Malinda Stauffer lives in Southern Maryland, but visited her aunt in Ohio to help her over illness. However, Malinda's chronic illness chose that time to flare up, and after a hospital stay she headed home. Some changes have come to Amish country this fall, and her doting Mamm fills her in on all the gossip. Poor Malinda just has to pray THE MENDING of her health will occur if she is ever to find a beau.

Timothy Brenneman works alongside Sam, Malinda's brother, handcrafting Amish furniture. He's pleased that Malinda is safely home. He doesn't know that the nineteen year old lady is receiving letters from a doctor who tended her - letters she doesn't want and doesn't know how to answer. St. Mary's County is off the beaten track, but the doctor is attending a conference in Baltimore and suggests he might pay a social call. This would not be appropriate in the Amish world, where even Timothy would have to court the lady in the company of her family.

I enjoyed the busy home environment, full of late summer's picking four different varieties of apples, canning and cooking. The families love their home cooking and this makes life all the harder for Malinda with her Crohn's disease. She has to be careful what she eats and can't gain weight. Crohn's is an auto-immune condition, like a rheumatism of the digestive system. This is definitely the first novel heroine I have read with this particular illness, and it's good to show that it can strike all ages, and how the sufferer is affected by a flare-up, as we all need to learn to help others. Author Susan Lantz Simpson deals sensitively with this issue, showing how Malinda misses out on some normal socialising but is determined to work as hard as anyone and not be considered sickly. Her kind Mamm keeps trying to fatten her up, but pushing rich food on her really doesn't help.

The family transport is Chestnut and the buggy. The children here play with one another, pick pumpkins, collect pinecones and pebbles, stroke kittens. This really is an alternative lifestyle to homes with screens and computer games. Enjoy THE MENDING as a break from busy modern life and a reminder that we should treat others with understanding. This unusual romance has a stubborn heroine, a bashful hero and a deepening love. What more could we ask?