Just this week, I received my copy of Dianne Christner’s new book, Something Blue, in the mail. The official launch date is August 1, so I always feel a guilty pleasure about reading a book that is not available yet to the rest of the world. I have to thank Dianne for affording me this lovely luxury!

Something Blue follows the story of Megan Weaver, the third member of the “Three Bean Salad” who we were introduced to with her friends Katy Yoder and Lil Landis in Something Old and Something New, the first two books in the Plain City Bridesmaids series.

These stories are lovely romances that invite readers into a world of faith and family and a view of falling in love “the Mennonite way.” Set here in Plain City, the books feature many landmarks recognizable to anyone who has journeyed our highways and back roads (Something Blue even includes the July Fourth parade downtown!). The books also bring to life many characters that Plain City residents will find familiar, even if they were not raised in the Mennonite church.

The stories’ appeal, however, beyond the setting and the interesting lead ladies, lies in the common struggles each young woman faces to find love and happiness–battles that all of us encounter regardless of our faith or background.

Megan Weaver’s struggle is presented in the choice she must make between two men in her life–the new interim pastor of Big Darby Conservative Mennonite Church, Micah Zimmerman, who she has an unsettling past with, or the non-Mennonite missionary pilot, Chance Campbell, who acts as her temporary boss at Char Air, the charity airlines she works for. With Micah, Megan will stay within the bounds of her Mennonite family and church. With Chance, she will fly off on new adventures well beyond the Mennonite world.

I think it is telling that Dianne chooses the names she does for the two men: Micah means “one who is like God,” while Chance definitely is a big chance, a leap into the unknown.

I am happy to now know the stories of all three of Dianne’s Plain City bridesmaids. I can’t wait to see where Dianne’s writing will go from here. Will she stay in Plain City, Ohio, following the characters we have grown to love? Or will she lead us on other magical journeys to places a bit farther from home?

In any case, I’ll be waiting for her next book–no matter where it takes me.

You can read the review I wrote about the second book in the series, Something New HERE.

And “Like” Dianne and The Plain City Bridesmaids series on Facebook HERE.