"Ties That Bind" by Cindy Woodsmall

About this book:

  “Ariana’s comfortable Old Order Amish world is about to unravel. Will holding tightly to the cords of family keep them together—or simply tear them apart?
  Twenty-year-old Ariana Brenneman loves her family and the Old Ways. She has two aspirations: open a café in historic Summer Grove to help support her family’s ever-expanding brood and to keep any other Amish from being lured into the Englisch life by Quill Schlabach.
  Five years ago Quill, along with her dear friend Frieda, ran off together, and Ariana still carries the wounds of that betrayal. When she unexpectedly encounters him, she soon realizes he has plans to help someone else she loves leave the Amish.
 Despite how things look, Quill’s goal has always been to protect Ariana from anything that may hurt her, including the reasons he left. After returning to Summer Grove on another matter, he unearths secrets about Ariana and her family that she is unaware of. His love and loyalty to her beckons him to try to win her trust and help her find a way to buy the café—because when she learns the truth that connects her and a stranger named Skylar Nash, Quill knows it may upend her life forever.”


Series: Book #1 in “The Amish of Summer Grove” series.

Spiritual Content- Prayers; Talks about God & judging; Talks about the Amish beliefs; Scriptures are discussed, quoted & mention; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God (expect when Skylar referrers to God the ‘H’s are not capital); Mentions of hell & damnation; Mentions of church; Many characters have wonderings about God & aren’t completely sure about things; Nicholas is very against religion of any kind & “detests religion”;

*Note: A “My God” is said from Nicholas. {{I personally take it as him taking the Lord’s name in vain, due to him being against religion.}}

 
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘bull’, a ‘heck’, a form of ‘idiot’, two ‘crap’s, two ‘geez’s, two ‘oh my gosh’s, two forms of ‘wimp’, nine ‘stupid’s; Skylar curses but they aren’t written out; Sarcasm; A mention of crude words; Skylar drinks; Skylar smokes pot, is addicted to prescription pills & has highs (semi-detailed to detailed); Many mentions of pot, drugs, & drug tests; Many mentions of smoking & cigarettes; Mentions of drinking, beer & drunks; Mentions of bars; Mentions of poison; Mentions of divorce; A mention of hunting.

Sexual Content- a kiss is blown, a cheek kiss, two semi-detailed kisses, and two borderline semi-detailed // detailed kisses; Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to be kissed; Touches & Nearness (up to semi-detailed); a ‘hot’, a guy is called “sinfully handsome”; A bit of flirting; A couple mentions of puberty (including a mention of a girl who went to flat-chested girl to a curvy woman which got a teen boy’s attention); Mentions of pictures of women in just underwear, Quill says at least one of his older brothers had certain magazines they hid; A mention of innuendos; A mention of a song talking about a guy taking a girl home; Many mentions of cheating; Mentions of out-of-wedlock pregnancies; Nicholas (married, age 35) & Brandi (age 20) had an affair together which resulted in a child; Giving birth (semi-detailed); Mentions of breast milk (semi-detailed);

                 *Note: A couple mentions of tight & very short clothing.

-Ariana Brenneman, age 20
                         P.O.V. switches between Ariana, Lovina, Skylar, Quill & Abram.
                                                        339 pages

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Pre Teens-

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Early High School Teens-

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My personal Rating-

I have very mixed feelings on this book, I’m not quite sure what to think. I just finished the Beverly Lewis “The Heritage of Lancaster County” trilogy, so I admit I was comparing the beginning of this book to that series. The beginning of “Ties That Bind” was quite slow, but picked up about halfway when the big secret (which I guessed) was revealed.  I don’t really like Skylar, but I have a feeling she’ll be worse in the second book (rebelling even more), but she could be a lot better. (But, I highly doubt that.) I also have another feeling that the second book may have quite a bit of witnessing. (At least, I hope so.) I’m iffy on Quill (which another thing—some very unique Old Oder Amish names are in this book!). I like Ariana & Rudy together (though I do not like all the kissing between them.), but I do like that Ariana & Quill grew up together. I’m not a fan of how the secret/ending was dealt with, and I am a bit annoyed on how the plot will be dragged out. Will I read the next book? Possibly, and if I do it’ll only be because I want to see if my predictions are right. ;)

See y’all on Wednesday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

*I received this book for free from the Publisher (Waterbrook Press) for this review.