A HAND TO HOLD by Kathleen Fuller

This was book 3 in the "A Hearts of Middlefield" series.  You could easily read it as a stand alone story, but they do have people from the first two stories in this book, so it is helpful in knowing those people better if you read the books in the order they were written.  This story starts off with Zach Bender driving truck into the school house that Ruth Byler is in and setting up for her first day of teaching in the Amish schoolhouse.  Zach has always been known for getting into trouble growing up in the Amish community and Ruth has been known as the "good girl" who always wanted to teach school.  They are now thrown together literally and these two opposite people will find themselves getting to know each other and helping each other through difficult times.  But there is also another story going on with two other folks in this Amish community that I thought was just as interesting and special.  A young woman returns for her mother's funeral, who left the community because she got pregnant and never got married.  Now she returns and life is not easy for her on the farm, but one man befriends her and together they just might have a future.

This was a well written story with what I thought was an honest look at the Amish community and their thoughts and lifestyles.  A story about faith, forgiveness, love and sorrow.  I enjoyed each of the stories in this series and thought this author had a good grasp of the people she was writing about.