A Sister's Secret

by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Book Overview

A Shameful Past Threatens to Unravel One Woman's FutureWill one woman's secrets destroy an entire Amish community? Can love and faith triumph over shame and deception? Putting her rumschpringe... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1597892262
• ISBN13: 9781597892261
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Barbour Publishing
• Length: 299 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Sisters Secret Book 1 Wanda Brunstetter Sisters of Holmes County

Grace Hostettler, the eldest daughter in the Hostettler family has returned to her Amish roots, after spending her rumspringa living amongst the English. Grace joins the Amish church and she becomes engaged to be married to a fine Amish man. Grace has been keeping secrets about her life as an member of the English community. She is keeping her secrets fro her family and her fiance and they are haunting her both day and night. Someone from Grace's past shows up and it is making her very nervous. Meanwhile random acts of vandalism and mysterious threats start happening to the Hostettler family.

Secrets..

or things not revealed sometimes can be devasting. Grace left the Amish faith, married a man, had a child. Her husband died, her in-laws took her daughter, so Grace went back to her family, settled into the Amish faith and life. Grace finds the love of her life, just gets married. Things are looking so bright. Then one day a man with a child shows up on her parents' doorstep, with her daughter, Anna. It is her ex father-in-law. His wife has died and he is sick so he thinks it is time for Anna to live with her mother. However, Grace never told anyone she was married to an English man and had a child. Her husband, Cleon, has a hard time with this deception. Meanwhile, it seems her family is having attacks on them. Her father's shop destroyed, her husband's beehives burned. Who is doing it? What do they want? Read this book, you won't be sorry.

Love the Twist.

If you enjoy reading this kind of a book you will like the twist in this one. It made me cry through out the book showing that true love will find it's way back.

Slow start, but taut suspense gets this book rolling

The Sister's Secret by Wanda Brunstetter is the first book in the Holmes County series about the Amish Hostettler family. Grace Hostettler is ready to marry Cleon Schrock after returning from her running around years (rumschpringe). But Grace has a secret that may be exposed by a reporter she knew during that time who is digging up stories on the Amish of Holmes County. Is he connected to the attacks on the Hostettler home and will Cleon be able to forgive Grace for the sins she committed before they met? I was completely surprised by this book. I was expecting a quiet family drama along the lines of Beverly Lewis' Amish books, and the slow start to this book led me further in that belief. But as pieces of Grace's life started to crash around her, the suspense ratcheted up very quickly. As the drama heightens, the pages flew by, until with only twenty or so pages to go, I was thinking No, it can't be over yet, but what about? and what about? The dialogue is a bit clunky in spots which makes for slower reading, but midway through the book I stopped noticing it and paid attention instead to the powerful plot. Grace's father and Cleon struggle so deeply with Grace's past, it's painful to read. Although Grace is more of a passive character in the story rather that a strong female lead taking action, that is to be expected of a young Amish woman, especially one who feels the deep shame she does. Grace took action once in her life and spent the next four years regretting it. And Amish passiveness is almost a character itself in the story: Grace's father's refusal to retaliate for the attacks, Cleon's response to Grace, etc. Ruth and Martha, Grace's sisters, each have their own story to tell (as I'm sure Brunstetter will in the sequels), and they are different, interesting characters. This story has many themes: forgiveness, how our actions impact others, turning the other cheek, temptation of the English world. This is the first book by Brunstetter I've read, but I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next in the series.

A Sister`s Secret

I really enjoyed this well-written book. I moves along nicely and makes you eager for a sequel.It gives you a picture of the unique lifestyle of te Amish and the Ohio Amish as compared to those in other areas.It develops the character of not only Grace , but each family member. I can`t wait for the next book in the series.