Amish of Big Sky Country

Series · 3 books · 2019-2020

By Kelly Irvin

Books in series

Mountains of Grace

2019

In the first of a new series set in the Amish communities of Montana, bestselling author Kelly Irvin explores what the Amish do in the aftermath of natural disaster. Schoolteacher Mercy Yoder loves her life in the beautiful West Kootenai region of Montana. But when a wildfire blazes outside her beloved community, she and her family are forced to evacuate and flee to the small town of Eureka. John Hostetler, Mercy’s beau, sorts through the damage left by the fire, helping Mercy set up a makeshift school to continue her passion. Eureka is filled with fire personnel, media, and rubberneckers—more contact with the outside world than Mercy has ever experienced. A chance encounter with a smoke jumper, Travis Cooper, leads to longer conversations about her Amish beliefs and life. As word arrives that their home was one of the houses destroyed in the fire, Mercy struggles to accept that everything they owned is gone. A life’s worth of memories. She hides her bitterness from her father, who accepts such events as God’s will. How can it be God’s will that they would start over with nothing? John’s decision to return to Kansas pours kerosene on her doubts. Her heart is doubly broken. While John is away, Travis continues to seek Mercy’s company. His observations force her to look at her life from a different perspective. But is it the right perspective? When all seems lost, including her way, Mary finds unexpected beauty and love springing from the ashes of all that she’s known.

A Long Bridge Home

2020

After her community in the awe-inspiring Montana mountains is suddenly consumed by a raging wildfire, one young Amish woman finds herself in a new town where she’s introduced to the Native culture of the Kootenai people. When the Mast family is forced to evacuate their home in the West Kootenai region of Montana, Christine chooses not to move with her family to her father’s childhood home in Kansas. Instead, she wants to stay closer to home and to her beau, Andy Lambright, who has yet to ask for her hand in marriage and who seems to be holding tightly to secrets from his past. Now, living with her aunt and uncle in St. Ignatius, Christine is on her own for the first time in her life. While working in her uncle’s store Christine meets Raymond Old Fox, whom she befriends, and he introduces her to his rich native culture with strong ties to the earth and nature. Despite the warnings of her aunt and uncle, Christine is inexplicably drawn to Raymond, and her mind is opened to a history and heritage far different from her own. With her newly expanding horizons, Christine wonders if she can return to the domestic life that is expected of her. Her heart still longs to be with Andy, but she isn’t the same person she was before the fire, and she wonders if he can accept who she is becoming. Has too much distance grown between them? Or can they bridge the gap from past to present and find their way back together?

Peace in the Valley

2020

After a devastating wildfire sweeps through her town, one young Amish woman is shown a different way to practice her faith . . . but will it cost her everything she holds dear? Nora Beachy is caught in the middle. She’s been content to live a simple life in West Kootenai, working in the community store, taking care of her family, and courting with Isaac Burke. When wildfires threaten her home, she’s forced to stay with family in Libby where the Amish community has embraced an evangelical form of worship frowned upon by her own parents and district elders in West Kootenai. She’s drawn to their unfamiliar worship style, use of musical instruments, and more relaxed form of dress. A young preacher begins to woo her spiritually, telling her she needs a personal relationship with Jesus in order to flourish as a believer. He and her cousins want her to “come alive” in her faith “for the first time.” Her parents rush her back to West Kootenai as soon as they can but fear the “damage” has already been done. Nora has to make a decision—return to her traditional Amish life or embrace this new way of worshipping and living. Will she leave behind her family and the man she loves for a different kind of faith?

Author

Kelly Irvin

Author · 38 books

Best-selling author Kelly Irvin splits her writing time between Amish romances and romantic suspense. Her latest release is Trust Me (2/8/22), a romantic suspense novel set in San Antonio's historic art district. It explores broken trust and whether trust can ever be restored. Publishers Weekly called it a "whirlwind romantic thriller" and "an emotional rollercoaster." Her latest Amish romance is Love's Dwelling, the first book in the Amish Blessings series, which released in July 2021. The series takes place in Yoder and Haven, Kansas, and looks at adoption among the Amish. The series follows her Amish romance series, Amish of Sky Country includes Mountains of Grace, followed by The Long Bridge Home, and Peace in the Valley. The series explores Amish communities in northwest Montana and how they are impacted by wildfires. Other romantic suspense novels include Her Every Move, which Publishers Weekly called gripping suspense and said, "loving descriptions of San Antonio’s attractions enhance the well-paced plot." The publication called Closer Than She Knows a "brisk, smoothly written, thriller." Kelly's Every Amish Season series includes Upon A Spring Breeze, Beneath the Summer Sun, Through the Autumn Air, and With Winter's First Frost from Zondervan/HarperCollins Christian Publishing. This follows the Amish of Bee County series, The Saddle Maker's Son, released in June 2016. It is an ECPA bestseller. It follows The Bishop's Son, and the critically acclaimed bestseller, The Beekeeper's Son, which earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The reviewer called it "a beautifully woven masterpiece." The Beekeeper's Son was a finalist in the romance category of the 2016 ACFW Carol Awards Contest. Kelly is also the author of the Bliss Creek Amish series and the New Amish Amish series. The first series includes To Love and To Cherish, A Heart Made New, and Love’s Journey Home, published by Harvest House. The New Hope Amish series includes Love Still Stands, followed by Love Redeemed, which was an ACFW Carol Award finalist, and A Plain Love Song. Kelly has also penned two other romantic suspense novels, A Deadly Wilderness and No Child of Mine.. The Kansas native is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and ACFW's San Antonio local chapter Alamo City Christian Fiction Writers. A graduate of the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism, Kelly has been writing nonfiction professionally for thirty years. She studied for three semesters at the University of Costa Rica, learning the Spanish language. As a journalist, she worked six years in the border towns of Laredo and El Paso. She worked in public relations for the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department for 22 years before retiring earlier this year. Kelly has been married to photographer Tim Irvin for twenty-eight years. They have two young adult children and have three grandchildren. In her spare time, she likes to write short stories, read books by her favorite authors, and looks forward to visits with her grandchildren.