Tuesday, June 11, 2019

A BOOK REVIEW OF ANDREW BY JENNIFER BECKSTRAND




Jennifer Beckstrand's newest novel, Andrew, will be available for purchase on June 25, 2019.  I've been a huge fan of Ms. Beckstrand for quite a long time.  Her novels perfectly combine Amish life, romance, humor, and the word of God.  Her Huckleberry series and the Bee Sisters series were so good, I read them more than once.  And now I'm happy to tell you that this new series about a family of brothers continues that same history of excellence.

The magic of Ms. Beckstrand's writing is in her ability to add real-life circumstances with outstanding and unexpected humor.  In Andrew, we have a former unbaptized Amish woman, Mary, who left her community to enjoy more freedoms and to live with an Englischer.  She winds up pregnant and decides to return to her Amish community to find that her parents want nothing to do with her.  Mary takes a chance and walks to Aunt Bitsy's home where eccentric Aunt Bitsy, of the Bee Sisters series, is more than happy to take Mary in.

Meanwhile, Andrew Petersheim's young twin brothers are plotting and planning to marry Andrew off.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, will stop those twins from getting Andrew married to Mary.  The only problem is Andrew considers Mary an unrepentant sinner since she is unmarried and pregnant.

In Andrew, Ms. Beckstrand pokes and prods us to consider forgiveness and judgment from all angles.  Do we say we forgive but really hold on to that wrong and continue to judge the sinner?

I fell in love all over again with Jennifer Beckstrand's writing reading Andrew.  And I think you will too.  This is a five-star novel, one that you will enjoy having in your library to read over and over again.