The Choice by Suzanne Woods Fisher

“Folks think they’re traveling on the right road and something happens to stop them – something big, like a mistake they made, or a sin. Then, even though they feel so bad, they just stay stuck.” (p.247)

Lancaster County Secrets is the perfect title for the first novel in Suzanne Woods Fisher’s debut novel – just as The Choice is an even more perfect title for the first book in the series. You see, there are a lot of folks living in Carrie Weaver’s Amish community mired in their own shortcomings. The mire that binds them is fear of the truth, and the secrets kept to hide those truths prove almost too much to bear.

When The Choice begins, the reader is tempted to think this is a love story that will resolve simply by either the man or woman choosing whether or not to be Amish. However, it isn’t long before the story takes some pretty astounding turns, and the quiet, staid world of the Amish – particularly the Weaver and the Miller families – are turned upside down and backwards. Just as intricate and unpredictable as Yonnie Miller’s crazy quilts, the storyline of Suzanne Fisher’s debut novel binds first one life and then another through an ever deepening series of circumstances until the overall effect is both breathtaking and yet quietly amazing. The truth of God’s mercy and grace are the threads that ultimately draw the characters of this novel to a meaningful, albeit terribly painful place of choosing whether or not truth continues to bind them or if it will free them all forever.

Sol Reich wants to play baseball, Carrie wants to be with the man she loves, but she also wants to protect her younger brother , and Daniel Miller just wants to find a way to move beyond a very painful past. What none of them ever dream possible is that the truth brought into their lives by an innocent man serving time in prison would forever change their future.

The Choice is a fresh new way to look at the Amish lifestyle while considering the ways God moves in our lives to bring each of us to the truth of His mercy and grace. I am excited to introduce this novel and the ensuing series to you, and look forward to continuing this story!