The Devoted, A Moment of Reading with God

Suzanne Woods Fisher's latest installment in The Bishop's Family series is The Devoted and it is like a good long visit with old friends in the Amish parish of Stoney Ridge.  While the central story reintroduces the characters of Ruthie Stoltzfus and Luke Schrock, now grown, and lets the reader get to know them while all the familiar residents make appearances in the daily life of the community where so much is happening just beneath the surface.

Ruthie is dissatisfied with Amish life.  She wants to be someone important and do important things...like Dok, her English aunt, the community's new doctor. However, she doesn't know what it is God wants her to do or whom He wants in her life, the handsome bad boy, Luke, or the quiet, newcomer, Patrick Kelly, who has an unshakable peace about him.

Throughout the book, Fisher takes the reader inside some very big problems facing the modern Amish.  Problems the bishop must find a way to handle before they change Stoney Ridge and not for the better.

This was a good story with well developed characters and continuity from the previous books in the series (and it did a nice job of letting the reader know who the next book will feature).  The writer did something that is too often lacking in "Christian" fiction.  She actually did more than pay lip service to God.  There was real meat to the story.  Fisher included scriptures to show how the characters were thinking and followed their thought processes and meditations. Many things made this reader stop and consider.

Amish fiction isn't for everyone, but if you enjoy it or similar types of books you will find The Devoted to be exceptional.

This is part of the Write 31 Days challenge.

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