Jason’s Gift
Shattered Peace
June 20, 2019A Story of Two Old 9×13 Pans
November 7, 2019
Jason's Gift
I n “Shattered Peace”, the first book of the Peace Ridge Village series, readers delighted in getting to know the friendly neighbors of Peace Ridge Village. It was like coming home to a peaceful, idyllic small-town where close knit neighbors lovingly accept one another, warts and all.
“Jason’s Gift” is the sequel to “Shattered Peace” featuring all the beloved characters: Pastor Ed Mitchell of Valley Community Church buries his own heartache to stand shoulder to shoulder with Bill Nelson as he faces the unimaginable. Romyn and Earl Randall, owners of the Crossroads Convenience Store, with their long-buried grief, discover new opportunities to give and love.
Delaney, the self-centered beautiful businesswoman, finds her world unexpectedly overturned. And Shiloh, the bright, sassy, ten-year-old that captured hearts in “Shattered Peace” encounters unexpected evil that threatens her beauty and innocence.
„“Our car meandered down a township road through meadows filled with Holsteins and occasionally fat, grazing sheep. The spring sky was unbelievably blue, the color of Heaven itself, we thought. We rolled down the windows so we could hear the birdsong and nearly slowed to a complete stop as the twittering wrens and robins sang their happy song to us. It seemed somehow rude to drive by without paying due attention. We slowly drove by a small pond rimmed by bushes and birch trees and thought of the meadow creatures who celebrated a happy peaceful life in that quiet small corner of the world. This was God’s land. This was God’s blessing on our journey. We knew we had to make the village by nightfall, but we were reluctant to leave this pastoral beauty.””
Book Two Excepts
R omyn turned the Open sign over to Closed and turned off the lights in the store. The Crossroads Convenience store had been quiet today, typical for a midwinter Tuesday in the rural Minnesota lakes area. Even the regular kaffeeklatsch didn’t show up today. Ol’ George was under the weather or he would have been in for sure as he rarely missed an opportunity to emcee.
It would have been a good time to do some of the year-end bookwork, but her energy had flagged. I guess I have a bit of SAD, she thought. I just want to run away to somewhere warm, too. Bill and Donna had taken a long weekend in Minneapolis where they were going to stay at a hotel with an indoor pool to get some relaxation time together. Maybe it’ll help them, Romyn thought. They need to reconnect, but it’ll take more than one weekend.
She triggered her remote car starter to get the SUV going before she fed Millie, the guard cat, and activated the security system. She walked around the store and checked all the doors, switching on the outdoor floodlight at the barn garage. An unfamiliar noise coming from the dumpster caused her to pause and listen carefully. She thought the scrabbling sound could be a feral cat. Sometimes they jumped up to check out meat scraps from cabin garbage. Bad as dogs sometimes, convenient road kill. The lid banged shut and all was quiet.
