The Keeper by Suzanne Woods Fisher - Review of the first book in the Stoney Ridge Seasons series

Julia Lapp is the oldest child of widower Amos Lapp and she is in love with Paul Fisher, she's known she would marry him since she was a young girl. Paul loves Julia too, he just isn't sure he wants to marry her at the young age of 21. He has just 'postponed' their wedding for a second time. When M.K., short for Mary Kate, starts telling about all of the other boys that have called off their 'courtin' it dawns on Julia, the Bee Man is back in town!

Amos is a sick man, he needs a heart transplant and can't keep up with the work so his uncle Hank helps out a little. Uncle Hank is always the talk of the community and writes for The Budget. When Fern Graber reads about the Lapp family in Stoney Creek she writes to Hank and volunteers her services to help the family out. Without asking Amos, Hank accepts her offer.

Fern is a strict no nonsense kind of woman, she knows there are four kids, Amos and Uncle Hank but she thinks she's coming to cook and clean for Amos. I don't know how she thought the kids would live in the house and eat when she won't allow anyone in her kitchen or even so much as get in the refrigerator for a glass of milk. Julia finally gives her an ultimatum to either cook for all of them or leave. She is so strict that M.K. is quickly up to rule 436 and counting.

What a wonderful story about how a man who is about to lose his life and won't accept a heart transplant. A young woman who is in love with someone and even after he 'postpones' the wedding twice still has faith that he will marry her. A story of how you can dislike someone and find out they aren't at all what they seem. What an encouragement to become an organ donor, as Amos always says, "What man calls Coincidences, God would call a miracle."