Along Wooded Paths by Tricia Goyer

All she wanted was a simple Amish life . . . But now Marianna Sommer finds herself depending on Englisch neighbors. Although proud of living apart from the world, she and her newly relocated Amish family have discovered that life in the remote mountains of Montana requires working together.

As Marianna begins helping those different from herself—and receiving their help—her heart contemplates two directions. She’s torn between the Amish man from Indiana whom she has long planned on marrying and the friendly Englischer who models a closer walk with God than she’s ever seen before.

Who should have young Marianna’s heart? What is God asking her to sacrifice? Her traditions? Her community? The answer is found along the wooded paths.

My Thoughts

This was my first book to read by author Tricia Goyer even though this is book two in the Big Sky series. I have to say that I really enjoyed this story and not having read the first book did not seem to matter. Something that I really loved that may not matter to many was that the main character was named Marianna, you see I read a lot of Amish fiction and they tend to blend together when the main characters names are similar to other Amish stories.

One of the other things I enjoyed about this story was the author’s ability to write in such detail. I felt as though all the characters had such a unique complexity to them. I also loved the honest emotions expressed by all involved in this story.  It was really refreshing to read an Amish fiction that dealt with the choices of growing up and choosing who you want to be as an adult. I feel like everyone has this decision to make as to whether they are going to live the life they were razed  or choose a different path and it was nice to see this written from  the Amish point of view. This story kept me guessing to the very end. Then of course I had to read the excerpt from book three and now I cannot wait to read that as well. I give this book 4 out 5 stars.

* I received a copy of this book from Litfuse for my participation in this blog tour. All thoughts are my own and my differ from others.