Brenna B. (demiducky25) reviewed on 6/23/2010 + 161 more book reviews

Co-written with her husband David, this book is a bit different from the other Beverly Lewis books that I've read. Rather than the focus being on the lives of the Amish, the focus of this book is a young "fancy" woman named Melissa who has to run away from home to save her life from the man who killed her father years ago. She rents a room from Lela, a Mennonite woman who comes her friend and confidant. Melissa's husband Ryan is desperate to find her and figure out why she ran away, and his visiting friend Denny helps uncover some of the clues. Both Denny and Lela are catalysts to the religious journey that Ryan and Melissa take.

This was an interesting read. While reading it, I definitely wanted to know what Melissa's true identity was and what really happened to her father years ago. This story does rely on flashbacks to lead us to clues, rather that telling everything in a completely linear fashion. That made for a fun journey for the reader. Unlike Beverly Lewis's other books, this one felt very preachy. In her Amish books, you get a sense of religious peace from the characters in a less blatant way. Through the characters of Lela and Denny (more from Denny than Lela in my opinion), you feel like religion is being shoved at you instead of through actions and deeds in her other books. This bothered me because it felt forced in this book, rather than a natural way of life in her other books. All-in-all though, it was a pretty decent book.

PS- I forgot to mention, I have NO IDEA why this book is listed as the third book in the Crossroads series because it has NOTHING to do with that series. None of the characters, locations, or events are the same. PBS isn't the only place that says this is the 3rd book, so I'm very confused by that because that's why I picked this book up in the first place, to continue that series.

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