A Cord of Three Strands
Historical Fiction
2021 American Fiction Awards winner
2021 International Book Awards finalist
As 1756 dawns, Isaac Lukens leaves Pennsylvania’s wilderness after two years with the Lenape people. He’s failed to find the families of his birth parents, a French trader and a Lenape woman. Worse, the Lenape now ravage frontier settlements in retaliation. When he returns to the Quaker community where he was reared, questions taunt him: Who is he—white man or Lenape? And where does he belong?
Elisabeth Alden, Isaac’s childhood friend, must tend her young siblings alone upon her father’s death. Despite Isaac’s promise to care for them, she resents him for having left, and her discordant courtship also weighs on her.
Elisabeth must marry or lose guardianship, and her options threaten the life with her and the children that Isaac has come to love. Faced with Elisabeth’s hesitancy to marry and the prospect of finding his family, Isaac must determine where—and with whom—he belongs.
A Cord of Three Strands weaves fact and fiction into a captivating portrayal of Colonial-era Quaker life, including the Society of Friends’ roles in Pennsylvania Indian relations and in refuting slavery.
PURCHASE 2021 International Book Awards finalist
As 1756 dawns, Isaac Lukens leaves Pennsylvania’s wilderness after two years with the Lenape people. He’s failed to find the families of his birth parents, a French trader and a Lenape woman. Worse, the Lenape now ravage frontier settlements in retaliation. When he returns to the Quaker community where he was reared, questions taunt him: Who is he—white man or Lenape? And where does he belong?
Elisabeth Alden, Isaac’s childhood friend, must tend her young siblings alone upon her father’s death. Despite Isaac’s promise to care for them, she resents him for having left, and her discordant courtship also weighs on her.
Elisabeth must marry or lose guardianship, and her options threaten the life with her and the children that Isaac has come to love. Faced with Elisabeth’s hesitancy to marry and the prospect of finding his family, Isaac must determine where—and with whom—he belongs.
A Cord of Three Strands weaves fact and fiction into a captivating portrayal of Colonial-era Quaker life, including the Society of Friends’ roles in Pennsylvania Indian relations and in refuting slavery.
The Heart Knows the Way Home
Contemporary Romance
2021 Best Book Awards winner
As children, Janna Carpenter and Luke Martin lived on opposite sides of Division Highway, and that wasn’t the only division in their lives. While he grew up in the gmay—Lancaster County’s Old Order Mennonite community—she was the daughter of a single mother who left her in the care of Luke’s grandmother. For six years Janna found love with the Martins, until her mother abruptly moved them away.
Now, almost fourteen years later, Janna returns to the area with her daughter. Her hope for a new beginning is lost when they find their home uninhabitable after a storm, then an out-of-gas car leaves them stranded. When two women stop to help, they turn out to be Luke’s aunts, and the Martin family again takes her in.
Janna and Luke, a widower struggling to balance business and family responsibilities, reacquaint as Janna assists his grandmother and cares for his son. Her self-protective independence and his conservative principles put them at odds, but the difficulties they face draw them closer.
When long-lost friendship rekindles into unexpected love, will either be willing to make changes so they can be together?
A portion of the proceeds from each sale is donated to Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
PURCHASE As children, Janna Carpenter and Luke Martin lived on opposite sides of Division Highway, and that wasn’t the only division in their lives. While he grew up in the gmay—Lancaster County’s Old Order Mennonite community—she was the daughter of a single mother who left her in the care of Luke’s grandmother. For six years Janna found love with the Martins, until her mother abruptly moved them away.
Now, almost fourteen years later, Janna returns to the area with her daughter. Her hope for a new beginning is lost when they find their home uninhabitable after a storm, then an out-of-gas car leaves them stranded. When two women stop to help, they turn out to be Luke’s aunts, and the Martin family again takes her in.
Janna and Luke, a widower struggling to balance business and family responsibilities, reacquaint as Janna assists his grandmother and cares for his son. Her self-protective independence and his conservative principles put them at odds, but the difficulties they face draw them closer.
When long-lost friendship rekindles into unexpected love, will either be willing to make changes so they can be together?
A portion of the proceeds from each sale is donated to Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.