Was it better than when it began? Yes, in a way.
Was it enough to make up for the nightmares we had the night after we finished? Oh, no. Not even close.
The first two books earned 13 pages of notes each.
This one earned 15.
And I'm honest about the nightmares.
That happened.
Thanks, Beverly.
The Premise
Amish woman Lettie Byler has left her community of Bird-in-Hand to search for the child she bore out of wedlock, which was taken away from her at birth by the witch that is her mother, Adah.
Lettie's daughter, Grace, and the English outsider, Heather, have teamed up to look for her.
Heather's convinced her dad to pay the bill for a health retreat in hopes that it'll cure her cancer.
Judah has to prove he's changed and become a man.
Yonnie's still the best.
Let's go from there.
Resolutions
In the middle of this convoluted mess, at least four questions were clear.
1. Will Lettie and Judah's marriage be better?
2. Will Adah and Jakob be punished for their actions?
3. How long will it take for Heather -- who conveniently admitted (via "This is really out of character for me, but...") that she was adopted -- and Lettie to realize that they are mother and daughter?
4. When will Grace get it through her gelatinous skull that Yonnie is the best man in the entire community of emotionally-abusive twerps and it's okay to be in a relationship again after her ex-fiancee started dating her 'best friend'?
At least three of these were answered, and only one in a satisfying way.
Grace, true to her nature, goes back and forth, so torn between her feelings that she never makes the choice until all obstacles disappear, thus making that 'choice' mean nothing.
Lettie comes back and tells Judah what happened. First he's upset and walks away from her, then the two-by-four of reality hits him and he realizes what he's done. The very next day he goes back to Lettie, admits where he went wrong, begs for forgiveness, and takes her home (as contrary to what the community expects.)
When Heather and Lettie finally meet, Lettie -- who up to this point has been studying strangers' lips to see if they resemble her ex's -- doesn't so much as spare her a glance, and Heather's more interested in the scandal than anything else. It's Adah who reunites them.
On that note...
Adah and Jakob are never punished. While Lettie must confess her sins to the entire membership, Adah is given a private confession. Jakob says he doesn't feel convicted, so a confession isn't necessary (because that's how it works, evidently.)
Our Local Witch
Oh, lovely, nurturing, long-suffering Adah.
We hate Adah, but we hate the fact that Beverly tries to victimize her more.
When Lettie first opens up to family about her past... well, this is how it goes:
""I thought I was in love, Hallie. And I was hardheaded, too. Wanted my way, no matter what anyone thought of my beau. So I disobeyed my parents and broke their hearts." Lettie was quiet a moment. "It's no wonder Mamm made me give the baby away."...
... Hallie made a sad sound and leaned forward, her arms on the table. "Well, I hope you don't believe that -- what you just said." She locked eyes with Lettie. "Because, my dear Lettie, that's not why your Mamm would've insisted on you givin' your baby away," Hallie said quietly. "Don't ya see? She made you do it out of love. For you... for your baby.""
....... Let me get this straight.
Adah, our Adah, who -- Let's see, ah yes! -- called her first-born grandchild 'the sinful offspring', who emotionally abused her daughter apparently before AND after this event, who moved into her daughter's house to daily remind her that the family repute depended on her never telling her husband the truth about her past, who manipulated and controlled the entire family since day one, did all this because she loved them?
Sure. Sounds legit.
And in case you're wondering, this conversation happens when Lettie comes home:
""When you make your confession before the membership... must you reveal everything? I mean all the personal details?"
"I want to do the ministers' bidding... to come clean."
"'Tis a thorny issue, the confession."
Lettie replied softly, "It's up to the bishop what questions are asked of me."
Mamm's lips drew into a stiff line, and her cheeks flushed...
...Mamm reached out and placed a hand on Lettie's arm. "I wish you'd give it more thought, dear. Consider the consequences that such a disclosure might cause."
"For me?" Lettie whispered. "Or for you?""
Also Adah would rather her daughter be shunned for 6+ months rather than confess publicly.
But, you know, it's clearly because she loves her.
That's also probably why she doesn't want Grace to be friends with Englishers.
Alternative Title: The Book of Bigotry
Sometimes I look at Beverly's photo on the back of these books, and I wonder, does she realize that she's technically an Englisher? Because she certainly doesn't write like it.
This is the most bigoted, sectarianistic book in the entire series.
Englishers are, by Beverly's account, the most self-centered, greedy, fast-paced, impulsive, rude people in existence, leaving Amish characters to marvel that one of them "could even be considerate".
(Note: I'm not saying that we aren't capable of these, but blanket statements are very dangerous, and as all this is going on, the Amish folk are always described as being self-controlled, gracious, kind, industrious, etc. etc. etc. And imagine hearing someone say that they're shocked someone of your background could have any good qualities. Yeah. Great way to alienate your audience, Beverly.)
To punctuate this, we got one scene that's sole purpose was to have two English characters talk about how great the Amish are. Nothing else. At all.
Alternative Title: The Infomercial Catalog
We got all the infomercials. Infomercials on the Amish, infomercials on jam, infomercials on the effects of 'the American diet'.
Did you know that the true cause of addiction in our world is diet? If we didn't eat red meat and fries we wouldn't have alcoholics, obviously.
Heather the heathen
It has been verified that Heather's only purposes in this series was to be Lettie's daughter and get a smashed-together salvation story. And boy, did we get it.
Instrumental in her salvation journey is her experience at the health-lodge -- which is VERY illegal (see part 2) and meets nearly all of the criteria of being a cult -- and Jim, a guy she met online under an anonymous name and never saw until he drove 5 hours to meet her. Within minutes of their visit, he's spewing such lovely romantic phrases as:
"I knew you'd be this pretty, Heather. From the way you expressed yourself... I knew."
Oh, but don't worry, he's a Christian, and he wrote her a poem prayer, and he used to work at Busch Gardens when she went there all the time with her parents, so they're not total strangers and it's not creepy at all when he touches her arm without reason, immediately asks her to go on a date, , and all that. It's fine. He's also super attractive, so yeah.
The moment of salvation is in itself only explainable as, 'this girl's body is going through a chemical cleanse, thus her emotions are everywhere.' One minute she's a skeptic, the next she's praying "a prayer of broken hearts and broken wings." There's no build-up, and no consequences. It's just fluff.
The Conclusion
As I said in the beginning, the series got better. Judah and Lettie have a stronger relationship, Yonnie has finally been recognized as good, and Lettie is forgiven by the church.
But none of that can change how disturbing this series is.
It probably would have done better if it was a single book, so that way we wouldn't get the wrong moral lessons and authorial opinions expressed in the first book (like the ideal wife being hard-working, happy and hot concept, which works as a starting point for Judah's growth, but is confusing when it is never challenged until halfway through the second book.)
All the characters are over-emotional in places they shouldn't be, and non-emotional in places they should be.
There is no reason or realism.
There are no solid opinions, other than the Amish being perfection incarnate while the rest of the human race is corrupt and selfish.
Conflict -- the very blood of good storytelling -- is avoided at all costs.
Overall, this is probably the worst series I've read, up to date.
What I'm trying to say is that if your readers come upon a scene that's well-written, with strong theme and character development, then pause to look at each other and sincerely ask:
"Is the author dead?"
Then you're probably doing something wrong.
This is not to say that Beverly Lewis can never write something good, or that it's a completely hopeless genre, but it's going to take a lot of work to make that change. Plus the humility to acknowledge that sometimes we write crap. That's what the editing process is for.
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