About the Book

Book: A Hidden Hope

Author: Suzanne Woods Fisher

Genre: Amish Fiction

Release Date: October 7, 2025

Supervising two newly minted medical residents might be the toughest challenge Ruth “Dok” Stoltzfus has ever faced. Wren Baker, sharp and ambitious, graduated at the top of medical school with a hidden agenda in tow. Charlie King, at the bottom of the class, is determined to succeed–though Dok isn’t convinced he’s got what it takes. Then there’s traveling nurse Evie Miller, whose quiet love for Charlie doesn’t go unnoticed, especially by Wren.

Boarding at Windmill Farm, the trio struggles to balance modern medicine with plain living. Between medical emergencies, cultural misunderstandings, and brewing romantic tensions, Dok finds herself juggling far more than she bargained for. Soon the stage is set in the small Amish community of Stoney Ridge for plenty of professional and personal complications.

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About the Author

Suzanne Woods Fisher is a Christy finalist, a Carol and Selah winner, a two-time ECPA Book of the Year finalist, and Publishers Weekly and ECPA bestselling author of more than forty books. Her genres include contemporary and historical romances and Amish fiction. Suzanne and her husband live in a small town in northern California. Most friends act a little nervous around her because they usually wind up in one of her novels. She has four grown children and enough grandchildren to keep her young.

More from Suzanne

The Kitchen Garden by Suzanne Woods Fisher

“Gardening is a way of showing that you believe in tomorrow.” Amish proverb

Whenever I visit my Amish friends, I always make a point of wandering out to their vegetable gardens to see what’s growing. Their gardens, usually not far from the kitchen, are bigger than most people’s backyards. Gardens, for the Amish, are a family affair. Husbands help their wives ready the soil and add the homebrewed fertilizer (ahem, manure), children help their moms plant, weed, and harvest.

Like so many parts of the Plain life, their value of the home garden—for the sake of nutrition, for sustenance, for well-being—is a wonderful example to those of us who weren’t farm-raised. They’ve been living a sustainable life filled with fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables for over four hundred years. The rest of us are just catching on.

One Amish mom told me a story about her daughter, the youngest of seven. “This girl was a born worrier. Whenever she started on her worry loop, I would send her out to weed in the garden. When she came back in, her worries were gone. There’s just something about weeding that helps a soul settle down.”

I could expand that thought a little further. There’s just something about gardening that helps a soul settle down.

So, it’s late on Saturday and I just wrapped up a very long week. I spoke at three book events and finished the first draft (the drafty-draft) of a novel. I can’t stop thinking about the novel. Is it a mess? As tired as I am, tonight I don’t think I’ve got one more word in me—not to speak, not to write. I’m spent! Done. My husband is out for the evening, so I had a few hours alone at home to relax.

What did I do?

I planted in my garden: lettuce and radishes and carrots. As I dug in the spongy soil, I could feel my soul settle. Worry and exhaustion slipped away as I scattered seeds into furrows. Little by little, that wonderful God-given sense of re-creation returned. Tomorrow, I would write again. Time spent in my little garden does that for me. It renews me and gives me a hope for the future.

Or, at the very least, a good salad.

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

On a sunny July morning, we were served this breakfast dish at an Amish friend’s home and my husband couldn’t stop talking about it. You might be shocked at the amount of eggs, but don’t skimp! It’s worth every bite.

12 slices bread cut in 1” cubes

8 oz. cream cheese cut in ¾” cubes

1 ½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries

12 eggs

1/3 cup maple syrup

2 cups milk

Place half the bread cubes in a 9×13 baking dish. Top with cream cheese blueberries and the remaining bread. Beat eggs, syrup and milk and pour evenly over bread.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until well done.

My Impressions

“But peace doesn’t come from trying to fix the wrong. It comes from trusting that God will handle it, in his time.”

Another return to Stoney Ridge with Dok Stoltzfus courtesy of Suzanne Woods Fisher? Yes, please! Fisher’s books are now auto-buys for me, and I especially love this little Amish village and its people.

In case the reader has forgotten some of the Stoney Ridge characters, or just needs a refresher since the last book, a list of characters with their personality traits is included at the front of the book. Yay!

Dok Stoltzfus has taken the first step towards lightening her workload. She applies for a resident. She gets not one, but two – very Englischer, very wet-behind the-ears doctors, Charlie and Wren. And one traveling nurse, Evie, with enough cultural background to understand the Stoney Ridge community. A battle of cultural sensitivity, professional respect, and emotional attachment ensue. Can any of these characters find the peace they are seeking in this environment?

A second main thread continued from the last book is about Annie, Dok’s Amish receptionist, who desperately wants to join her love interest in the EMT field. How I identified with Annie’s ailment! Yet, Annie refuses the obvious solution. Are her dreams and future destined to go up in smoke?

Yet a third intertwined thread deals with an emotional but medical condition, that because of its nature, many faiths, not just Amish, are reluctant to admit to or treat medically. How many people might slip through the cracks under the misguided guise of shaming the suffering individual into performing “normally”?

David Stoltzfus, the friendly, wise, and godly bishop (and brother to Dok) is an important secondary character. He discusses the need for justice when Wren is about to bulldoze her way to obtain it. “True peace can only come with justice.” -Wren “I agree with you,” David said, “but true justice can only come from God. Only he knows what’s in a person’s heart.” David also counsels his doctor sister many times, sometimes as her brother, sometimes as the community leader he is, looking out for his flock.

Two tertiary characters that help make the novel as great as it is? Both Lapps. Fern for her wisdom: “Holding out hope for too long is one thing . . .Giving up too soon is quite another.” Then there’s loud Hank! What chaos and humor he provides!

Discussion questions at the end help prolong the warm, special feels of the book and draw out the deeper themes for examination. Some of those themes: discovering one’s calling, finding true peace and justice, teachability, first impressions, and post-partum depression.

A great twist or two elevates this novel into the superb category. Highly recommended!!

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit via NetGalley. I also bought my own copy. No positive review was required, and all opinions are my own.

Notable Quotables:

“Good thing God doesn’t give up on us”– Charlie

“You have all the tools to be a good doctor, but to be a great one, you need to treat the person, not just the illness.”- Dok

“There’s no good that comes from being half a Christian. If you’re only halfway in, you’re just living burdened by rules, and you’re missing out on the blessings that faith brings. It’s like trying to drive a buggy with only two wheels.” – David

“Practicing medicine here was as much about relationships as treatment.”- Dok