The Letters Review

I love the author Suzanne Woods Fisher. I've read a handful of her books and they never disappointed. So I jumped at the chance to read her latest, "The Letters", which is the first in a series called The Inn at Eagle Hill.

Fisher writes a lot of Amish fiction, so if you enjoy that type of reading I highly recommend her. This book was extremely different from other Amish fiction I have read, though. I always knew there were different sects of Amish, but it took me quite a while reading the book before I got a grip on this sect. For example, one of the daughters who is nineteen actually works at a bar and grill in town, and changes into English clothes while working there. This is considered to be wrong by her standards (it's a secret from her family) but she doesn't seem to have any personal convictions against it. The author never talks about which family members have been baptized into the church or anything, so I wasn't really sure where they all stood in their regards to the Amish faith. Some of them drove and some had cell phones. I have to admit I was a little confused - I knew they weren't considered Old Order Amish, but were they Amish? Were they Mennonite? I guess it doesn't matter but it distracted me a little bit.

As far as the characters go, I loved them. They all had their little quirks, especially one of the daughters, Mim, who gathered random facts and spouted them off at odd times. I loved that about her! I loved the interactions between the characters which seemed realistic and fun to read. There wasn't any character that irritated me, as sometimes happens in books. Even the grumpy mother-in-law in the book was endearing in her own way.

The story had a few twists and turns but nothing so dramatic that I was rolling my eyes. The characteristics of the characters in the story are characteristics we should all strive to have - patience and love for our enemies being the ones that stood out to me the most. I enjoyed this book and am passing it on to someone else - and I highly recommend for others to read it!

Thank you to Litfuse Publicity Group and Baker Publishing Group for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.