Book Reviews

A Sister's Secret
{Sisters of Holmes County Book # 1}
By Wanda E. Brunstetter
{Review By Bethany}

Publisher :: Barbour

Number of Pages :: 299

Source :: Library

Publication Date :: 2007

My Rating :: 5 out of 5 stars

Putting her rumschpringe {running-around years} behind her, Grace Hostettler returns to Holmes County, Ohio; joins the Amish church; and begins a new life with a new romance. The next four years are nearly idyllic for the oldest Hostettler child-except for the hidden pain she bears from a carefully harbored secret. Her peaceful world is shattered the day she runs into Gary Walker-an Englisher who knows enough about her past to destroy her future. Gary's arrival in Holmes County coincides with a series of startling attacks against the Amish community-and the Hostettlers in particular. Is Gary at the root of this evil? Amishman Cleon Schrock plans to marry Grace but is unaware of her past. When evidence of Grace's deception arrives on her family's doorstep, will Cleon feel compelled to desert the woman he loves? {Taken From Back Cover}

I really enjoyed this book by Wanda. I read one book authored by her last year and really enjoyed it so I told myself I'd read more of her books but hadn't gotten around to it until now. :) This is the first book in a series called Sisters of Holmes County. The series consists of three books, each one is about one of the Hostettler girls who are Amish: Grace, Ruth and Martha. In this first book the main character is Grace, since she is the oldest. I will say that I loved it and it kept me wanting to read more and more! It had a wonderful way of making you feel like you just can't put the book down until you've read one more chapter... ;) 

Pros :: Even though this would be considered a romance, Wanda did a wonderful job keeping it clean. The most romantic part in the book is about holding hands and even that didn't go into details. Even though there wasn't much descriptive romance, Wanda had a way of still clearly getting the point across of the two being in love without presenting it in a way that is distracting to a single woman. Even though there is deception going on in the book, at the end Grace is truly sorry and repents of keeping her secret to herself. So even though there is deceptions and lies in the end Wanda made a great point at showing how truly sorry Grace was.

Cons :: Since Grace is keeping a dark secret deep inside her there is deception{don't worry it's nothing too serious...so if you are thinking she committed some bad crime, worthy of jail-time, then it isn't anything like that :)}. She hold the truth about her past from her parents and what makes it worse is that when evidence shows up on her door, she has to spill the beans all at once. One thing I didn't like about the book is how I felt as if Wanda wasn't putting much detail into how the Amish live personally. She made reference to using weapons when they were being attacked with pranks, but the Amish don't use guns or weapons, the Mennonites don't even do that! This is only one example of several that I found that lessened the ability to feel like you were in the book. So I felt as if she didn't put much effort into making you feel like they were Amish. Although this is something that makes a book more enjoyable to a reader, it's definitely not something to make you avoid the book altogether.

A Sister's Test

{Sisters of Holmes County Series Book # 2}

By Wanda E. Brunstetter

{Review by Bethany}

Publisher :: Barbour

Number of Pages :: 287

Source :: Library

Publication Date :: 2007

My Rating :: 5 out of 5 stars

Ruth is the second oldest sister in the Hostettler family, and she has one burning desire-to marry and fill her Amish household with children. Life seems to be falling into place when Martin Gingerich starts to court her and she befriends a motherless child. But her dreams are suddenly shattered in one horrific moment, putting Ruth's faith to the test. Finding herself spiritually adrift, Ruth's only prayer becomes a desperate "God, why?"


This was a very inspiring book and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was very nicely written and was very interesting!

Pros :: This book was very inspirational and after reading it, I found myself counting my blessings more and thanking God for my family. In this book Ruth goes through lots of trials and losses and reading about her hard times makes you realize how well off you are. I never seem to realize how blessed I am until I read or hear about someone else who has it a lot worse off than me. This was a book that really left an impression on my heart and helped me be more thankful. Since Wanda went through great detail with Ruth's trials you felt as if you are there besides the person feeling their grief and pain. Often times I found myself thinking "Oh, poor Ruth" as if I would someone in real life that recently went through a loss!


Cons :: One thing about this book is that the events that happened seemed to happen too fast. For instance, in the last book Grace and her husband Cleon are having a hard time getting along and then all the sudden after several chapters of conflict in a few pages they have made up. It just didn't seem like everything happened like it would in normal life I guess, but it is fiction after all. :D The only other con I can think of is it's a bit of a sad book, several people pass away, but the end is wonderful and it makes up with a very happy, hopeful ending!

A Sister's Hope

{Sisters of Holmes County Book #3}

By Wanda E. Brunstetter

{Review by Bethany}

Publisher :: Barbour

Number of Pages :: 297

Source :: Library

Publication Date :: 2008

My Rating :: 3 out of 5 stars

Martha is the youngest of the Hostettler sisters and the most daring. While her main focus has been on her dog breeding business, Martha has also been troubled about the continuing attacks against her family and home in an Ohio Amish community. When prime suspect turns out to be Luke Friesen-the man she loves- Martha decided to play detective. But what will the search for truth cost? Luke seems to have taken the wrong road in life. With definite motive and myriad of methods, he looks guilty as sin. Will Martha's hope in his innocence be enough to bring the real criminal to justice? Roman Hostettler disproves of the love blossoming between his daughter and Luke. In his determination to drive the couple apart, discord and dissension grown within the family. {Taken From The Back Cover}

Sadly, this was my least favorite book in the series. If it weren't for not letting you all down by not having the third book's review or for finding out who had been responsible for the attacks on the Hostettler family, then I'm afraid I wouldn't have finished this book since I'd not considered it worth my time.

Pros :: The story was fairly interesting and did great on starting were you left off in the last book. Honestly the cons outweigh the pros, so I'm not able to think of anything else that was a pro in the book.

Cons :: I'm afraid that this book had more cons than pros, and I'd like to share some of those right now. For one, the subject of direct disobedience to parents was shown. Martha deliberately went against her father's commands in several areas, one being that she was forbidden to be around or talk to Luke. At first, Martha doesn't really have feelings for Luke, but as she slowly starts to see him behind her father's back, she develops feelings for him. In the book there is also more romance than in the first two which is disapointing, and two kisses are shared against Martha's fathers commands. If honoring our parents wasn't such a big deal then it wouldn't be listed in the Ten Commandments, but it was. So obviously God thinks it's important! The fact that this book shows Martha going against her father's wishes - and knowing full well that she was doing so and did nothing to stop it, but rather encouraged it-was just a bit more than I would have liked to see. To make matters worse, in the end Martha is "justified" by disobeying since Luke proves innocent and then end up marrying. The book almost makes it seem as if disobedience was no big deal and that in the end, ultimately everything fixes itself.

For those looking for the third book review in the Rose Trilogy Series {In continuation of THIS POST review for the first and second book in the series}, please let me explain why it isn't here as promised last month. :) This book seems to be pretty popular right now, and due to that, the book has been out for the past few weeks at the library, thus I've not been able to check it out yet nor read it. However the first time I am there and it's available to check out, I'll get it and be sure and review it in a upcoming review post as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!