By The Book

After months away in the Englisch world, Ariana Brenneman is overjoyed to be in the Old Order Amish home where she was raised. Yet her excitement is mixed with an unexpected apprehension as she reconciles all she’s learned from her biological parents with the uncompromising teachings of her Plain community. Although her childhood friend, ex-Amish Quill Schlabach, hopes to help her navigate her new role amongst her people, Ariana’s Daed doesn’t understand why his sweet daughter is suddenly questioning his authority. What will happen if she sows seeds of unrest and rebellion in the entire family? 
 
Meanwhile, Skylar Nash has finally found her place among the large Brenneman family, but Ariana’s arrival threatens to unravel Skylar’s new identity—and her sobriety. Both Ariana and Skylar must discover the true cords that bind a family and community together and grasp tight the One who holds their authentic identities close to His heart.

Gathering the Threads is the third and final novel in The Amish of Summer Grove series.

Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times, CBA, ECPA, and USA Today best-selling author who has written seventeen (and counting!) works of fiction and one of nonfiction. She and her dearest Old Order Amish friend, Miriam Flaud, coauthored the nonfiction, Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Hearts of Two Women. Cindy has been featured on ABC Nightline and on the front page of the Wall Street Journal,and has worked with National Geographic on a documentary concerning Amish life. In June of 2013, the Wall Street Journal listed Cindy as the one of the top three most popular authors of Amish fiction.

She’s won Fiction Book of the Year, Reviewer’s Choice Awards, Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest, as well as one of Crossings’ Best Books of the Year. She’s been a finalist for the prestigious Christy, Rita, and Carol Awards, Christian Book of the Year, and Christian Retailers Choice Awards.

Her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families enrich her novels with authenticity. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, seeds were sown years ago that began preparing Cindy to write these books. At the age of ten, while living in the dairy country of Maryland, she became best friends with Luann, a Plain Mennonite girl. Luann, like all the females in her family, wore the prayer Kapp and cape dresses. Her parents didn’t allow television or radios, and many other modern conveniences were frowned upon. During the numerous times Luann came to Cindy’s house to spend the night, her rules came with her and the two were careful to obey them–afraid that if they didn’t, the adults would end their friendship. Although the rules were much easier to keep when they spent the night at Luann’s because her family didn’t own any of the forbidden items, both sets of parents were uncomfortable with the relationship and a small infraction of any kind would have been enough reason for the parents to end the relationship. While navigating around the adults’ disapproval and the obstacles in each other’s lifestyle, the two girls bonded in true friendship that lasted into their teen years, until Cindy’s family moved to another region of the US.

As an adult, Cindy became friends with a wonderful Old Order Amish family who opened their home to her. Although the two women, Miriam and Cindy, live seven hundred miles apart geographically, and a century apart by customs, when they come together they never lack for commonality, laughter, and dreams of what only God can accomplish through His children. Over the years Cindy has continued to make wonderful friendships with those inside the Amish and Mennonite communities — from the most conservative ones to the most liberal.

Cindy and her husband reside near the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains in their now empty nest.

If you’d like more information or to contact her, you can go to her website: http://www.cindywoodsmall.com or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/authorcindywoodsmall.

My Impressions:

My book club will be reading/discussing Gathering The Threads by Cindy Woodsmall in October. We have been anxiously awaiting the final installment in the Amish of Summer Grove series, and I might be a bit sorry that I got the jump on my group. But only a little bit! 😉 Seriously, I was not disappointed in this book. Woodsmall did a great job in concluding this complex story of babies switched at birth and the ensuing emotional upheaval as the truth is revealed twenty years after the fact. As can be imagined, the news has been devastating to all involved and challenged the self-image of the two young women. The situation is further complicated by the fact that one was raised Amish and the other English. A good story is made better by the inclusion of the spiritual journeys all must take. Gathering The Threads is great!

In book 3, Ariana has returned to her Amish home after she was forced to live with her birth parents. She has learned a great deal, but confusion reigns as she reenters a community that agreed that she leave, but is not pleased with the changes that she has undergone. Skylar is threatened by Ariana’s return and works to sabotage Ariana’s position in the family. Both Ariana and Skylar can never go back to the way things were before. Will the two come to find their true home?

The two women who are at the heart of the switched at birth story line could not be more different. It is interesting to ponder what effects nature/nurture have on their personalities. One thing is sure — new experiences and people are sure to influence how one views life and self. Ariana is challenged to examine her blind obedience to authority, while Skylar is confronted with her selfishness. I loved that Woodsmall builds on each woman’s strengths and allows them to deal with their weaknesses. Each woman learns to appreciate both their Amish and English roots. While the switched at birth storyline is intriguing, it is the message of God’s grace and freedom that shines throughout the narrative. More than Ariana and Skylar are freed from bondage — bondage to legalism, self-righteousness, addiction, self.

A wonderful ending to a great series, Gathering The Threads does not disappoint. This one is a recommended read from me. Please note: don’t attempt to read just this book. You must read books one and two. And you are in luck! Book 1 is currently $1.99 for Kindle!

Recommended.

Audience: older teens to adults.

To purchase this book, click HERE.

(Thanks to Waterbrook Multnomah for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

Tags: Amish fiction, Cindy Woodsmall

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 steady the tilting ground between Ariana’s 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 find the wisdom and strength they’ll need to follow God’s threads into unexpected futures?

Fraying at the Edge is the second novel in The Amish of Summer Grove series.

Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times, CBA, ECPA, and USA Today best-selling author who has written seventeen (and counting!) works of fiction and one of nonfiction. She and her dearest Old Order Amish friend, Miriam Flaud, coauthored the nonfiction, Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Hearts of Two Women. Cindy has been featured on ABC Nightline and on the front page of the Wall Street Journal,and has worked with National Geographic on a documentary concerning Amish life. In June of 2013, the Wall Street Journal listed Cindy as the one of the top three most popular authors of Amish fiction.

She’s won Fiction Book of the Year, Reviewer’s Choice Awards, Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest, as well as one of Crossings’ Best Books of the Year. She’s been a finalist for the prestigious Christy, Rita, and Carol Awards, Christian Book of the Year, and Christian Retailers Choice Awards.

Her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families enrich her novels with authenticity. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, seeds were sown years ago that began preparing Cindy to write these books. At the age of ten, while living in the dairy country of Maryland, she became best friends with Luann, a Plain Mennonite girl. Luann, like all the females in her family, wore the prayer Kapp and cape dresses. Her parents didn’t allow television or radios, and many other modern conveniences were frowned upon. During the numerous times Luann came to Cindy’s house to spend the night, her rules came with her and the two were careful to obey them — afraid that if they didn’t, the adults would end their friendship. Although the rules were much easier to keep when they spent the night at Luann’s because her family didn’t own any of the forbidden items, both sets of parents were uncomfortable with the relationship and a small infraction of any kind would have been enough reason for the parents to end the relationship. While navigating around the adults’ disapproval and the obstacles in each other’s lifestyle, the two girls bonded in true friendship that lasted into their teen years, until Cindy’s family moved to another region of the US.

As an adult, Cindy became friends with a wonderful Old Order Amish family who opened their home to her. Although the two women, Miriam and Cindy, live seven hundred miles apart geographically, and a century apart by customs, when they come together they never lack for commonality, laughter, and dreams of what only God can accomplish through His children. Over the years Cindy has continued to make wonderful friendships with those inside the Amish and Mennonite communities–from the most conservative ones to the most liberal.

Cindy and her husband reside near the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains in their now empty nest.

If you’d like more information or to contact her, you can go to her website: http://www.cindywoodsmall.com or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/authorcindywoodsmall.

My Impressions:

Cindy Woodsmall has long been a favorite of my book club. If she has a book out, we will read it. We read/discussed Ties That Bind in September and knew we had to read book 2, Fraying at The Edge, sooner rather than later. And while we liked this book, we didn’t think it was as good as book 1. We really couldn’t put our finger on why, just that it didn’t hold our attention as much as the first in the series. Will we read book 3, Gathering The Threads, when it comes out in August 2017? You bet! We have to find out what happens to Arianna and Skylar and who they may end up with.

While Ties That Bind examined how families impact the emotional and spiritual growth of a person, Fraying at The Edge looked at how we react when our beliefs are challenged. Both Skylar and Arianna are thrust into alien worlds with few points of reference. In Arianna’s case, not only is she forced to learn a brand new way of life, her deeply held religious views are attacked. Both characters grew in positive ways, despite the rollercoaster emotions and resistance they put up. The fallout of this will surely be presented in the next installment of the series.

One thing we didn’t like was the lack of interaction between Skylar and her Amish parents. Arianna’s story heavily featured the new relationship between her and her biological parents. But Skylar has few scenes with her biological parents; almost none with her father. Not sure if this was an oversight by Woodsmall or a statement on the differing parenting styles of Amish and Englisch.

Overall, we liked Fraying at The Edge. Have you read this book? What did you think.

Recommended.

Audience: older teens to adults.

To purchase this book, click HERE.

(I purchase this book from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

Tags: Amish fiction, Cindy Woodsmall

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 café 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 café — because when she learns the truth that connects her and a stranger named Skylar Nash, Quill knows it may upend her life forever.

Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times, CBA, ECPA, and USA Today best-selling author who has written seventeen (and counting!) works of fiction and one of nonfiction. She and her dearest Old Order Amish friend, Miriam Flaud, coauthored the nonfiction, Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Hearts of Two Women. Cindy has been featured on ABC Nightline and on the front page of the Wall Street Journal,and has worked with National Geographic on a documentary concerning Amish life. In June of 2013, the Wall Street Journal listed Cindy as the one of the top three most popular authors of Amish fiction.

She’s won Fiction Book of the Year, Reviewer’s Choice Awards, Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest, as well as one of Crossings’ Best Books of the Year. She’s been a finalist for the prestigious Christy, Rita, and Carol Awards, Christian Book of the Year, and Christian Retailers Choice Awards.

Her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families enrich her novels with authenticity. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, seeds were sown years ago that began preparing Cindy to write these books. At the age of ten, while living in the dairy country of Maryland, she became best friends with Luann, a Plain Mennonite girl. Luann, like all the females in her family, wore the prayer Kapp and cape dresses. Her parents didn’t allow television or radios, and many other modern conveniences were frowned upon. During the numerous times Luann came to Cindy’s house to spend the night, her rules came with her and the two were careful to obey them — afraid that if they didn’t, the adults would end their friendship. Although the rules were much easier to keep when they spent the night at Luann’s because her family didn’t own any of the forbidden items, both sets of parents were uncomfortable with the relationship and a small infraction of any kind would have been enough reason for the parents to end the relationship. While navigating around the adults’ disapproval and the obstacles in each other’s lifestyle, the two girls bonded in true friendship that lasted into their teen years, until Cindy’s family moved to another region of the US.

As an adult, Cindy became friends with a wonderful Old Order Amish family who opened their home to her. Although the two women, Miriam and Cindy, live seven hundred miles apart geographically, and a century apart by customs, when they come together they never lack for commonality, laughter, and dreams of what only God can accomplish through His children. Over the years Cindy has continued to make wonderful friendships with those inside the Amish and Mennonite communities–from the most conservative ones to the most liberal.

Cindy and her husband reside near the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains in their now empty nest.

If you’d like more information or to contact her, you can go to her website: http://www.cindywoodsmall.com or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/authorcindywoodsmall.

My Impressions:

Cindy Woodsmall is one of my book club’s very favorite authors. We actually won her first two books and an author call from Cindy (back before Skype, so you know that was a long time ago!). The hour we spent listening to her talk about her writing and inspiration was wonderful. We have read every full length novel she has written and usually do so as soon as they come out. I’m not sure what happened with Ties That Bind, but I am glad we waited to read it, otherwise, we would have had some very anxious readers awaiting book 2 in this series. Fraying at The Edges, book 2 in the Summer Grove series is out now and will be making an appearance very soon. In the meantime, here are some of my thoughts on Ties That Bind.

Cindy Woodsmall writes Amish fiction, but it is more than sweet romance and simple living. In fact there is nothing simple in the lives of the characters, both Plain and English. Ties That Bind takes its characters on an emotional journey of faith, family and culture. The English and Amish worlds collide despite the attempts of many of the characters to keep things separate and secret. This novel explores the influence of nature and nurture on two young women. As the story unfolds, the reader knows more of what’s going on than the characters and the tension and suspense is palpable, making the pages fly. There is also the contrast of the human free will, God’s grace and the legalism that often dominates our religious practices. You don’t have to be Amish to be legalistic! Ties That Bind really makes you think about that. As with any novel by Cindy, the characters soon find a place in your heart. I really came to care about them and felt their anguish, fears and sense of lost dreams. A glimmer of hope is seen at the end, and I will be really glad when I can begin Fraying at The Edges in just a few days.

Have you read Ties That Bind? What did you think about it? We are meeting tonight and I am looking forward to some wonderful and lively conversation.

Highly Recommended.

Audience: older teens to adults.

To purchase this book, click HERE.

(I purchased this book for my Kindle. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

Tags: Amish fiction, Cindy Woodsmall