Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa by Melanie Dobson

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa
Summerside Press (March 1, 2010)
by
Melanie Dobson

Times are hard in 1894. Desperate for work, former banker Jacob Hirsch rides the rails west from Chicago with his four-year-old daughter, Cassie. When a life-threatening illness strands the pair in Homestead, Iowa, the local Amana villagers welcome the father and daughter into their peaceful society. Liesel, a young Amana woman, nurses Cassie back to health, and the Homestead elders offer Jacob work. But Jacobs growing interest in Liesel complicates his position in the Amanas. Will he fight to stay in the only place that feels like home, even if it means giving up the woman he loves? Or will Liesel leave her beloved community to face the outside world with Jacob and Cassie at her side?
 
If you would like to read the first chapter of Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa, go HERE.

Melanie Beroth Dobson is the author of the inspirational novels Together for Good (2006), Going for Broke (2007), The Black Cloister (2008), Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana (2009), Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa (2010), Refuge on Crescent Hill (2010), and The Silent Order (2010) as well as the co-author of Latte for One and Loving It! A Single Woman's Guide to Living Life to Its Fullest (2000).

Prior to launching Dobson Media Group in 1999, Melanie was the corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family where she was responsible for the publicity of events, products, films, and TV specials. Melanie received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Liberty University and her master's degree in communication from Regent University. She has worked in the fields of publicity and journalism for fifteen years including two years as a publicist for The Family Channel.

Melanie and her husband, Jon, met in Colorado Springs in 1997 at Vanguard Church. Jon works in the field of computer animation. Since they've been married, the Dobsons have relocated numerous times including stints in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Berlin, and Southern California. These days they are enjoying their new home in the Pacific Northwest.

Jon and Melanie have adopted their two daughters —Karly (6) and Kinzel (5). When Melanie isn't writing or entertaining their girls, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, traveling, hiking, line dancing, and reading inspirational fiction.

I was surprised to see 2 books on the CFBA reading list for March about the Amana’s.  Up until that reading list came out, I had never even heard of them.  I always thought that people who live in communes are a little “off”, but reading this book made me see the positive aspects of living in such a community.  Truthfully, the way things are going here in the U.S. these days, I can see something like this arrangement becoming very appealing, if not necessary, in the years to come!  (But enough “political talk” – that’s not really my thing!)

I enjoyed the storyline in this Love Finds You . . . book  and would definitely pick up more books by this author.  I also appreciated the author’s note at the end of the book, giving more details about the Amana villages, etc. (it was interesting to find out that this group of people was behind the introduction of Amana appliances, now owned by Whirlpool).