The Parting Book Review

The Parting (The Courtship of Nellie Fisher, Book 1) by Beverly Lewis was on the shelf when I went searching for a new series while I was at the library, as well as the next two books in the series.  I was excited to get the whole series to bring home so that I could read one after the other and not have to reserve them and wait for them to come in.  I don't know if you do the book reserves at the library but it really is great as long as you plan ahead.  It is like getting exactly what you want every time you walk in the library but some stuff has long lines so you have to be patient.

Nellie Mae Fisher is dealing with the loss of her sister (and best friend) while trying to run her bakery and find someone to spend her life with.  At the same time as she is dealing with lots in her life, her parents are interested in learning more from the Bible which is not allowed by the Ordnung.  They have both been caught by the saving grace of God and are being threatened by being shunned.  Nellie Mae had met Caleb and they were courting and soon to be married.  She thought that she was going to be loosing her family to a shunning when things quickly changed.  It is an amazing transformation but you have to pick up the book and see for yourself what happens.

This book was set in 1966 but didn't seem a lot different then the current world in the Amish community.    It was different then some of the other Beverly Lewis books and it focused mainly on one family.  Usually the books change to a lot of different people in the community but this family had a lot of different things going on within them with the changes to the church, dealing with the death of a sister/daughter, and trying to find someone to share their lives with.  I thought it was a great coming of age story in the Amish community and gave lots of interesting issues with staying with the Amish faith.  I hope that you pick it up and see what you think about this start to this interesting series.