Ethel I. (RoyalCatwoman) reviewed on 9/2/2005 + 278 more book reviews

Fans of Lewis's "Heritage of Lancaster County" trilogy will cheer her return to Amish country with this new series. When the teenage daughters of Abram Ebersol begin courting during the summer of 1946, Sadie furtively sees smooth-talking, non-Amish Derry, who impregnates and then abandons her. After keeping her pregnancy hidden from all but her younger sister Leah and Aunt Lizzie, Sadie goes into premature labor, and Derry's father is the doctor called in to help. At the same time, Leah defies her father, who has chosen her future husband, by becoming engaged to Jonas Mast. Meanwhile, younger twin sisters Hannah and Mary Ruth struggle with their own hopes and fears for the future, and a fifth daughter is born to mother Ida. Unfortunately, Lewis's scattershot approach focuses too briefly on too many characters, making it hard for the reader to keep them straight. It's also difficult to be sympathetic to a family who weaves its own web of deception, but Lewis is a master of eliciting empathy for characters caught in troubles of their own making. The Amish community with all of its intricacies is vibrantly drawn (Lewis grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country), and the tension between it and the encroaching English world is palpable. "Jahe" readers will be impatient for the continuation, even if it won't be "perty."

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