This was a very good story. I enjoyed how Ms. Gould brought the worlds of the Amish and the Menonites together. I also loved how Brenna had such a heart for service. She wanted to help those around her. The character development in many of the characters was deep and enjoyable.

I will be seeking more by this author.

Thank you, Netgalley and Bethany House, for this opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review.

This Passing Hour by Leslie Gould is the second book in the Amish Memories series. It can be read as a standalone. I thought This Passing Hour was well-written with developed characters. I did not like the main characters, Brenna and Rylan. Brenna is a young woman with numerous issues. She certainly showed more patience than I would have with Rylan. Brenna has a great family. They could be a wonderful support system if she would allow them. There are many times when Brenna pushes them away and does not share her true feelings. I did not understand why she moved into an apartment with her sister if she preferred living on the farm. If the farm made her feel safe, Brenna should have spoken up. Rylan is the type of person that I cannot stand to be around. He is manipulative and cruel. He finds himself in a situation of his own making (I believe Rylan feels he does not have to follow rules). I did not understand why his army friends continued to hang around him. I understand turning the other cheek and showing God’s grace through actions. However, there is only so much abuse one person can take. I found both characters to be depressing. I did feel there were some inaccuracies in the research regarding the VA and the Reserves. I did find the World War II portion of the story more compelling. POWs were needed to work the farms with the men away fighting the warm. However, it could be dangerous especially for those Americans of German descent or who spoke German. The pacing in This Passing Hour was sluggish. There is a good wrap up at the end of the story. While I admire Leslie Gould’s writing skills, I am not a fan of This Passing Hour. I will, though, look forward to reading Leslie Gould’s next book.

This Passing Hour is the second installment from Leslie Gould's delightful series, Amish Memories. I loved it and am giving it Five stars.

This is the second in the Amish Memories series. This dual timed story is set in the WWII era and around 2018. Brenna, a Mennonite young woman is living with her Amish grandparents putting her life back together after her parents fatal accident. When classmate, Rylan asks for a ride to class, Brenna faces an upheaval in her life. Mental health is greatly emphasised in this novel. I enjoyed the historical time period must more than the modern one. I felt that he author's biased view of the billionaire president, the Make America Great slogan and fate of democracy jabs were not appropriate especially in the current atmosphere. Rylan had tremendous issues but I felt he sucked the life out of the story with his snarky attitude. Hopefully the next in the series will not be so heavy throughout.

Brenna is having a hard time dealing with the death of her parents. Her great grandmother begins to tell her a story about her relatives during the second world war. Through this story Brenna is able to move on to live her life.

A dual narration of the past and current events. Current events before covid and past events during world war 2.

Mennonite Brenna Zimmerman is now living in Lancaster County. Leaving her home in Oregon after her parents were killed (Amish Memories of #1). Brenna has been going therapy to overcome the anxiety and the many emotions she is finding hard to deal with. Going to school she befriends a injured vet who has a chip on his shoulder. However, befriending him turns into a disaster when he suffers an accident on her families farm and he threatens to sue. The family encourages Brenna to show kindness to Rylan Sanders. During this difficult time of her emotions being triggered once again, she seeks wisdom from her aunt who shares a story of great grandparent during World war II. How their stories are not so different.

I have some issues with this. It turned political by mentioning the slogan "to make America great again as a threat. Of course, the hatred of Trump that his name is not mentioned but is very obvious. I understand the dislike. However, history will judge him just as history as judged Hitler. There is no comparison and I am surprised that this is indicated. It ruined the story line for me.

A special thank you to Bethany House and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

This Passing Hour by Leslie Gould is the second book of the Amish Memories series. It can be read as a standalone, but I am sure reading the first in the series would give you more insight to these interesting characters.

This was a very different Amish, Mennonite, book than any I have read but, the story is very well written. Leslie Gould gives us a lot of historical information about WWII, that most of us would not know otherwise, because of her knowledge of history, she was able to share that with us. I think this was well delivered in this split time story.

The characters are all well-developed and feel very real. I did not like Rylan because of his demeaning personality, but really like to see him mature into a better person. Brenna Zimmerman is Mennonite while her grandparents are Amish, Rylan and his friends are English. What a hodgepodge of individuals.

This is an amazing story that shows us how to offer forgiveness and patience to the unloveable and learn thankfulness for all our blessings.

Thank you Bethany House Publishers for allowing me to read this very interesting book. I recommend it Highly. I was not required to leave a positive review.

This is the second book of the Amish Memories series. While this book could be considered a standalone book, I would highly recommend reading the first one. It would just help knowing all of the characters better.
Brenna Zimmerman is still having problems dealing with her parents death. She tends to be drawn inward. She tries to befriend a fellow classmate Rylan Sanders who always seems to be angry and sullen. After being hurt at Brenna's Amish grandparent's store, Rylan wants to sue.
This is a book of love, forgiveness and patience when dealing with the most unforgiving person. Love can conquer.

This was a very different Amish book than any I have read. It was written as a split timeline, sometimes making it hard to follow. I am not a fan of split timelines, so that may have been why I had a hard time following some of the book. I would only recommend this book if the reader is a fan of this type of book.

It was interesting learning tidbits of history of the Amish and their parts sometime played in World War !!. I had never heard of these aspects of the Amish.

I received a copy of the book from NetGalley and Bethany House. The opinions expressed are my own.

The novel has 2 story lines. One in the present and the other at the end of the 2nd World War. The present day narrative involves a young woman navigating the realities of her parents death, plans for the future, family relationships, college, and helping a classmate after an accident. The WWII narrative occurs on the family dairy farm and focuses on the family running the farm, German POWS, and a tiny thread relating to spies or spying. While the story lines were interesting, I found the characters to be rather one dimensional, with one characteristic overwhelming everything else about each character and found I couldn't really identify with anyone. Everyone in the book seemed to be worried about one thing or another and were constantly fretting about something - although there are some pretty big events in the story line to be worried about. Ultimately, both story lines resolved satisfactorily and the 2 two stories were interwoven well with some applications from the WWII story for the present day story line.

Leslie Gould is a good writer. This is probably one of the books that I'm just not "head over heels" in love with and that's okay.

Rylan is the kind of character that drives me nuts. He sounds very manipulative and even bipolar at times. It's a huge turn-off, but Leslie Gould brought him to life in such a real way that I have a very strong dislike for him. Yes, he has a very sad background, but he treats people horribly wrong and I just want to smack him down for that.

Brenna is a lovely young woman who has had a sad background as well. Unlike Rylan, she has a much stronger support system and it shows. She's fairly transparent about her feelings, but she has unbelievable patience when it comes to dealing with Rylan. I don't think I could have shown nearly as much patience or grace for him. Actually, I think I would have washed my hands of him long ago. Yes, Jesus expects us to follow the Golden Rule, but He never expected us to be doormats.

I'm assuming that the next book will focus more on Brenna and Johann. I think it'll be interesting.

This Passing Hour by Leslie Gould is the second book in the Amish Memories series and is just as entertaining as the first!

Rosene is still telling her stories, only this time she shares them with Brenna, and as before, Rosene's stories help the character listening (in this case, Brenna) to make decisions that will help her in her personal life.

Brenna is still suffering mentally and emotionally from the accident that killed her parents. As she deals with her own trauma, she meets Rylan, a veteran who is also dealing with his own problems. I didn't like Rylan one bit. Not even after he changed. The author made me hate him so much that I had no empathy for him when everything came to light about why he was such a jerk. Perhaps it was because I have someone like Rylan in my family, and dealing with this person is so exhausting that I had to cut them out of my life for my own sanity. There is only so much abuse at the hands of another that a person can take. Brenna is clearly made of stronger stuff than I am, as is the rest of her family. While they did show Christ-like behaviour, I'm not sure how realistic it was.

I enjoyed Rosene's stories about Martha during WWII. I had no idea farms in the U.S. used German POWs for labour during that time. I love learning history like that!

While this book can be read as a standalone, I highly recommend you read the first book in the series, as it will help you understand Rosene and Brenna better.

If you love Amish fiction and WWII stories combined with a bit of romance, you will want to pick up this book!

I received a complimentary copy courtesy of Bethany House through NetGalley for my honest opinion.

The Passing Hour by Leslie Gould

Summary:
After the death of her parents, Mennonite Brenna Zimmerman relocates to the Lancaster County farm of her Old Order Amish grandparents. There, she befriends Rylan Sanders, a disabled veteran, and commits to rising above her own grief to help him as much as she can. But when things take a turn for the worse, Brenna finds herself at a loss for what to do.

As Brenna struggles, her Mennonite friend Johann Mazur, a soldier in the Ukrainian Army, encourages her to distance herself from Rylan. But when she discovers that Rylan's army buddies are withholding secrets that could help with his psychological healing, Brenna is torn between her feelings for Johann and her commitment to help Rylan.

Inspired by the story of her distant relative who served with the Red Cross and supervised German POWs during World War II, Brenna considers her own future and must decide whether she has the courage to give up the comforts she craves for the life she truly wants.

Review 3-Star
The story as a whole is very well written. The characters are all well-developed and feel real. The editing is spot on. Now this is why only the 3-star review lacks research on how the VA works along with how the Reserves work. As a veteran who first served as a reservist and then on active duty, I understand how both works. In this day and age, it’s so easy to find the information or find someone who is willing to give you that insight. First when you join the reserves you have twelve months to complete basic training and yes you can go to reserves meetings before you go to basic training and then your job training but you don’t get paid and you can’t use the GI-Bill as that don’t become activated until you’ve been in for a full year that’s after basic and your job training and you aren’t eligible for deployment until you’ve completed both your basic and job training. Now for the VA. I’ve never heard of a case worker. When you start the process to be seen at the VA you are signed to a medical team and all questions go through that team, if they can’t answer the question, they will refer you to whatever part of the VA they think will have the answers you are looking for. Please take the time to do the research.

I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review.

Amish romance is my favourite genre, and I was excited to read this.

I emphasised with Brenna immediately. I have always been out of step with those around me, tender-hearted, I feel every injustice as if it were directed at me. As a foster mum, I want to wrap everyone in love and compassion and show them that they do matter, regardless of what they think of themselves. I was rooting for Brenna from the get go.

I have never been a fan of dual timelines, but it works well in this case.

A solid read, set within the backdrop of the Amish community’s faith, demonstrated throughout this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest opinions.

Wow! What a story!
Lessons learned never assume anything about anyone! Especially when you don’t know their story!
Quote for the day;
“That we can’t assume we know someone’s story, or even who they really are.” “And we should always live our values but also use our imaginations.
I didn't like Rylan from the get go because I thought of him as a jerk. But as the quote says we never really know that person unless they want us to know them.
Fear is the big factor here. Fear Is a strong emotion just as love is and I equally admired Brenna for her compassion and love shown to others.
Gould writes an amazing story as always and I just now finished this wonderful story.
Gould has really made me stop and think about others. What's their story? I will never look at someone the same again.
Just as the Lord says we shouldn't judge others. That's His job.
But being human sometimes we can't help ourselves as Arden cooley points out.
I loved how he stayed calm, cool, and collected throughout the whole ordeal. Mammi too. It showed their trust in God that's He'd work things out to their benefit.
I really loved this story best! I liked Brenna's character.
My favorite was the example of prayer that was shown around the dinner table. I wish more families would do that. Maybe the world would be a better place for it. Who know? Only the Lord does. Just trust in Him to get you through the storms in life.
I consider life one big adventure just like Martha.
I happily give this book 5 stars. I highly recommend it.
My thanks to Netgalley and Bethany House for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.