Gathering the Threads (2017) by Cindy Woodsmall is the final novel in The Amish of Summer Grove series. This novel comes in all forms including eBook, and is 352 pages in length. With a full-time job and a five-year old at home, this novel took me three days to read. I received a copy of the novel from WaterBrook Press; all opinions expressed in this review are my own. I give this novel 5 STARS. This novel is a Contemporary Amish novel.

Here is the Goodreads blurb:

After three months ofdraus in da Welt, Ariana has returned to Summer Grove, the Old Order Amish community where she was raised for twenty years, and life with her Brenneman family. Skylar Nash, the Englisch-raised young woman is working in Ariana’s cafe while getting to know her birth family and their Plain way of life. Skylar’s time in Summer Grove has changed her outlook, just as Ariana has grown to see her personal faith in God in a different light than the manner she was taught while growing up. Both women will have to make decisions about their paths and Ariana must decide what role her childhood friend, ex-Amish Quill Schlabach, will play in her life.

What a fantastic way to end a series! As with book 2, the action in this story is fast-paced; I had a rather difficult time putting this book down! In fact, I’m not sure if my family ate dinner last night or not. Oops! This story allowed me to engage with it in a highly emotional manner. A couple of times I cried, and a few times I wanted to throw the book across the room to get away from the religious legalism and the small-mindedness of certain men and women that is illustrated in the book. Woodsmall is an excellent writer, not just because her characters and plots are so well written, but because she gets the reader to wrestle with real life issues. I love a book that makes you question your beliefs, ethics, relationship with God and with other people. I love when a book holds up a mirror and makes you realize things about yourself you thought were hidden or not there at all. This novel really did this for me in spades!

I struggled with the Amish theology A LOT throughout the reading of these three books, and found myself very frustrated by the Amish men and women who blindly followed what the bishop said to follow. I don’t know a lot about the Amish culture other than what I’ve learned through main-stream media, Wikipedia, an episode of X-Files (LOL!), and some basic teaching by the nuns at my very Catholic elementary school when I was a little girl, but I do know that submission is a big deal. Even as a little kid, I have always balked at the notion of submission as it is presented by worldly standards. There’s a good kind of submission, and then there is a bad kind of submission. Ariana has just received permission to come back to the home she knows, and she is doing it 9 months earlier than expected. At first, this feels like a big win to Ariana, but almost within minutes of returning home her Amish father, Isaac, starts in on her. His goal is to break her new will (which, by the way, is just her questioning things) and get her back to that rigid, submissive dogmatist she was before she met her biological mother and father. Oh my goodness, there were moments I disliked Isaac intensely. And the bishop was just straight up mean! Godly submission does NOT mean someone blindly following some man’s dictates because the community thinks God put him in charge. If God wanted that, He wouldn’t have given us brains that could think, and He wouldn’t have told us, “Test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22). But, God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us all brains so we all can read our Bibles and test His words and choose for ourselves. Then we know how to fully submit to God with a loving heart. The Bible is not a weapon. Having certain Bible verses bashed over our heads in an attempt to gain worldly submission, according to 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 is actually evil. Ok, I will step off my soap box now! Hehehe!

Ariana does realize that her community, especially the women in her community, have been subjugated by the current bishop. Ariana learns that at all times, even if it goes against her Amish parents, her Englisch parents, her church community, and her boyfriend, she has to follow God’s path for her. And, Ariana fights from page 1 till the end to do just that. I found Ariana to be an amazingly genuine and brave character. Ariana evolves from a rigid girl in book 1 into the type of God-fearing woman we all should strive to be. And, it was a joy to watch her grow in her walk with Christ. She is such a beautifully written character!

This book does tie everything together nicely. And, justice is served by the end of the novel. Skylar does grow up, overcome her real problems with the help of her new community, and becomes a really amazing adult. Abram and Cilla have a happy ending, but even they realize that for them to be the couple God wants them to be, they will have to do things a little differently than the Amish church typically allows. In the end, no matter who you are, following God’s plans will lead to the happily ever after He wants for you.

I love this book and highly recommend it. Be prepared for an emotional roller-coaster ride! If you are interested in this book, and would like the opportunity to read it for free, click here!

Fraying at the Edge (2016) by Cindy Woodsmall is the second novel in The Amish of Summer Grove series. This novel comes in all forms including eBook, and is 352 pages in length. With a full-time job and a five-year old at home, this novel took me four days to read. I received a copy of the novel from WaterBrook Press; all opinions expressed in this review are my own. I give this novel 5 STARS. This novel is a Contemporary Amish novel.

Here is the GoodReads blurb:

The Old Order Amish life Ariana Brenneman loved vanished virtually overnight with the discovery that she was switched at birth twenty years ago. Now she’s immersed in the Englischer world, getting to know her mother, and under the authority of her biological father, an atheist intellectual with resolute plans to expand Ariana’s worldview. Only Quill Schlabach, a childhood friend living Englisch, can help steady Ariana’s tilting ground between the two worlds, but can she trust him after so many betrayals?

At the same time, Skylar Nash is forced to choose rehab or spend several months with her true relatives, the large Brenneman family and their seemingly backward life–no electricity, no technology, no fun. What the young woman can’t leave behind is her addiction to illegal prescription drugs and a deep emptiness from the belief that she doesn’t belong in either family. New ties are binding Ariana and Skylar to the lives they were meant to have. Can they pray for the wisdom and strength they’ll need to follow God’s threads into unexpected futures?

I very much enjoyed this novel. The action is fast-paced, the conflicts are exceptionally well written, and the characters are genuine!

The main characters in this novel are Ariana, Skylar, and Quill, and the narration switches between the three of them. Of the three characters, I feel the most for Ariana. Ariana has been raised Amish for the past 20 years. Now, her biological father, Nicholas, is forcing her out of what she knows in an attempt to de-Amish her. Nicholas uses every secular thing he can to persuade Ariana to rethink God, the Bible, and her strict Amish order. I felt horrified for Ariana as she was being forced to do things she didn’t feel comfortable with. Nicholas gives Ariana a bucket list of things to do before he will let her back to her Amish family. One of the mandates is for her to go to a bar. She isn’t even 21! And, she has no life skills to protect her from bar patrons. Thank goodness for Quill who does save the day, but this really made it hard for me to respect Nicholas. He is so adamant to prove that his atheistic beliefs are the only beliefs that he forgets to see Ariana as his child and puts her into some seriously scary situations. Over the course of the novel, Ariana does reassess herself as a woman and as a daughter of God, BUT she holds fast to her relationship with God, which helps her overcome her earthly father’s seemingly harsh dictates. I really, truly loved this the most about Ariana.

One minor character I loved in this book is Cameron. Cameron is Skylar’s stepsister, now Ariana’s. Cameron is smart and witty and sarcastic. At first, this rubs Ariana the wrong way because Cameron is sort of making fun of Ariana’s “backward” ways. Ariana stands up to Cameron, and they eventually become really close. I hope this relationship continues in the final book because I really found Cameron to be a sweetheart! She becomes a helper to Ariana, which makes navigating in this scary modern world a little less intense for Ariana.

There is so much to talk about with this book! I stopped my husband in his tracks a few times to discuss many of the various topics this book brings up. One issue I really appreciated about this book is the need for strong faith and learning how to suss out fact from fiction. When you have a true faith in God, you can truly overcome anything because you are able to lean into God in all times. Ariana overcomes her conflicts with her earthly father because she truly loves God and knows that He is there to comfort her. Once she realizes this she is able to stand up for herself and decide what is true, what thinking needs to be changed, and what beliefs she absolutely must hold fast to no matter what anyone says. I genuinely appreciate Ariana’s journey throughout this novel. It reminds me a lot of my own walk with God, and the things I have had to overcome to get to the point where I am today.

This novel is beautifully written. The characters are excellent, and what they all go through definitely pulls at the heartstrings. I highly recommend this novel, and look forward to book three in the series. If you are interested in this novel, and would like the opportunity to read this book for free, click here!

Ties That Bind (2015) by Cindy Woodsmall is the first book in The Amish of Summer Grove series. This novel comes in all forms including eBook, and is 339 pages in length. With a full-time job and a precocious five-year old at home, this book took me three days to read. I received a copy of the novel from WaterBrook Press; all opinions expressed in this review are my own. I give this novel 3.5 STARS. This novel is a Contemporary Amish novel.

Here is the GoodReads blurb:

Ariana’s comfortable Old Order Amish world is about to unravel. Will holding tightly to the cords of family keep them together—or simply tear them apart?

Twenty-year-old Ariana Brenneman loves her family and the Old Ways. She has two aspirations: open a cafe in historic Summer Grove to help support her family’s ever-expanding brood and to keep any other Amish from being lured into the Englisch life by Quill Schlabach.

Five years ago Quill, along with her dear friend Frieda, ran off together, and Ariana still carries the wounds of that betrayal. When she unexpectedly encounters him, she soon realizes he has plans to help someone else she loves leave the Amish.

Despite how things look, Quill’s goal has always been to protect Ariana from anything that may hurt her, including the reasons he left. After returning to Summer Grove on another matter, he unearths secrets about Ariana and her family that she is unaware of. His love and loyalty to her beckons him to try to win her trust and help her find a way to buy the cafe—because when she learns the truth that connects her and a stranger named Skylar Nash, Quill knows it may upend her life forever.

This novel gets rave reviews on GoodReads, Amazon, and Christianbook.com. Many, many people via Facebook and other social medias laud this series as “excellent.” And, a good deal of people in one of the reading groups that I participate in update daily with how amazing these novels are, that the pages are flying for them. So, I began this novel with great expectations. I actually couldn’t wait to read this first book in the series. I thought that if everyone loves it so much, this must be a fantastic story.

I feel like I am missing something that other readers are seeing, but I found myself bored with this novel. Many times, I could put the book down. The entire time I was reading the book I thought to myself, “There has to be more to this, where is the action?” I am kind of at a loss for what to review because I feel like if I say anything, including anything from the exposition, it will inadvertently be a spoiler. I had this novel figured out by chapter one, which made continuing reading really hard. For me, there were no surprises. In fact, I felt most of this novel was a cliche. The Amish girl is a good girl who wants to better her family’s existence. She loves God. She loves her family. And, she has a crush on a boy that could be serious. The Englisch girl is bad. She comes from a divorced home. She does drugs. She is selfish. This seemingly stereotypical portrayal of the non-Amish girl really frustrated me, and is part of why I could put the book down. I come from a divorced home, but I love God. I adore my family and work really hard to make their lives a little better. I never took drugs. I never went crazy. I went to college and studied hard and got multiple degrees so I could work for a living. I take great offense at this cliched caricature. And, it made me unable to relate to Ariana or Skylar because, to me, they don’t feel realistically written.

Another issue I have with this novel is the conflict between Quill and Ariana. When Ariana was 15, Quill and Freida (Ariana’s best friend), escape the Amish community in the middle of the night. Ariana was shocked and deeply hurt as any person would be in this situation, Amish or not. She had grown to love Quill, and believed one day they would marry. Of course, Ariana assumes quite a lot about what happened between her best friend and the boy she loved. When Quill comes back into Ariana’s life five years later, Ariana is sure that he is up to no good and doesn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. The set up for this conflict is very well done. I kept waiting for a big reveal. I kept waiting for the truth to set Ariana and Quill free. This never happens. And, when you finally (near the very end of the book) get a small explanation as to why Freida had to leave, which was super obvious to this reader very early on, it was a “reveal moment” letdown.

On a positive note, I do love Lovina’s character. Lovina is Ariana’s mother, and she is the one who goes through a truly wretched experience. It’s the kind of experience that mother’s should never go through. Her character is exceptionally realistic and very well written. There are moments in the novel, especially towards the end, where I cried for Lovina and wanted desperately to give her a huge hug. My heart broke for her quite a bit. I will continue to read the series because my mommy’s heart needs to see that Lovina has a satisfying conclusion. If I had to rate the novel just on her character and experiences, I would give this book a 5 STAR rating. Lovina is fantastic!

I think my real issue with this novel is that the entire book is exposition to set up book 2 and book 3. The unresolved ending forces the reader to buy book 2 and book 3 to see how Ariana and Skylar’s stories end. This is fine, but in order for me to want to keep reading a series I have to get something out of book 1: a big, surprising reveal, an answer to a question, a sense that the characters will reconcile, a love interest of some kind, etc. But, I didn’t get that in this book. Hopefully, book 2 and 3 will have what I am looking for in a book. Regardless, I have to read them to see how things turn out for Lovina.

If you are interested in reading this novel, and you need a FREE copy, click here!