The Harvest Of Grace (An Ada's House Novel) by Cindy Woodsmall ~ review

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (August 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400073987
• ISBN-13: 978-1400073986

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About the book:

Product Description

Reeling from an unexpected betrayal, can Sylvia find relief from the echoes of her past…or will they shape her future forever? 

Although Sylvia Fisher recognizes that most Old Order Amish women her age spend their hours managing a household and raising babies, she has just one focus—tending and nurturing the herd on her family’s dairy farm. But when a dangerous connection with an old beau forces her to move far from home, she decides to concentrate on a new start and pour her energy into reviving another family’s debt-ridden farm.

After months in rehab, Aaron Blank returns home to sell his Daed’s failing farm and move his parents into an easier lifestyle. Two things stand in his way: the father who stubbornly refuses to recognize that Aaron has changed and the determined new farmhand his parents love like a daughter. Her influence on Aaron’s parents could ruin his plans to escape the burdens of farming and build a new life.

Can Aaron and Sylvia find common ground? Or will their unflinching efforts toward opposite goals blur the bigger picture— a path to forgiveness, glimpses of grace, and the promise of love.

My take on this book:

The plot of this book revolves around Sylvia Fisher, a twenty-two year old Amish girl who is different than most. She's a girl who isn't afraid to get out in the dairy barns and work, actually the love of dairy farming was instilled in her by her grandfather, who actually left her his home when he died.When she hesitates to give her boyfriend an answer to his marriage proposal he does the unthinkable and marries her sister, life becomes difficult on the farm, but when something unthinkable happens between her and her old beau she decides its time to find another home and winds up going to work for Michael Blank an Amish farmer whose dairy farm is struggling. When the Blank's renegade son Aaron returns home, he has one thing on his mind and that's selling the family farm so that his family can have an easier life but there is one thing standing in his way and that's Sylvia. When feelings start to develop between Aaron and Sylvia will he change his plans, and what about Sylvia will she ever be able to forgive herself and go home again?


Sylvia isn't your typical Amish woman, she would much rather be working out in the barn than inside cooking and cleaning, and actually there were only a few mentions of her doing "inside" chores instead she was all about the workings of a dairy farm. The reason Sylvia had to leave the family farm was tough, in my eyes she did nothing wrong instead Elam, her former beau was to blame but of course Sylvia struggled with finding forgiveness for herself. I did like how her sister finally confessed to her part in all that happened. I was so glad to read Aaron's story, having read about him in previous novels I wondered how things would work out for him. 


This is the third book in the Ada House series by Cindy Woodsmall. While there is a brief summary at the beginning of this book to remind us of what happened in the previous books as well as a cast of characters that introduces us to the cast in this book, it would have been difficult for me to have followed the secondary stories  without having read the first two first books in the series simply because those stories are continuations of previous books. That said if your a fan of Amish fiction,that isn't just your typical Amish love story then you really should check out Cindy Woodsmall's Ada House Series because each of the books have characters that are dealing with real life issues and struggles that are easy to relate to even if your not Amish. 


A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.