Book Review: Sisters of the Quilt Trilogy by Cindy Woodsmall

Book Details:
Title: Sisters of the Quilt The Complete Trilogy
Author: Cindy Woodsmall
2010, Waterbrook Press
ISBN: 978-0-307-72995-8
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Christian Fiction

Book Summaries:
When the Heart Cries
Her life among her Old Order Amish community brutally interrupted, seventeen-year-old Hannah Lapp faces questions neither family, nor fiance, nor even faith can easily answer.
When the Morning Comes
Rejected by those she loves, Hannah Lapp leaves her Amish community and seeks refuge in the world outside, leaving her family and friends to wrestle with the painful truths that emerge in the wake of her disappearance. As she struggles to find her place in the confusing Englischer world, her community deals with the turbulent aftermath of her departure.
When the Soul Mends
Hoping to help her sister, Hannah Lapp reluctantly returns to the Old Order Amish community she fled in disgrace more than two years earlier. When hidden truths are revealed about her former fiance, she must choose whether to return to the Plain life or to the Englischer man who adores her in this captivating conclusion to the Sisters of the Quilt series.

My Review:
This was a wonderful series if you love Amish fiction. I have to admit that when I first started reading the series, I was not too impressed. I was not sure I liked the direction the story was moving... everything seemed to be too upsetting and I wasn't sure I like the extreme rigidness of Hannah's Old Order community. I had to set the book aside for awhile and come back to it.
After I got back into the story though, I could barely put it down! The night I decided to pick it up again, I ended up finishing the last two-thirds of the first book at 1:00am and forcing myself to go to bed!

I'm not going to go into details about each book in the series, since this is a review on the Trilogy as a whole, that's how I'm going to approach this review. I loved all the characters. Cindy Woodsmall did an excellent job of bringing in secondary story lines to this series. Hannah's has a sister, a brother and a couple close friends who's stories we follow throughout the series that really add to the series. Hannah's love interests also each have a voice.

Following Hannah's journey from devastation to healing is a long, slow process - along with her decisions whether to live the Plain life she's grew up in or embrace the life of the Englischers. I felt that many of the decisions, Hannah's or other characters, were very true to life. And that their reactions and way of dealing with situations were intelligent, but also true to human nature.

If you love Amish fiction, you should definitely find a copy of this series. I loved having the whole Trilogy in one book - not having to find the 2nd or 3rd book in the series to begin it was wonderful. My only complaint is that it is a very heavy, cumbersome book and hard to drag around like I normally do.

Thanks to Waterbrook Press for the opportunity to review this book.

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers for my honest review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are mine.