AN AMISH MAN OF ICE MOUNTAIN – Kelly Long
The Amish of Ice Mountain , Book 2
Zebra Books
ISBN: 978-1-4201-3546-6
May 2015
Inspirational Romance

Ice Mountain, Pennsylvania, the Present

After an episode when he was sixteen, Amisch Joseph King lost his sense of self worth; he's written off any happy life for himself. At present, he works on a gas rig in West Virginia to look after his younger brother, Edward, to keep him from making mistakes as he did. They work long hard days for four weeks, then get two weeks off. They spend that free time staying at nearby Bear Creek Inn.

Priscilla Allen is on the run with her five year-old daughter, Hollie. She manages to get a job waiting tables at Bear Creek Inn without anyone knowing about Hollie and that they live in their car.

Joseph and Priscilla first lay eyes on each other when Joseph, fresh out of the shower, answers the door expecting Dan to bring him the towels he asked for. It's a question of who is shocked more: she to see a wet, naked man, barely covered by a hand towel; or he, finding a beautiful young woman, eyes wide open. No matter how unwillingly taken Joseph is with Englisch Priscilla, when he finds out about her daughter and their living arrangement his kind heart won't let him ignore them. Add that to the news that she's running from an abusive ex-husband and he's really lost.

Even Priscilla, who has reason not to trust men, can't help growing to admire Joseph, and I challenge any reader not to fall a bit in love with him as well. It certainly doesn't take little Hollie long to do so. The two of them together are enough to win the coldest heart, but this novel is full of likable people to care about. The Ice Mountain community contradicts its name; they have the warmest hearts. We get to know many of them intimately. There are Joseph's expecting sister, Mary, and her husband, Jude, whose story is told in book one, THE AMISH BRIDE OF ICE MOUNTAIN. Also well-developed characters are Joseph, Mary, and Edward's father; the bishop and his wife; the local healer, and various others, including the landlady from the Bear Claw Inn to whom the Amish extend a welcome.

There is a bit more intimacy here than I've run into in other Amish romances, but it's tastefully done. Finally, it's a happy book that holds interest throughout.

Jane Bowers