A chance encounter on a train sparks a connection between two people both dreading their own separate destinations. Yet, their shared conversation gives both comfort in listening and talking to the other. Like strangers in the night, neither expects to see each other again, but their words and the memory helps steel them for what is to come.

For Adam King, his return is very bittersweet. Glad to be welcomed back to his Amish community in Lancaster County and to see his ten young brothers and sisters, he is heavily burdened by the responsibility of caring for his family as well as the guilt from not being home when his parents were killed. His sister, Mary, provides invaluable help to him by keeping the King household running smoothly, but is frustrated as she is more than ready to marry and have her own household. She just needs Adam to see the obvious. He has to marry first and she has a good friend just ready for him.

Frustrated by her failure to make her own way, Remy (Rebecca) McCallister opts to work for her wealthy father as a journalist at his newspaper. While happy to see her near, her father, Herb, just cannot give her the love and affection that she had been missing ever since Remy's mother died when she was a child. Now wanting to make her mark as a journalist and to prove herself to her father, Remy (named for a cognac her parents enjoyed) comes up with the idea of doing a story on the King family tragedy a year after it happened as she had done some research on it after meeting the handsome Adam King.

As Remy reconnects with Adam, she goes to visit him with the full intention and journalistic ethics to ask his permission to do a story on how his family is coping after this dreadful murder. Delaying to find the right moment, she is quickly embraced and drawn into the warmth and friendship of this large family and finds comfort and love through them and from doing the daily chores that she had so missed in her life.

But as her curiosity and insights gained from a relationship with the young Simon King, Remy can't help but putting two and two together as she seeks to discover the truth around the tragedy. Meanwhile, Adam finds out why she really came to see him. Can this serious Amish man ever forgive her deceit? What can she do now that the trust between them is broken?

As intricately and uniquely developed as a dazzling snowflake, the very talented Rosalind Lauer has crafted a fascinating tale of unsolved murder, romance and community that immediately pulls you deep into this inspiring story right from the get go to its very moving and satisfying conclusion. As the first book in the Seasons of Lancaster series, Lauer sets out a complex and layered tale that is totally captivating and definitely sets the bar high for Amish romance stories. While I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a standalone story, I simply can't wait for the next in the series, A Simple Spring, to find out what happens to Adam's feisty sister, Sadie! A SIMPLE WINTER is a wonderful reading treat you definitely will not want to miss!