BESIDE STILL WATERS

by Tricia Goyer

Publisher: B & H Books

Published: April 15, 2011

Format: Paperback (320 pages)

ISBN: 9781433668685

Series: A Big Sky Novel

Origin: Publisher through netGalley (eGalley)

***Though the publisher provides the free ebook, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

Marianna Sommer is a young Amish girl who plans to stay in the Amish faith, marry, and be content.  Nevertheless, family issues need her to change directions.

After loosing one child to the Englisch ways and realizing another child could be heading in that direction, Marianna’s parents decide they need to move from Indiana.   Her parents have already suffered enough tragedy, losing two of their girls through in accident on the same day her mother gave birth to Marianna.  How could they lose her too?

A whole lifetime she’s been striving to help her parents through their losses.  However, this is a ruling that Marianna would not have to follow, but her mother is expecting.  What should she do now?

To help her family settle in their new home, Marianna goes to Montana temporarily. But Marianna struggles anew with either going back or staying because she’s liking this life in Montana.  It’s so much different here.  The rules are less strict, and Marianna even has a job at an Englsher’s store!   Almost daily here, she marvels at the beauty God creates, and she has grown in her faith too.

However, her cousin’s wedding is coming up in Indiana, and she’s supposed to attend. Should Marianna go back to an uncertain past, back to Aaron? Alternatively, does she stay in Montana to find out where her friendship with an Englischer man named Ben Stone goes?

My Take:

BESIDE STILL WATERS by Tricia Goyer is a title that I recommend. But be forewarned, this book is unlike other Amish fiction titles that you may have read before.  And that’s a great thing!

Tricia Goyer’s exhaustive research into the Amish community not only shows in how she crafts these characters, but it’s seen in how she showcases the Amish culture.  She almost does a contrast and compare, without judgements, for us readers to understand the differences and the similarities in everyday life events, and she even gives us taste of the Amish in the back of the book. You’ll want to fall in love with this author’s characters, their challenges, and their futures in the next THE BIG SKY NOVEL SERIES titled ALONG WOODED PATHS (B & H Books October 2011).

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