Book excerpt: A young Amish woman is torn between the man she’s pledged to marry and the man her heart desires in Shelley Shepard Gray’s The Promise of Palm Grove. Bride-to-be Leona is thrilled to be on a mini-vacation in the pretty town of Pinecraft. Her girlfriends think she’s happy to be away from the stress of wedding planning; they have no idea that Leona’s real joy is in being away from her fiancé. Edmund is a good man and will make a decent husband . . . just not for Leona. The more time she spends with him and his overbearing ways, the less she wants to be his wife. But when a chance encounter with a wayward cat brings her face-to-face with a handsome, fun-loving Amish man named Zachary Kauffman, Leona’s faced with two vastly different futures. And now Leona must decide: Does she follow the path set out before her? Or take a chance with only the promise of what could be to guide her? “Shelley Shepard Gray writes with honesty, tenderness, and depth. Her characters are admirable, richly-layered, and impossible to forget.” —New York Times bestselling author Jillian Hart The Brides of Pinecraft The Promise of Palm Grove The Proposal at Siesta Key A Wedding at the Orange Blossom Inn A Christmas Bride in Pinecraft