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Seasons of Change #1
Come Next Winter
When her husband and youngest son are killed in a tragic accident, Carol Mason struggles to forge a new life for herself and her surviving sons. Though Vermont has been their home for twenty years, betrayal and misunderstanding force Carol to leave the mountains she loves and return to her hometown of Apache Pointe, Arizona. There she is welcomed by scorching heat, lizards, scorpions, and (gulp) Aunt Penny. Carol finds a sympathetic friend in her cousin Millie as she does her best to put the pieces of her shattered life back together.
But her prayers for guidance and a decent place to live away from Aunt Penny’s disapproving eye go unanswered. Has God turned a deaf ear to her just when she needs Him the most?
The answer might be found in the handsome pastor of her family’s church. Frank is everything she would look for in a spouse. If she were looking. Which she is not. Especially when she discovers that Millie has set her hopes on becoming the pastor’s next wife. Aunt Penny’s outrageous attempts to ensure that Millie wins Frank’s heart bring Carol’s past crashing into her present, and might destroy any chance she has at a happy future.
The writing team of Hanna and Dulworth deliver a story full of love and faith, and sprinkled with touches of humor that will have you wondering whether to laugh or cry.
But her prayers for guidance and a decent place to live away from Aunt Penny’s disapproving eye go unanswered. Has God turned a deaf ear to her just when she needs Him the most?
The answer might be found in the handsome pastor of her family’s church. Frank is everything she would look for in a spouse. If she were looking. Which she is not. Especially when she discovers that Millie has set her hopes on becoming the pastor’s next wife. Aunt Penny’s outrageous attempts to ensure that Millie wins Frank’s heart bring Carol’s past crashing into her present, and might destroy any chance she has at a happy future.
The writing team of Hanna and Dulworth deliver a story full of love and faith, and sprinkled with touches of humor that will have you wondering whether to laugh or cry.
275 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 1, 2017
585 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
April 11, 2017
I was either laughing or crying through this wonderful book! I was completely unfamiliar with these authors, but I can’t wait to read their next creation!!! Oh, my! So many interesting characters and quirky names of stores that made me giggle! Some of the lines that made me laugh: ”… does something crazy like buying a used camel and moving to the Empty Quarter of Abu Dhabi.” And: “his voice sounded like he regularly gargled with thumbtacks.” And: “We’re confident she has at least one redeeming quality, but none of us can quite put our finger on it. Dad says she has a black belt in verbal karate…” And there are so many more!
Then there is the serious side: tragedies, working through one’s grief, loneliness, healing of the heart, forgiveness, learning to trust, tolerance when someone is intolerable, ugly gossip, unjustified accusations, self-worth, love, … And, in the final words of Bob: “What does God have in store for us? …Reach for Me…” I would encourage everyone to read this book, and I can’t wait to see what the authors create next!!!!
Then there is the serious side: tragedies, working through one’s grief, loneliness, healing of the heart, forgiveness, learning to trust, tolerance when someone is intolerable, ugly gossip, unjustified accusations, self-worth, love, … And, in the final words of Bob: “What does God have in store for us? …Reach for Me…” I would encourage everyone to read this book, and I can’t wait to see what the authors create next!!!!
February 16, 2019
Come Next Winter proved to be so much more than I expected. Linda Hanna and Deborah Dulworth produced a narrative so compelling and realistic that I couldn't put it down until I had read the last word. I loved the integration of faith, a slew of character missteps and plot twists aplenty.
Aunt Penelope is a strong supporting character who adds a large dose of mean and crazy to the others who are trying to figure out their place in life. We learn a lot about Carol, Frank, Carol's parents, and Millie by their interactions with Penny. What a great, engrossing story this is! Highly recommended!
Aunt Penelope is a strong supporting character who adds a large dose of mean and crazy to the others who are trying to figure out their place in life. We learn a lot about Carol, Frank, Carol's parents, and Millie by their interactions with Penny. What a great, engrossing story this is! Highly recommended!
January 1, 2017
What a wonderful book! Touching, heart-wrenching, funny, inspirational, all rolled into one. I couldn't put it down (as a pre-reader)--and I can't wait for the second one. Great job!
March 6, 2017
Come Next Winter is a tale overflowing with strong emotions – love, sadness, fear, joy – that carries the reader along for the poignant ride!
When Carol faces a life-altering catastrophe, she must find a way to re-build her life with her sons, one still at home and the other away at college. It’s not an easy road she must travel, but with her faith strong and most of her family behind her, she takes each difficult step in creating joy and a full life again for herself and her boys.
From the snowy ski hills of Vermont to the flatlands of Arizona, readers will be drawn into the story of Carol and her teenage son Andy, meeting her Mom and Dad, aunt and uncle, cousin and even touching base with her older son Ethan when he’s home from school.
Starting over is never easy, but Carol trusts in God, makes friends, finds love and begins a new chapter in her life in Come Next Winter.
This inspirational novel is an easy read, with well-developed characters, realistic situations, and a pleasant style and voice. The author team smoothly combines life and conviction, love and redemption, family and faith. Pour a cup of tea, put your feet up and treat yourself to this first book in the Seasons of Change series.
When Carol faces a life-altering catastrophe, she must find a way to re-build her life with her sons, one still at home and the other away at college. It’s not an easy road she must travel, but with her faith strong and most of her family behind her, she takes each difficult step in creating joy and a full life again for herself and her boys.
From the snowy ski hills of Vermont to the flatlands of Arizona, readers will be drawn into the story of Carol and her teenage son Andy, meeting her Mom and Dad, aunt and uncle, cousin and even touching base with her older son Ethan when he’s home from school.
Starting over is never easy, but Carol trusts in God, makes friends, finds love and begins a new chapter in her life in Come Next Winter.
This inspirational novel is an easy read, with well-developed characters, realistic situations, and a pleasant style and voice. The author team smoothly combines life and conviction, love and redemption, family and faith. Pour a cup of tea, put your feet up and treat yourself to this first book in the Seasons of Change series.
November 17, 2016
I enjoyed reading this story although there were times that I felt like my heart was being torn apart. How does a woman cope when her husband and young son are suddenly snatched away in a freak accident? Can she survive all the gigantic hurdles that just keep arising in front of her? The story is full of great lessons about forgiveness, understanding, patience, and coping with the many struggles that people face on a regular basis, although most of us don't face as many in quick succession as she does. The co-authors have done a wonderful job of melding the lives of the characters into a story that is realistic. I hurt when they hurt and laughed when they laughed. The names of many of the business places were a hoot: Horatio’s Halibut Haven, Hollow Coyote Buffet, Hot Dog Hacienda, More-Bang-For-Your-Buck store, Sudsy-Wudsy Laundromat, and Ciao Down Pizza. I recommend you read this book. If you enjoy contemporary romance, humor, a good Christian message, and strong values, you will enjoy this one. I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
November 17, 2016
Come Next Winter offers a strong dose of comedy and a cast of quirky, whimsical characters that takes the reader on an emotional roller-coaster ride with Carol Mason and her loved ones. I cried. I grew angry at times by how others treated her. I cringed whenever the dragon of the family breathed fire and brimstone. But I also laughed, and even snorted out loud a time or two.
This story is such a powerful and inspirational message of hope and trust in the Lord, and reminds us of His promise not to spare us from dark times, but to support and strengthen each one as we travel difficult paths. So, do I recommend this book? As Aunt Penny would say, “Of course, I do!”
This story is such a powerful and inspirational message of hope and trust in the Lord, and reminds us of His promise not to spare us from dark times, but to support and strengthen each one as we travel difficult paths. So, do I recommend this book? As Aunt Penny would say, “Of course, I do!”
February 4, 2017
Come Next Winter, by Linda Hanna and Deborah Dulworth, has quite a cast of interesting characters. They all keep the plot moving forward, and I especially liked the development of the relationship between Frank and Andy. The characters deal with and resolve human doubts, hesitations, and misunderstandings in realistic ways. I would have liked to see more resolution with Aunt Penny's diagnosis and Millie's quest for the "right " man. The ending provides a satisfying surprise for readers. A great beach vacation read!
I was given this book by the publisher as an advance copy, with no expectation of a review, positive or otherwise.
I was given this book by the publisher as an advance copy, with no expectation of a review, positive or otherwise.
May 9, 2017
Love this book. Easy read. Recently I was fortunate to meet these fun and lovely spirited authors who live locally. I received a personalized signed copy at a luncheon where they discussed their years working toward getting published and how they go about getting their inspiration for their characters. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next 3 books in this collection of Carol, her family, and friends.
February 17, 2021
I wanted to like this Christian romance but I just could not. Most of the characters were so black and white. I was so sick of the main character not standing up for herself. At the minimum she should have reported what happened to her to stop it happening to someone else. Some characters were comically evil and predictable. One character flip flopped so much in her feelings toward and treatment of the main character that it just didn’t make sense.
November 21, 2016
Loved this book! Linda Hanna and Deborah Dulworth are a dynamite writing team the way they weave in tidbits of wisdom, humor, and drama throughout. I found myself hooked before I even got to chapter two. This duo has written a book worthy of anybody's keeper shelf.
January 2, 2017
I loved this story! The characters are real, and go through real-life situations. Tragedy, grief, family conflict, friendships broken. But they face these things with a firm faith in the God whose love never wavers. A beautiful tale of love, faith, and the happiness of second chances.
February 21, 2023
A mild rollercoaster of a read; it made me sad, then laugh, then sad again, and laugh again.
Mostly, Carol's story made me chuckle.
Carol Mason loses her pastor husband and their youngest son in an accident. The following months are a struggle for her and her teenage son Andy. Carol's prayers lead her to move across the country closer to her parents.
For the time being, Carol and Andy live with her Aunt Penny who is an abominable tyrant and who does not stop at anything to wreck Carol's growing friendship with Pastor Frank.
Quite an amusing story with a few serious notes here and there, plus an abundance of odd either alliterated, rhymed, or hyphenated names for local businesses or dishes. A couple of characters came across as extreme, and for the life of me, I could not understand why everyone cowered before Aunt Penny, the bully.
The book was entertaining enough for me to finish it; clean with a healthy dose of Christian element woven in.
Mostly, Carol's story made me chuckle.
Carol Mason loses her pastor husband and their youngest son in an accident. The following months are a struggle for her and her teenage son Andy. Carol's prayers lead her to move across the country closer to her parents.
For the time being, Carol and Andy live with her Aunt Penny who is an abominable tyrant and who does not stop at anything to wreck Carol's growing friendship with Pastor Frank.
Quite an amusing story with a few serious notes here and there, plus an abundance of odd either alliterated, rhymed, or hyphenated names for local businesses or dishes. A couple of characters came across as extreme, and for the life of me, I could not understand why everyone cowered before Aunt Penny, the bully.
The book was entertaining enough for me to finish it; clean with a healthy dose of Christian element woven in.
July 20, 2023
Good romance
This wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but was still a good book. I'm glad the authors showed that this couple didn't just forget their first spouses, but Carol's wanting her first husband's arms around her after she had fallen in love with Frank was wrong. Also her friend saying "well it's been a year so it's okay to fall in love." There is no time limit for loving or mourning. God knows what's in her hearts. Every person is different & noone should tell widows or widowers if & when it's okay to love again. It does involve Millie so much that I thought her problem would also be resolved. But this was just a prelude to her own story. But I felt like the author spent way too much on her story in this book. Still the book had some humor & I liked Frank & Andy a lot.
This wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but was still a good book. I'm glad the authors showed that this couple didn't just forget their first spouses, but Carol's wanting her first husband's arms around her after she had fallen in love with Frank was wrong. Also her friend saying "well it's been a year so it's okay to fall in love." There is no time limit for loving or mourning. God knows what's in her hearts. Every person is different & noone should tell widows or widowers if & when it's okay to love again. It does involve Millie so much that I thought her problem would also be resolved. But this was just a prelude to her own story. But I felt like the author spent way too much on her story in this book. Still the book had some humor & I liked Frank & Andy a lot.
June 23, 2019
The basic plot of this book is nice. It's a romance between a pastor's widow and a widower pastor. But several things were overdone to the point it made it less appealing to me. Most of all it featured at least two characters who were incredibly mean-spirited. Hard-to-believe, overdone, over-the-top mean-spirited. The plot would have been much stronger if their obnoxiousness was more subtle and these characters had some redeeming qualities. Also every place anyone went, every product anyone bought, had a cute little name to it. Each name by itself was cute, but there were far too many of them. The characters also winked a lot, far more than normal. Had these aspects been more subtle, the book would have been more believable and merited a higher star rating from me.
January 29, 2018
This novel was my first from Linda Hanna, and it was decent but overly long. I know that some like the extra, detailed oriented novels, but sometimes a story needs to break and become it's own. I feel like "Come Next Winter" had two very good story-lines mashed together into one tiny package.
This novel was excellent when it comes to making everything match up, the cousins lives were woven together in a way that only a skilled writer could put together. There was a handsome knight in shining armor, a crazy mother/aunt, and two women with their hearts on the line for the same man. Who will end up with the happily ever after? Will the misguided mother/aunt have her way?
This novel was excellent when it comes to making everything match up, the cousins lives were woven together in a way that only a skilled writer could put together. There was a handsome knight in shining armor, a crazy mother/aunt, and two women with their hearts on the line for the same man. Who will end up with the happily ever after? Will the misguided mother/aunt have her way?
February 17, 2023
Wow, this was a great story with so many different challenges for Carol and her sons. It was so sad that she lost both her youngest son and her husband in a snowmobile accident-I can't even imagine how hard that would be to live with. And Carol feels responsible as she had volunteered her husband to go with the young people, which she usually didn't do plus had agreed her son could go even though she was young. Then she has to rely on her friend and the friend's jerk of a husband for a place to live. When he oversteps, she ends up giving him a black eye-good for her! It killed me that the friend's husband lied to her and made it like Carol was the one who overstepped. And that the friend believed her dirtbag husband despite the fact that she had been suspecting he was cheating on her.
I was glad when Carol finally came to her senses and moved away to live near her parents and work in their store. Then she has problems with her crazy aunt. Aunt Penny is so awful that I wonder what her husband ever saw in her. I couldn't believe both the husband and daughter put up with her cruel ways for years without trying to get help for her. It was nice seeing Carol get to know and fall in love with her pastor. Happy ending.
I was glad when Carol finally came to her senses and moved away to live near her parents and work in their store. Then she has problems with her crazy aunt. Aunt Penny is so awful that I wonder what her husband ever saw in her. I couldn't believe both the husband and daughter put up with her cruel ways for years without trying to get help for her. It was nice seeing Carol get to know and fall in love with her pastor. Happy ending.
November 18, 2025
What a beautiful story! Opens with sadness, moves onto frustration, continues with hope and ends with love. That’s the story. Actually, you may want to read this, I wanted to stay up to try to finish. However, it would have been around 5am before I finished (I wasn’t that far into it!). Decided to wait until today to finish. Love the Bible verses and how these authors wrote some of the characters. Wanted to destroy Penny- what an obnoxious crazy woman. These characters can illicit strong feelings. Both good and unhappy ones. Great book!
December 17, 2017
Changes
This book is delightful. The characters were believable and more human like than most romance novels. I especially liked the way the characters would take any problems they had to God in prayer.
All the characters were not perfect by any means. Knowing it is as simple to ask for God's guidance with our day to day journey as it is to breathe helps those of us who have not set this practice in motion.
This book is delightful. The characters were believable and more human like than most romance novels. I especially liked the way the characters would take any problems they had to God in prayer.
All the characters were not perfect by any means. Knowing it is as simple to ask for God's guidance with our day to day journey as it is to breathe helps those of us who have not set this practice in motion.
December 22, 2021
Christian Contemporary Romance
These are new authors for me. It was a good story, with a a few laugh out loud moments!
The narrator started to grow on me, but his cadence is my biggest complaint. No sentence actually sounded the way someone would naturally speak. It was very stilted. Aunt Penny was played out perfectly though! Her shrill voice and obnoxious personality were evident and were always accomplished with a heightened volume for her character voice!
These are new authors for me. It was a good story, with a a few laugh out loud moments!
The narrator started to grow on me, but his cadence is my biggest complaint. No sentence actually sounded the way someone would naturally speak. It was very stilted. Aunt Penny was played out perfectly though! Her shrill voice and obnoxious personality were evident and were always accomplished with a heightened volume for her character voice!
December 6, 2021
Seasons Of Change Series, Bk. 1, EBk-M, Kindle, @ 2017, Read 12/5/21. Fiction, Christian, Family Drama. A Vermont woman suddenly loses her Reverend husband and youngest son in a snowmobile accident, and she must put her life back together again, for herself and her two remaining sons. 2☆'s = Okay. Sad but reaffirming.
January 9, 2023
Carol lost her pastor husband of twenty-three years in a snowmobile accident as well as her youngest son. Moved into garage apartment belonging to friends. Eventually moved to Arizona where parents lived. Frank is pastor of church in Arizona and had lost his wife due to illness. Lots praying and scriptures. Good clean book.
September 5, 2023
Loved this novel!
Debrah Dulworth and Linda Hanna did a marvelous job on this great book. The book takes off as a Carol, a preacher’s wife, had allowed her husband to chaperone a youth trip. Two of her sons accompany him. The husband and one of the sons are killed. It goes from there. Jeanette Stracner
Debrah Dulworth and Linda Hanna did a marvelous job on this great book. The book takes off as a Carol, a preacher’s wife, had allowed her husband to chaperone a youth trip. Two of her sons accompany him. The husband and one of the sons are killed. It goes from there. Jeanette Stracner
October 9, 2018
This was a sweet book. I was happily surprised by it. The relationships seemed to grow pretty naturally, which was nice. The awfulness that was her Aunt Penny was interesting, for sure.
3 1/2 - 4 stars, mostly because it wasn’t super-close to what I normally like to read.
3 1/2 - 4 stars, mostly because it wasn’t super-close to what I normally like to read.
January 1, 2023
Nice inspirational romance
I enjoyed this story overall. There were a few points I wish the authors would have expounded on a bit, but the characters are genuine and relatable, the story heartfelt and believable.
I enjoyed this story overall. There were a few points I wish the authors would have expounded on a bit, but the characters are genuine and relatable, the story heartfelt and believable.
January 23, 2023
Loved this book. It made me feel as if these were real people. It reminded me of Jan Karon's books. I laughed and cried and stayed up because i hated to put it down once I started reading it. Thanks to these authors for a beautiful loving story.
September 5, 2023
Read the novel. Knew that this book had a death. Carol had agreed that her husband could be a chaperone for a youth night. Her husband and one of her sons were killed. The story begins—-! Very good. Jeanette Stracner
December 8, 2017
Really nice story
I enjoyed this book very much. At times I was angry but I learned to enjoy each character and situation often connecting with them. Loved it.
I enjoyed this book very much. At times I was angry but I learned to enjoy each character and situation often connecting with them. Loved it.
December 22, 2017
Good
this book is a great way to start your Christmas reading and thinking about how the Lord s plan changes life.
this book is a great way to start your Christmas reading and thinking about how the Lord s plan changes life.
January 9, 2018
Really liked all the characters even the mean old Aunt. Will read the next book in the series.
December 31, 2022
Not for me. Sentimental slush
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews