Library Journal Review

This is the third and final book in Lewis's "Annie's People" series, with all the story lines begun in the earlier works followed in this latest offering. Annie Zook promised her father that she wouldn't paint for six months and is waiting for her "sentence" to end. She feels he is unnecessarily harsher with her than with her brothers. When her best friend Essie's husband, Zeke Hochstetler, is arrested after confessing to the long-ago murder of his younger brother, Annie moves in with Essie to help with the four children and the work on the farm. This produces more problems for Annie as Essie is "under the shun" from their Amish community for attending the Mennonite Church. Meanwhile, Annie's father had forbidden her to see her sweetheart, Ben, so he goes home to Kentucky, where he discovers that he was adopted as a four-year-old. As usual, Lewis makes Annie and her people come alive. Unfortunately, it feels as if the author might have had another ending in mind, because the outcome seems contrived. Stina Nielsen reads in her customarily warm style, with the Amish voices having a different cadence from the English ones. Essential for libraries with the first two books in the series.-Nancy Reed, Immanuel Baptist Church Lib., Paducah, KY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.