERRY SUMMER – Jennifer Beckstrand
The Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill , Book 2
Zebra
ISBN: 978-1-4201-3358-5
June 2014
Contemporary Amish Inspirational Romance

Bonduel, Wisconsin, the Present

Anna and Felty Helmuth have been happily wed for sixty-two years and wish the same marital bliss for all their many grandchildren. They recently matched one grandson with the perfect wife, and Anna is determined to do the same for another. Felty may have some doubts about the new scheme—Annie chooses an unlikely pair—but, as usual, he'll go along with anything to make his Annie Banannie happy.

Aden Helmuth gets an invitation from his Mammi and Dawdi to come to Huckleberry Hill to help them out. Aden is an unconventional Amish boy…a vegetarian devoted to animals and the environment. His activism has gotten him into trouble more than once. Didn't he get arrested for chaining himself to a tree?

Annie picks Lily Eicher to be Aden's wife…a good girl who will settle him down. Now Lily is a timid young woman completely under the thumb of her loving but controlling father, yet she's glad to help out the old couple on the farm three days a week. Lily has a surprise coming. Not only does she meet Aden, a huge handsome man with a reputation in the area even though he's from Ohio, but even worse, she believes his huge, overly friendly dog Pilot is a bear attacking her.

As Felty thought, nothing goes smoothly from then on…at least not for a very long time.

The characters that people the Huckleberry Hill books are many and delightful. There is a goodness and innocence about them, but that is not to say they are all perfect or that there is no conflict in the plot. Aden is a worthy man in spite of his strange behavior outside of the norm in his community. Lily, on the other hand, is the model of conformity. I must admit to being impatient with her timidity.


One of my favorite characters will star in the next in the series, HUCKLEBERRY CHRISTMAS, coming in October. I wonder what Mammi Anna has in store for us then.

Jane Bowers