Fraying at the Edge by Cindy Woodsmall Book Review

Family, community, faith, and love.
These “quilt blocks” sewn together made Ariana’s beautiful life.
When they are pulled to pieces,
will anything familiar remain?

The Old Order Amish life Ariana Brenneman loved vanished virtually overnight with the discovery that she was switched at birth twenty years ago. Now she’s immersed in the Englischer world, getting to know her mother and under the authority of her biological father, an atheist intellectual with resolute plans to expand Ariana’s worldview. Only Quill Schlabach, a childhood friend living Englisch, can steady the tilting ground between Ariana’s two worlds, but can she trust him after so many betrayals?

At the same time, Skylar Nash is forced to choose rehab or spend several months with her true relatives, the large Brenneman family and their seemingly backward life—no electricity, no technology, no fun. What the young woman can’t leave behind is her addiction to illegal prescription drugs and a deep emptiness from the belief that she doesn’t belong in either family.

New ties are binding Ariana and Skylar to the lives they were meant to have. Can they find the wisdom and strength they’ll need to follow God’s threads into unexpected futures?
 

My Thoughts:

Fraying at the Edge is the second novel in The Amish of Summer Grove series. This book can stand alone without the first book overall. I think you would be missing out if you don’t read the first book with a history building up to this book. I would still recommend reading the first book as it will make this story so much more meaningful.

Cindy does it again with drawing you into the story and capturing your heart with the characters and plot.

What would you do if you were in the modern world and suddenly have to be in an Amish community or an Amish having to be in the modern world after 20 years? It would be culture shock. Ariana and Skylar were switched at birth due to a freak fire at the hospital where the girls went home with the wrong parents.

Ariana was looking forward to marriage to a man she is engaged too and she just opened a café. Ariana has to go live with her Englisch biological parents to save a mid-wife in her community from going to jail due to the accident of her being given to the wrong parents.

Ariana has a bucket list to do while living in the world at the request of her atheist biological father. She has to get a driver’s license, iPhone, puts away her Amish clothing, go on 4 dates, and so much more. She struggles with her  trying to understand why this is happening to her.

The only person Ariana can contact is Quill Schlabach, former Amish man that she had feeling for before he left the Amish community.

Skylar is not happy living with her birth parents in a backward world with no technology and she is determined to keep everyone a distance. Family has a way of tugging at your heart.

I’m not going to give away the story. What a wonderful heartfelt story. With a big cliffhanger that now I have to wait to see what happens.

I received a free copy of this product from Blogging for Books- Waterbrook in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this information accordance with the FTC Regulations.