Virginia Autumn (The Sinclair Legacy #2)

It is imperative to read Shenandoah Home first as this is a sequel to Book One. Jacob Sinclair, a skilled carpenter furniture maker, has three daughters that he has reared as as widower. Meredith, married to Benjamin Walker, a successful businessman, and little Samuel live in the top floor of one of their luxurious resort hotels in the Shenandoah Vally where they entertain their guests during the summer tourist season. Garnet, Dr. Sloan MacAllister, their sons Robbie and Daniel continue to live in the Shenandoah Valley where Sloam's medical practice is thriving. But Leah, now age 25, has a teaching career in Richmond, VA and is convinced that she will be a spinster school teacher. During the summer the family converge on the Walker's Stillwaters Resort to visit one another. Leah bumps into Cade Beinger, friend of the family, at the train station. From here starts a journey that Leah could never have anticipated. One promised to shake her emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. With an overturned stage coach, run away horses and unplanned over night wilderness camping stirs the drama that Leah and Cade experience that summer. Then Benjamin's old nemesis appears to cause serious trouble in the community. Cade's involvement puts his life in jeopardy. Even Leah's hard countenance is penetrated when Cade is abducted. She learns to trust and to overcome her fears in order to rescue and protect her injured beau. While at Stillwaters, Jacob meets the widow, Fiona Carlton. While she is a mysteriously veiled and private person, Jacob is drawn to her reticense. As with her older sisters, Leah, also has a heartwood chest but she is confounded by the item that Jacob put in the secret comparment. Her interpretation is totally the opposite of what Jacob intended. That discovery leads him to the revelation of Leah's heart wretching grief and pain from the loss of her mother at the age of four. It is also the pain that has kept Leah from giving her heart in full trust and faith to her God and to Cade. Even as Jacob's and Fiona's relationship is developing, Cade's and Leah's disintegrates into a serious misunderstanding. This is a most poignant story of love not only between a man and a woman but the very nature and character of who God is. Even when strongly devote believers enter a time frustating doubt and confusion, God's nature of love never changes. He is always there, always. This was one book I had to read the ending a second to absorb the magnitude to the Truth written there. That fallen man is welcomed into the arms of a loving God even as Cade and Leah were able to open their arms to welcome each back in forgiveness. A truly dyanamic story wrapped around the lives of the Sinclair family and the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. What a legacy!

is a combination of Lori Wick and Lucy Maude Montgomery. Mrs. Mitchell's descriptions of the landscapes in the Shenandoah Valley makes you feel as though you can see it. The daughter Leah is a teacher at a girls college. She firmly believes this is her lifes calling, and counts out the slightest possibility of romance or getting married. The father, a widower, also counts out the possibility of romance because of his age. With all of his daughters grown and gone, he is becoming very lonely. Entering Mrs. Mitchell's world in "Virginia Autumn" is quite an experience. I haven't read book one yet, "Shenadoah Home". I'm very anxious to read it to see how these girls grew up. It would probably be better read in sequence. BUT ITS GREAT!!!