An Old Order Mennonite girl with a troubled family background falls in love with an Old Order Amish young man, burdened with a stutter and responsibilities within his own family. Strictly forbidden by their two different religions, Annie and Aden must decide if they are willing to risk everything to be together or if they will choose to honor vows made to their churches. Also figuring into the equation is Aden's twin brother, Roman, who was injured in a farming accident and is paraplegic. Aden functions as Roman's legs and Roman has often functioned as Aden's mouth.
There's a reason that I tend to stay away from short stories and novellas. They just aren't satisfying to me in the same way a full-length story with plenty of plot development is. Everything just seems too easy because it happens too quickly; the life struggles that I identify with do not come into play. In this story the biggest hurdle was religious ostracism and, really, how many readers can relate to that? At first I thought that this story was going to be about two families as much as two people, and that would have been much more interesting, from my point of view. I'm used to Cindy Woodsmall tackling real and heart-breaking challenges and these just didn't strike me the same way.
That said, Woodsmall is still an amazing wordsmith. I'll continue to read and hope to see more of what I've found in the Sisters of the Quilt and Ada's House series.
"The Scent of Cherry Blossoms" releases to bookstores everywhere tomorrow, Feb. 21. You can already read the first chapter here. Thank you to Waterbrook Multnomah for my copy and for partnering with bloggers in so many ways!
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