Book Review: The Ebb Tide

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Ebb Tide
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: April 4, 2017
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: 
When a well-to-do family asks Sallie Riehl to be their daughter's nanny for the summer at their Cape May, New Jersey, vacation home, she jumps at the chance to broaden her horizons beyond the Lancaster County Amish community where she grew up. Curious by nature, Sallie loves reading and learning, and she fears that her chances of making a good match with an Amish farmer will be hampered because of it.

Though she loves taking care of nine-year-old Autumn Weaver during the week, Sallie has free time on the weekends to enjoy the shore. It is there that she meets Edward Kreider, a young marine biology student who talks freely about all he's learning and asks about her interests, unlike the guys she grew up with. Sallie wonders if this is the kind of relationship she's been longing for. Then again, Ed isn't from her community--and he's Mennonite, not Amish.

Sallie is afraid of what her parents would think about her new friendship. But that's not all she's fearful of. When unexpected danger threatens Autumn, Sallie will have to put her fears aside. Will this be a summer to remember, or one to forget?

Review:  Beverly Lewis definitely has a way with Amish Fiction. The Ebb Tide was a wonderful, light read, with just a touch of the drama that Lewis sprinkles in all of her novels.

Sallie is a different sort of Amish girl. She has dreams of travel, which totally goes against her beliefs. Her original dream was to visit Australia, but when a family member needs help, she foregoes that dream, only to have an English family offer her a chance to visit the Jersey shore, at Cape May.

She takes on the job as a Nanny for a family she's known from the restaurant. Autumn is a beautiful girl having trouble adjusting to her new baby brother.

The dynamic between Sallie and Autumn is lovely and when she meets Kevin a young man studying to be a marine biologist, she feels a connection to him, even though there is an Amish man who has his eye on her.

Lewis portrays Sallie's struggle with her faith as well as her desire to see the world in a way that's mostly believable. In some ways everything falls together too nicely for Sallie, especially as she weighs her options of joining the church and going "fancy" and having a relationship with Kevin.

There is a plus to her budding relationship with Kevin. He may be an Englisher, but he has Amish ties in his family. He's totally sweet and has a strong faith, as well.

I loved Lewis' descriptions of Cape May, so much so that I really want to visit that area some day.

This was really a lovely read.

Rating: 5 flowers

Book Review: The Proving

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Proving
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: Sept 5, 2017
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: Amanda Dienner hasn't seen her Old Order family in five years when she receives word that her mother has passed away and left her Lancaster County's most popular Amish bed-and-breakfast. Now an Englisher, Mandy is shocked: Her twin sister should have been the obvious choice! What's more, the inheritance comes with a catch: The farmhouse inn will only truly be hers if she is able to successfully run it for twelve consecutive months.

Mandy accepts the challenge even though it means returning to Gordonville and the painful memories she left behind at eighteen. Still, she's determined to prove she is more than capable of running the bed-and-breakfast, no matter that its loyal clientele are expecting an Amish hostess!

The inn isn't Mandy's sole test, however. Rubbing shoulders with her married twin sister reopens wounds that Mandy isn't ready to forgive. And an Englisher guest with a difficult past of her own just complicates matters.

Can Mandy fulfill the terms of her inheritance? Or will this year in Amish country prove a dreadful mistake?

Review: I've been a fan of Beverly Lewis for a long time, but more so now that she's started writing more stand alone novels. I wasn't a big fan of her cliffhangers when she wrote trilogies.

The Proving is really a lovely story of forgiveness and coming back home for Amanda Dienner. Its a story of starting over for the Englischer, Trina Sutton.

Both characters have their own problems. I found Trina to be hard to deal with with at times. She was a bit of a perfectionist which can be aggravating at times and when it comes to her patients she was very caring, maybe even too much so, if that's possible.

Then there's Mandy. I struggled with her too. I could understand her feeling of betrayal, but how things got to the point that they were was something I struggled with, especially to the point she took it too and then keeping all her feelings of hurt and anger inside. That's not to say that I couldn't understand why she was hurt, who wouldn't be? It is just the age of the characters that made it hard for me to understand their motives.

I think if we would have had more interaction with Mandy's twin, Arie, throughout the book, that her part of the story would have had more depth. Instead, their relationship, which we are assured was once very close, is shrouded in mystery.

Mandy struggles with the Inn that she's inherited from her mother, but when Trina enters the picture things start to change. Trina is gutsy and well, she opens her mouth and her words aren't always the kindest things, but somehow you know she means well.

I love the romance that blossoms with Trina and one of the other guests at the inn, Gavin. This relationship softens her and helps her heal from the death of her fiance.  It also helps her help Mandy find a way to move forward.

I like that Mandy finds someone in a roundabout way. Karl and his son Yonnie are wonderful.

I expected a little more drama with this book, because that's such a characteristic of a Beverly Lewis novel. This had a more cozy feel to it. The plot ambled along slowly and left me feeling as if there should have been a little something more, especially at the end. Yes, things were tied up and resolved but part of me felt like so much time was wasted over so little, for Mandy and Arie.

Rating: 3 flowers

Book Review: The Photograph

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Photograph
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: Sept 8, 2015
Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: 

Eva Esch and her sisters are in a predicament. With the passing of their widowed mother, Eva's older brother Menno plans to move his growing family into the Eden Valley farmhouse where they all grew up, leaving little room for his three single sisters. Surely, Menno reasons, at least one of them will marry this coming wedding season. Eva does hope to marry, but she isn't sure she wants to give up her sweet shop for the life of a farmer's wife, and she has no other prospects.

When younger sister, Lily, disappears in the night, leaving only a brief note, Eva fears she has been wooed away from the People by an outsider. And when Jed Stutzman, a young Amish buggy maker from Ohio, shows up in Lancaster with a photo of a Plain young woman, Eva's world begins to tilt. She feels powerfully drawn to the quietly charming stranger--but the woman in the forbidden photograph is no stranger at all. . . .

Review: I am a huge fan of Amish fiction. Beverly Lewis is one of the greats in this genre. I've always found her books to be like soap operas, especially when she wrote her sagas, that were usually 3 books.

Recently she's been writing stand alone novels and for the most part they have been fabulous, but for some reason The Photograph feels like she's phoned this one in. My high school creative writing teacher would call this one a pot boiler.

There was the usual drama going on, with Lily running off and the sister's brother wanting to take over the family farm, forcing the sisters to possibly find a new place to live as well as Eva losing out on the candy shop her father had built for her.

The trouble with this book was how flat the characters felt to me and I wished the story could have focused on Lily and her reasons for leaving. You get all the information on her at the end, but it just didn't feel fulfilling.

Menno was the story's villain, but even that didn't feel right to me. I mean, how could he not care for his three sisters, especially as they were all unmarried, and they all had recently lost their mother.

I did like Jed and Eva. There romance, though to be perfectly honest, there wasn't much of one in the story was sweet. I liked that he came to really know her through the writings on her copy of "Little Women."  The main conflict involves the photo that he finds in the book on the train to Lancaster. He mistakenly thinks the photo is of Eva.

Most books by Beverly Lewis are quick reads for me, but this one took me quite a while to finish because the story just didn't seem to go anywhere. It was like spinning wheels. It was a good enough book, but not one of Lewis' best.


Rating: 3 flowers

Book Review: The Secret Keeper

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Secret Keeper
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: Sept 3, 2013
Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: 

With her love for all things old-fashioned, Jennifer Burns has often been told she's an "old soul," but no one is prepared for the young woman's decision to set aside her modern life in favor of the Old Order Amish world. Yet Jenny does exactly that, adopting Plain dress and settling in with Samuel and Rebecca Lapp while she works as a mother's helper for the bishop's wife--a far cry from her former job as an x-ray technician.

The people of Hickory Hollow are curious about the beautiful young seeker among them, one handsome Amishman in particular. But he is not the only man vying for Jenny's affections, and Jenny faces many challenges in the Proving time the brethren have set for her...challenges of the heart, as well as the spirit.

Will Jenny's secrets keep her from the peace she longs for? Or will they lead the way home?

Review: The Home to Hickory Hollow series is a wonderful departure for Beverly Lewis. Each of the books in the series is really a stand alone novel with very little to tie them in to the other books in the series.

This book was so different from most Amish fiction that I've read. In this book you have a "fancy" women wishing to become Amish.

Jenny is totally different from typical women in their 20s. She longs for the simple life and as she goes through her "Proving" you can see that she was really meant to be Amish. In fact she has more love for the old ways of Old Order Amish than some of the youth.

She doesn't have it easy either The Lapp family have secrets and as Jenny deals with her own struggles at becoming Amish, she finds she has to cope with some of her mentoring families problems as well.

What I've always liked about Beverly Lewis' writing is that she doesn't paint the Amish as perfect. Like any religion there are problems within, sometimes with the hierarchy, such as the bishop.

I loved how Katie, who is Rebecca and Samuel's daughter, who lives under the Bann is such a huge part of the story, more as a presence rather than as a secondary character.

What I love about this book and this series in particular is how the "Fancy" world interacts with the Amish. From the beginning you could see their distrust of Jenny, even though she was doing her best to conform to their ways.

I also loved her love interest, Andrew. He was so sweet.

The only part that didn't sit well with me was when her ex-boyfriend found her. Kyle's part in the ending of the story just seemed to be a waste.

The Home to Hickory Hollow series has taken Beverly Lewis out of my guilty pleasures reads and put her firmly in must read author's list.

Book Review: The Fiddler

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Fiddler
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: April 12, 2012
Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: 

Amelia "Amy" DeVries, a 24-year-old violinist, is disillusioned with life and love after the collapse of her long-running romance. Weary of endless rehearsals and performances, Amy sets out on a road trip through the Pennsylvania mountains. She leaves her cell phone behind so life's demands can't intrude on her solitude. She doesn't know, nor care, where she will end up.

When her car breaks down deep in the mountains, Amy realizes the flaw in her "no cell phone" plan. She abandons her car and walks the winding roads, searching for help. Following the smell of woodsmoke and the sound of music, she finds a rustic log cabin. There she meets a young Amishman--and through him a community--that will change her life forever.

Review: If you haven't read a Beverly Lewis book in awhile, this might be a good one to pick up.

Why?

Its one of the few stories written by Beverly Lewis that isn't part of a continuing series, where you are left with a cliff hanger ending until the next book is published.

Rather it is a stand alone book that is part of the Home to Hickory Hollow series.

The book blurb, however is deceiving. Amelia is performing under a stage name so she can separate her two careers, one as a concert violinist and the other as a country music fiddler, both of which she does remarkably well

However the pressure to please her ailing father is what causes her to try other things. Her life isn't her own and in trying to return to her OH home after a country performance she gets lost and ends up killing her phone in a puddle and meeting Amish Michael, who is having his own set of troubles.

I love how each is drawn to each other by the things that are pulling them away from their own lives. Amelia is attracted to the peaceful life of the Amish, and Michael is struggling with his Amish faith.

I loved meeting Amelia and Michael as well as the characters that will appear in the next books, like Joanna.

In this book, Beverly Lewis finally creates a romance that is meant to be, even if it has many hurdles to overcome, but those hurdles are overcome in one book.

One of the things I especially liked about this book was Michael and his struggle with his faith. He's not unlike many of us, but even though you know he isn't going to choose to stay Amish, you know that his faith and his values will stay with him always.

Another thing that I liked with this story, is how the religious aspect of the book is more toned down. The book focuses more on family then faith, so it didn't sound as preachy as some of Lewis' other books.

This was one of the best Beverly Lewis books I've read in a long time.

Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 flowers

Book Review: The Telling

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Telling (Seasons of Grace Book 3)
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: April 6, 2010
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: Grace Byler leaves Bird-in-Hand in a fancy car to search for her mother in Ohio. But what if Lettie Byler doesn't wish to be found? Meanwhile, Lettie continues her private quest to find the missing piece of her life. As clues take her from state to state, she is increasingly torn between the family she has left behind and the yearning for her long-lost child.

Struggling to come to terms with a grave medical diagnosis, Heather Nelson is determined to forgo traditional medicine--to her father's chagrin--in hopes of finding answers and healing in Amish country. But first, she offers to drive her Amish friend, Grace Byler, to Ohio.

Will mother and daughter, and one seriously ill graduate student, find the answers they long for? Or will "the telling" cause them all further pain?

Review: This book is truly groan worthy. The only reason I suffered through it, is because I read the first two in this trilogy.

I love Amish fiction, and I think that's why I'm drawn to Lewis' books. She's the Danielle Steel of that genre. And like Steel, too many books has taken away the "goodness" in her stories.

Everything is too formulated now. Perhaps that's the fault of a publisher that wants to make money off trilogies, when Lewis' stories would better be told in one longer volume.

That's the problem with the Seasons Of Grace trilogy. Book one sets up the story with a cliff hanger, book 2 meanders along, and book 3 wraps everything up in a nice bow. By the end of book 1 you knew exactly what was going to happen in book three and you knew who Lettie's first born was. Anyone reading could make that guess. It made the trilogy rather disappointing.

Then there was the story surrounding Heather, who is diagnosed with advance Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a disease she shared with her adoptive mother. I couldn't quite believe that naturopathic treatment alone would bring her to a cancer free state.

This whole trilogy didn't work well for me, plus it put Grace's relationship with Yonnie on the back burner. I would have liked a little more romance in this book. It needed something, anything to make it worth finishing. After 4 days I managed to eek through 331 very painful pages. It will be a long while before I pick up another Beverly Lewis book.

Rating 2 flowers

Book Review: The Missing

Author:Beverly Lewis
Title The Missing
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: Sept 8, 2009
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: Twenty-one-year-old Grace Byler longs to find her missing mother and to uncover the secret that drove her to leave them three weeks before. Grace suspects the reason has to do with her father and his reserved, uncommunicative ways. This conviction led Grace to break off her betrothal to her quiet, staid beau, and she is now resigned to remain single. But when the young Amishman she thought was courting her best friend takes a sudden interest in her, Grace is befuddled and wonders if he can be trusted. "Englisher" Heather Lang has come to Amish country to relive fond memories of her mother and to contemplate a grave medical prognosis of her own. While in Bird-in-Hand, Heather meets Grace Byler and the two young women strike up a fast friendship, amazed by how well they click. Following the only clue they have, Grace and Heather travel together in hopes of finding Grace's mother and bringing her home. Will they find what they're looking for...or something much more?

Review: The Missing picks up where The Secret left off, such is the nature of all Beverly Lewis novels. They are like a three part made for tv movie that airs on Lifetime or Oxygen or some other girlie channel.

Certain aspects of this story were wonderful, while others were just too laid out. There are things I know are going to be found out in book three without even having to turn a page, and that makes me wonder why I'm going to read The Telling. I guess it is because, once you start something, it is hard to stop it.

In this book Grace is still trying to find clues as to where her mother had gone. There's also a new guy who wants to court her, Yonnie, who just happens to be the guy her best friend, Becky likes.

Ah the drama of being Amish.

We also see Lettie, Grace's mother and her journey to find the child she gave up for adoption some 20 + years before.

Lastly there is the english girl, Heather, suffering from Stage III non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Guess who she is? She wants to try a natural way to beat cancer. (And even though that won't be dealt with in this book, you know she will)

This story dragged, yet it was an easy read. I liked Lewis' characters, well, not so much Heather, because I really found her abandonment of traditional medicine a bit stupid, especially at Stage III of any cancer.

I'll be picking up The Telling, so I can see the rest of the story through. I have to say, I don't know why Lewis can't just write one longer book, rather than dragging her stories out through 3.

Rating: 3 Flowers

Book Review: The Secret

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Secret (Seasons Of Grace Book 1)
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: March 31, 2009
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: In the seemingly ordinary Amish home of Grace Byler, secrets abound. Why does her mother weep in the night? Why does her father refuse to admit something is dreadfully wrong? Then, in one startling moment, everything Grace assumed she knew is shattered. Her mother's disappearance leaves Grace reeling and unable to keep her betrothal promise to her long-time beau. Left to pick up the pieces of her life, Grace questions all she has been taught about love, family, and commitment.

Heather Nelson is an English grad student, stunned by a doctor's diagnosis. Surely fate would not allow her father to lose his only daughter after the death of his wife a few years before. In denial and telling no one she is terminally ill, Heather travels to Lancaster County--the last place she and her mother had visited together. Will Heather find healing for body and spirit?

As the lives of four wounded souls begin to weave together like an Amish patchwork quilt, they each discover missing pieces of their life puzzles--and glimpse the merciful and loving hand of God.

Review: Beverly Lewis writes dramatic Amish fiction. Her books aren't about young Amish people courting and falling in love. There is always some drama with the church or with the family that will take 3 books to resolve.

In this book the drama surrounds Gracie Byler's mom, who leaves her husband and children behind. This is something that is simply not done in the Amish community. Lewis lets us see a little of Lettie's struggle within herself without giving away her secret. It is easy to feel sorry for this woman. She has something that she wants to share with her husband and her family, yet her husband is quiet and reserved and she never seems to be able to communicate with him.

There's also a young woman who comes to Lancaster after receiving a bad diagnosis from her doctor. Heather Nelson is obviously going to figure into this story at some point, more than just as a random Englischer. I have a feeling I already know who she is, but I want to read the other 2 books anyway.

The problem I have with Heather is her disbelief in modern medicine. Her mother died of cancer. At 24 she's received a similar diagnosis. We aren't sure though, because Lewis doesn't tell us. She just gives us this stubborn young woman that refuses to believe she's sick. Truthfully, I wanted to smack her senseful.

Gracie and her family are much more likable and they are faced with their own crisis. Their mother leaves and they are left with the aftermath and gossip. Gracie holds up well and she comes across as a loyal, loving daughter. I think she's probably one of my favorite Lewis heroines.

I do have one bone to pick with Beverly Lewis. She grew up in PA. How is it that Pittsburgh is spelled incorrectly twice in this book? That really irked me. Still, it is a good read for fans of Lewis and Amish fiction.

Rating: 4 flowers

Book Review: The Parting

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Parting (The Courtship Of Nellie Fisher Book 1)
Publisher: Bethany House
Publish Date: Oct 2007
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: Beloved bestselling inspirational author Lewis kicks off The Courtship of Nellie Fisher series, dishing up her usual sort of Amish meal. Amish teen Nellie Fisher’s grief over the death of her sister, Suzy, in a drowning accident is just beginning to heal. It helps that Caleb Yoder has asked her to be his girl, and wedding bells ring in her imagination. Her baked goods shop also provides solace. But change blows through her Pennsylvania Amish community, threatening to divide families and thwart her new found romance. Other story lines are set up: Rosanna King seems unable to have children, but is promised a forthcoming baby by a woman who has many; Nellie’s father reads forbidden scripture and becomes intrigued with salvation by grace. Amish dialect is used judiciously throughout, and although some items (like an old journal) seem like tired cliches, Lewis creates the tension necessary to get the series started. Some Christian readers will wonder about a theology that finds Suzy’s death and a crop failure part of God’s plan, and there may be confusion for readers unfamiliar with the Amish about the boundaries of Rumschpringe (rumspringa, or the running-around period for some Amish teens).

Review: Beverly Lewis usually writes trilogies and this book is part of The Courtship of Nellie Fisher.  Amish fiction is something that you either love or hate, because you can't write it without including the faith of the Amish, which is Anabaptist...similar to that of the Mennonites..but not quite the same. If you know little about the Amish...their beliefs will have you wondering.

This story was actually a little bit different for Lewis, as it took place in the 1960s, when many religions were experiencing change. It was no different for the Amish. This were happening in the world and even The Plain folk wanted to move forward, even if just in baby steps.

Of course there's romance, because that's what all of Lewis' trilogies are about. The struggles of the Amish to find love. In this book, there's a lot of conflict. Nellie and her family are dealing with the drowning death of her sister and her father's changing beliefs. Both are putting a strain on her new relationship with Caleb Yoder.

I love Lewis' style of writing. I think she portrays these people well, though I wish every book wasn't full of such drama. This one seemed full of more than usual and that was a bit of a distraction. There was just too much going on and it left me feeling the story didn't quite have enough focus. Nellie's relationship with Caleb really didn't seem to me to a huge part of the story, and I often wondered why the sisters didn't share any of their feelings with each other or their mother. So in that regards, I found this book to be a little lacking in comparison to Lewis' other material. I'll still be reading the next to books, though, The Forbidden and The Longing.

Rating: 4 flowers

Book Review: The Englisher

Author: Beverly Lewis
Title: The Englisher
Publisher:  Bethany House
Publish Date: May 1, 2006
Rating: 4 stars
Book Blurb:  Annie Zook, the preacher's daughter, struggles to keep her promise to her father
to abandon her art for a full six months. Will she succeed, only to succumb to another "forbidden" desire? And what would her father do if he discovered her friendship with a handsome Englisher? Ben Martin has recently moved to Pennsylvania from Kentucky on a secret search of his own. He is mysteriously drawn to Paradise and especially to the covered bridge depicted in Annie's painting, a folded copy of which he carries in his pocket...along with a smooth peach stone. Will Ben's keen interest in Annie derail her intention to join the Amish church come autumn? (Annie's People Book 2)

Review:  The Englisher is the second book in Beverly's "Annie's People" series. Annie is the Preacher's Daughter, but she isn't a dutiful daughter. Though she seems to be Amish through and through, she has doubts.

Beverly Lewis does a remarkable job portraying the Amish and the struggles they face, deciding whether they are going to jump the fence or join the church. Annie is in her 20's and she hasn't made her decision.  Her father is an Old Order preacher. In this story we see her struggling with a promise she made to her father not to continue with her art (which is really good) and her growing feelings for a young "englisher"

But there's more to the story than just Annie and Ben. There's the shunning of her friend Esther, whose beliefs are changing and her abusive husband Zeke who has some secrets of his own. He's not an easy character to deal with. He's not particularly nice but as the story goes on, you really start to feel sorry for him. Just as you wish Esther could get away from him permanently.

Another part of  the story involves Annie's friend Lou is there and she's falling for an Amish man. Both friends seem destined to have troubles in love. It was hard not to feel bad for each of them, because their loves really don't seem meant to be. Lou still has too many ties to the outside world, and Annie is very Amish even though she has longings for more worldly things.

There's quite a lot going on in the 347 pages, but Lewis manages to tie up just enough to leave the reader longing for the next book and that's exactly what happens here. I ran out to the store in hopes of finding book 3 to no avail!!

Christian Fiction

I never really delved much into faith based stories, until I read Anne Rice's novels about the young life of Christ.

Now don't get me wrong, I still love a good smut novel as you can see by the books I've been reviewing, but as a result of reading these books, I opened myself up to more books that had religion as a focal point, and even romantic fiction with a little bit. The Steeple Hill line that Harlequin publishes puts out some wonderful novels that don't focus on the sexual aspect of love.

But what I've really discovered that I love now are books about the Amish. I've always been fascinated by the culture of these people since I was a little girl, visited Lancaster, PA. Its hard to believe that these people live like they do while the rest of the world rushes on ahead of them, and yet they seem happy. Beverly Lewis writes about the Amish very well as do several others like Wanda E. Brunstetter.

It hasn't helped matters that I received a catalog from Christianbook.com and now I get to spend hours deciding what I want to order. Oh and it even has a clearance section! I'll never have money now!

What I've found so refreshing about some of these books is that though the religion and faith is there, its not shoved down your throat. I guess that's the main reason why I've really taken to some of these books.