When you think of Amish fiction you think of the same thing: they all live in PA and never really go anywhere, right? That’s what I thought, because those are the same kinds of Amish stories I’ve read before. But Beside Still Waters by Tricia Goyer is so far from that.

One thing that is totally different from other Amish novels is the fact that the characters live in Indiana. Never heard of that before. It was a seriously nice change of pace.

So novel follows Marianna Sommer who has an interesting story right off the bat. There was a crisis in the family before she was born. Her parents, two sisters and a brother were in an accident the night that Marianna was born. Her sisters didn’t survive, and their names were both combined to make up her name. Fast forward 18 years later. Her brother had left the Amish and had a job living the Englisch way… which wasn’t exactly the preferred path as far as his family were concerned.

Marianna was not choosing the same path as her brother had. She knew it brought much grief for her mother. But it wasn’t the right path for her. She was supposed to continue with the Amish way of life. She even had a potential husband. But in all of the craziness of life at that moment. Her parents had decided to move them out to Montana for a time. Marianna wasn’t happy about this at all, she was promised that she could go back to Indiana in a while. So she helped til then, mostly because her mother was pregnant.

While there she met Ben. She didn’t want to like him or even talk to him because he was an Englisch person but the ways of the Amish were different in Montana. And she couldn’t help but talk to him sometimes. But during these times while talking with Ben he shows her a little bit how to have a deeper relationship with God. While in Montana she rarely thinks about Indiana, though sometimes she does. And in the end where does she stay? Will she leave? You must find out for yourself! Beside Still Waters will hit bookstores in April! Check it out!