My Amish Addiction: The Search (Spoiler Alert!) by Suzanne Woods Fisher

I only finished reading The Search (book 3- I accidentally ready them out of order) three days ago and I'm already busting through another one (The Choice- which is book 1) of Suzanne Woods Fisher's books about Amish families in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. The books also make reference to some characters coming from Amish settlements in Ohio as well- and those Ohio-Amish are the progressive 'radicals' who do things like build barns with bolts rather than just nails... Ohio bred radicals like that. ;)

I'm already getting a little foggy on The Search only because I can't get this latest book, The Choice, off of my mind. I'm antsy to sit down and finish it too, but I know I need to spill my guts in order about The Search to my thoughts make the most sense.

Obviously I've become addicted to reading Fisher's work. The Search was fun read because it was about entirely new characters, but Caleb Zook, who was one of the main characters in the first book I read (The Waiting-book 2), popped up on the periphery. This book focused on Lainey O'Toole and Bess Reihl who are half sisters from what I can tell (but Bess doesn't find out about this secret until much later in the book).

The story starts off with Bess being sent to visit her grandmother in Lancaster County at the beginning of summer. We aren't sure why Bess has suddenly decided to visit, but it seems that there's some sort of good-hearted trickery on the behalf of the grandmother, Bertha, that initiates this visit. Meantime, Lainey O'Toole comes back to town and finds herself sucked in by a fateful car break-down. Bertha, being her tricky self, manages to welcome Lainey back to town in her gruff but loving way. Before we know it Bertha has also managed to good-heartedly "trick" her estranged son to coming to town to "rescue" her and Bess from jail.

The conflicts are numerous. Bertha shares with Lainey that she know about the "baby-swap" and grief and selfless love become major themes. With this, Lainey and Bertha try to figure out the right time to break the news to both Bess and her father, Jonah, that Bess is really Lainey's half sister and not Jonah's legitimate daughter. We also find out that Jonah's daughter really died with his wife in the buggy accident that left him with remaining physical maladies and Lainey swapped out the babies to protect Bess from the rough homelife Lainey endured.

While this main conflict plays out, other minor conflicts such as finding the polluter who's been destroying a nearby pond's ecosystem and a love triangle between Bess, Billy Lapp (Bertha's apprentice) and a cunning Amish bombshell keep the reader nail-biting with a box of tissues on standby.

I love Fisher's balanced approach to writing. There's some love to keep the romantics interested, but there's always some death and real-world manipulation to keep the cynics at bay. I also appreciate the fact marriage isn't one dimensional in her stories: she shows how it's used as a tool for creating bonds between families on both the physical as well as the financial level. As well, she shows the fact that 'love' sometimes gets in the way of reasoning, but that ultimately patience and selflessness always win out to determine whether or not a relationship should endure. I wish more people were given such a message when deciding whether or not to pursue relationships- I think this might prevent some discontent for young lovers.

My first complaint about the book was this: I read 291 pages and had didn't realize the story was set in the 1970s until I read the wedding date for one of the couples. It jarred me into the past, whereas I had been visualizing a modern day Amish story. I guess I should have remember that Caleb Zook and his story (Book 2) was taking place during Vietnam, but I'd totally forgotten because there hadn't really been any other obvious indicators to me about the era. I guess I'd dismissed the VW Bug breaking down to it simply being old (since you still see them around today- but mostly in rough shape). So, this may be my fault, but I found myself dissatisfied because it seemed like an unnecessary detail that could have allowed readers to connect on more levels and related on more levels if the story was left open to any time period.

With this being said, my second complaint/point of confusion was this: If Lainey and Bess are half sisters, I'm having a hard time deciding if they share a father or a mother...? Here's why this matters: If Lainey and Bess share a father, Simon, then it seems that the relationship between Lainey and Jonah that develops seems a bit incestuous because Simon is Jonah's uncle...

I mentioned both of these points of confusion to my mother-in-law, Anita, so I had to call her to see if she figured out the relationship (I'd already loaned the book to her because I'd knew she'd just love the story). She set me straight: 1. With the time period issue, early in the book it does hint at the time period because it mentions something about either Lainey or Bess's birthday and then it makes reference to how old she is in the book--which helps put the reader in the frame that it is indeed set in the late 60s & early 70s. 2. Simon is Jonah's uncle and here's how each girl's relationship breaks down with Simon: Simon & his wife get married & the wife brings her daughter, Lainey, with her to the family. Simon's wife then has Colleen with Simon and then the wife dies, leaving Simon responsible for Lainey and newborn Collen. Meantime, Jonah, his wife & their newborn get into a buggy accident. Jonah gets hospitalized, his wife and the baby die on the scene. Lainey shows up on the scene to help (has the baby, Colleen, with her?) and tells Jonah that his wife is dead, but the baby made it in order to give Jonah hope and a reason to continue to live and try to get better. So, when Lainey and Jonah get together later on (15+ years after the accident), Jonah is not related to her by blood, but he would technically be her step-uncle..?

I'm still not sure if I have this right, but I can definitely say that I've found myself thinking and talking about this novel- which are the reasons I enjoy reading. Why read it if you can't share it?
If you like a book with tasty layers, this book is definitely one for you. This would be a particularly good book for a book club because you could discuss this for hours without tiring of the numerous nuggets and the complex characters. And don't worry, I didn't even begin to tell enough about the book to do it justice. You'll just have to pick up a copy to see what I mean.