Pearl Jinx

From the genius of Sandra Hill comes another irresistible tale that I could not recommend more highly. We first met former Navy Seal, ex-Amish Caleb Peachey in PINK JINX. Now Caleb has received his first assignment as project manager for Jinx, Inc. -- excavating cave pearls from a cavern in central Pennsylvania owned by the Franklin Family. Abbie Franklin hopes that the project will give her grandson Mark, a war veteran who lost an arm in Afghanistan, a new lease on life. Caleb had spent half of his life growing up in the nearby Amish community of Spruce Creek, but there is no homecoming for him to look forward to. Caleb had been shunned by both the community and his own family at the tender age of 17 for refusing to confess to sins he hadn't committed. He had gone forth alone into the "English" world and had never looked back. His biggest concern is that the local Plain community might cause problems for Jinx, Inc. due to his involvement in the project. For the moment his biggest problem is Dr. Claire Cassidy, known to the locals as "Crazy Claire", a historical archaeologist and Lenni Lenape Indian expert, assigned to the project to ensure that no artifacts of historical nature are destroyed during the treasure hunt. The project is scheduled to begin and the woman hasn't answered any of his calls. He sets out to find her and bring her to heel, however Claire is nothing like he expected and constantly keeps him off balance with her frank comments. Of course it doesn't help that he's undeniably attracted to her and she to him. Oh yeah, it's one of Louise Rivard's thunderbolts, for sure and for certain. And of course with her grandnephew Tee-John LeDeux on the Jinx crew, it doesn't take long for good ole Tante Lulu to start planning Caleb and Claire's wedding! Naturally that's not all Lulu's mixed up in. The perennial matchmaker also teams up with Abbie to get Mark and his ex-fiance back together. She and Claire are in cahoots to reunite the whole Peachey clan and of course she isn't about to let Tee-John forget that she's pushing along and years and it would be really nice if he decided to settle down real soon too. If that's not enough Lulu and Abbie are being romanced by two geriatric twins named Amos and Andy, Caleb's baby sister Lizzy wants to be the first Amish American Idol with the rest of the LeDeux clan heading north give her a hand and Caleb's Mennonite twin brother Jonas (also under the Bann) is being mercilessly pursued by an "English" hottie. Throw in a giant cave snake named Sparky, a yappy dog named Boney, a handful of cats, some crazed chickens, a slew of St. Jude statues and a couple of hope chests and the laughs are guaranteed. Young John LeDeux's story, WILD JINX, is next and it's been hinted that there may even be a few more LeDeux half-siblings living up in Alaska. LeDeuxs in the frozen north, what's the world coming to? Might take some of Lulu's famous Cajun gumbo to warm them up, who knows? In the meantime enjoy PEARL J

This book from Sandra Hill just continued proving to me how much I like her books. I actually read this out of order, but it didn't decrease my enjoyment at all. I wasn't sure how she was going to handle the whole "ex-Amish" thing, but it was handled with respect and realism, which I appreciated. And I totally adored all the characters in the book, including Claire, the complicated archaeologist Caleb has to work with. I like this branching off from the Cajun series Ms. Hill has and I can't wait for the next book!

If you loved her "Cajun" stories you are going to love this, Tante LuLu and Tee-John are in this one, and the things that woman will do!!! And it takes place in Amish country (PA) Caleb a shunned ex-amish and now ex-Navy Seal is the manager of this crew hired to find some cave pearls and maybe a stash of gold coins from a robbery back in the 18 hundreds. And he has to deal with Crazy Claire, a historical archaeologist. Only that becomes fun to do, but then his Amish family is around and you just have to read this to find out how all those sparks land. I love it and can't wait for the next "Wild Jinx" about Tee-John......

As always Sandra Hill delivers. The book is fast and funny. Thanks again Ms Hill.