Outside the Circle

Isaac Bowman is an outsider, but Lena Troyer makes the widower and his daughter feel like part of the community. So when a deer-poaching ring divides the town, Isaac vows to keep this gentle woman safe from harm…in spite of the danger to his heart.

Lena patiently coaxes young Ruby out of her grief with shared drawing lessons and gentle encouragement. Still haunted by the past he cannot undo, Isaac strives to build a secure home for his daughter—even as caution warns him against risking his feelings.

Night-time gunshots and slaughtered deer soon shatter the quiet woods around Mount Hope, but Lena refuses to look the other way. She speaks out against the community’s uneasy silence to protect her students…unmindful of the growing threat to her teaching post.

• Small Town Setting: Deep in the timbered hollows of Ohio, poachers stalk prized bucks with spotlight rifles, leaving elderly Wilfred Cummings’s secluded property caught in a dangerous crossfire.
• Found Family: Silent since her mother’s death three years ago, young Ruby relies on an erasable slate to communicate, slowly opening her heart as Lena helps bring warmth back to their home.
• Slow Burn: A gifted master wood-carver whose chisels coax delicate beauty from raw oak, Isaac fights his burgeoning feelings for Lena while wrestling with the guilt of his past.
• Also by This Author: Katie’s Redemption, The Amish Nanny and A Home for Hannah.