Blessings in Disguise by Nancy Mehl

Rated: 5 star rating

Nancy Mehl did a great job with Blessings in Disguise. It is the first book in a series about a woman named Cheryl Cooper. She quits her banking job in the city and moves to a small town called Sugarcreek in Ohio to run a gift shop called the Swiss Miss. Her Aunt Mitzi owns the shop but left to do missionary work overseas, so Cheryl takes over, looking for a fresh start after breaking off her engagement. She expects a nice, quiet life, but things get complicated pretty fast.

While she is getting used to the town, weird things start happening at the shop. Expensive items that she never ordered keep showing up on the shelves. Her new friend Naomi Miller, an Amish woman who sells homemade jams and baked goods at the shop, thinks the mystery inventory is just a blessing.

Naomi does everything she can to help support her big family, and her hardworking husband Seth Miller is always busy trying to provide for them too. But then Cheryl finds creepy warning notes telling her to watch out, and she even overhears a scary threat while walking through a local corn maze.

The book has a lot of great characters that make the town feel real. Seth and Naomi's eldest son, Levi Miller, spends most of his time tending to horses after getting his heart broken by a girl he thought he would marry. He says he is done with romance, but he ends up hanging around the shop and really likes Cheryl.

Then you have Ben and Reuben Vogel, two estranged brothers who have a sad history. Ben was shunned by the church years ago, so they never speak a word to each other. Instead, they just meet up at the Swiss Miss every other day to play checkers in total silence.

Between the main mystery, the silent checker games, and a side story about helping a woman running away from a bad relationship, there is a lot going on.

It is a really good, clean mystery with a nice small town atmosphere and a great ending that makes you want to see what happens next in Sugarcreek.

Thank you, NetGalley, Guideposts, and author Nancy Mehl, for providing me with a copy of this ebook review consideration. All review opinions are my own.

#NetGalley

#Guideposts

#Nancy Mehl author

#BlessingsinDisguise

http://goodreads.com/patriciasreadingroom

http://www.patriciasreadingroom.blogspot.com