Book Review: The Thorn by Beverly Lewis

The Thorn is the first book in the Rose Trilogy by Beverly Lewis.

Beverly Lewis knows the Amish, and she knows how to write a trilogy! After reading Seasons of Grace and The Courtship of Nellie Fisher, I was impressed but slightly worried I would soon bore of of these three-book series with the same backdrop.

I was mistaken. Lewis contiunes to find new and interesting ways to lure the reader back into the Amish day-to-day of Lancaster County and continues to find new and interesting secrets and questions of faith for her charachers to struggle with.

Rose, her sister, and her bad-girl friend are three wonderful examples of Lewis' ability to create different characters and weave them into the same community, trilogy after trilogy. Similarity to her other works is enough for the reader to find comfort in what they are picking up to read , yet the characters' problems, secrets and faith journeys are fresh yet relatable. Most of all, they keep you turning the pages.

There is a maybe courtship, a Bishop's son, a marriage in question, a few decent twists and, as always with Lewis, a good clifhanger that will make you ask, "When is book 2 in the Rose Trilogy coming out?"

I find Beverly Lewis a breath of fresh air from the boring, predictable and lackluster options in women's fiction these days. Instead of spewing propaganda on how to fool a man into loving you, how to steal a man or how to have a baby without a man like sooo many books in women's fiction right now, Lewis writes of universal themes amidst a backdrop of a way of life so seemingly different from our own.

The Thorn continues to ask questions of life, love, family, and faith that all Lewis' books center on in a new and exciting way.

***Thanks to Bethany House for providing me an advance copy of this book for review!***