A review by debs4jc
Waiting for Summer's Return by Kim Vogel Sawyer

summer's life does not reflect the brightness of her name. in route to oklahoma, her husband and children were all stricken with typhoid and died. now summer is all alone in the german/mennonite community of gaeddert, ks, where she doesn't even share the language or religon of her neighbors. yet she is an orphan and estraged from her other relations so she has no where else to go. besides, she still feels tied to the row of graves where her family lies. so when a local farmer offers to have her stay in his shariah (shed) and tutor his injured son she feels she has no choice but to take him up on his offer. the predictable romance between summer and the widowed father then runs its course throughout the rest of the novel, as well as the spiritual redemption of the main character. the best part of this book was the depiction of gaeddert and it's people, especially the bits of low german sprinkled throughout. the author was good about incorporating this but not making it hard to follow. as a kansasan who had at least heard of this community, it made it all the more interesting to learn more about it.