About the book:Lose yourself in Holmes County, where romance, suspense, mystery, and faith-filled Amish ways rule the day! Martha Hostettler is concerned about the continuous attacks being made on her Amish family. With a definite motive and a myriad of methods, Luke Friesen looks like the culprit. Determined to clear his name, Martha decides to play detective. What will the search for truth cost her?
My thoughts:
I've read this entire series, and I didn't want to share my thoughts until I read all three books. Each book is based on one of three sisters in the Hostettler family. The first book tells Grace's story, the second tells Ruth's story, and the last one tells Martha's story. After reading book one, A Sister's Secret, I had very high hopes for the two remaining books because I couldn't keep my hands off of the first one. I loved the story line, and was not expecting what Grace's secret turned out to be.
The second book, A Sister's Test, dealt with Ruth's story. She is engaged to another Amish man in their community, and he feels a sense of urgency to marry Ruth as soon as possible. Ruth's faith is about to be tested to the hilt when things change that will affect the rest of her life. However, this book was such a slow read, and there were times I wanted to throw it up against the wall!! After I continued to read about all the attacks that are still happening to the Hostettler family, it was all I could do to finish the book.
Finally, book three, A Sister's Hope, shares Martha's story. I was a bit intrigued to know how the author would wrap up the story just because I felt that it had been going on far too long. Martha decides that she is going to play detective to try to solve the mystery of who is responsible for the attacks on her family. Meanwhile, she's starting to fall for the community's resident bad boy, Luke. Martha's father detests Luke, and if he knew that Martha cared for Luke and he for her, he would be in an uproar. Luke wants to help Martha figure out who's the guilty party so he can clear his name with Martha's father since he suspects Luke is the one responsible.
Thoughts on the series as a whole:
I really enjoyed the first book, but that was about it. I just could not get interested in the storyline anymore once I started the second book. To have acts of vandalism committed against a family for 2 years solid with no answers just doesn't make sense, especially in the last 2 books where they seemed to happen more frequently. In addition to that, I found the characters to have hardly any depth, and the conversations were so simplistic and seemed to lack emotion. Just to be fair, I want to try to read another book or two by this author because I have heard good things about her past novels. We shall see, I suppose.....
Southern? No
Sass? No
2 Stars
**Special thanks to the publisher for providing these books for review.
I just finished these recently and I liked them. I can see what you're talking about though with the attacks on their family lasting so long. My daughter is now reading her young children's series and likes them. Wanda Brunstetter actually came to their school, so that was really cool for my daughter.
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