The Caregiver: Families of Honor, Book One
Shelly Shepard Gray, the much-beloved author of the Sisters of the Heart and Seasons of Sugarcreek books, returns with The Caregiver, the first book in her moving and inspirational Amish romance series, Families of Honor. A heart-soaring tale of faith and love in the bestselling tradition of Beverly Lewis, Wanda Brunstetter, and Cindy Woodsmall, it tells of two lives that converge one stormy night on a train bound for Cleveland. The Caregiver is Christian romantic fiction at its very finest.
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The Amish do NOT live in a perfect world,
Lucy is the victim of an abusive husband. What makes her situation unique is that both she and her husband are Amish. I find this groundbreaking because other books dealing with the Amish tend to make their entire lifestyle to seem so peaceful and full of tranquility and that nothing from the outside world taints their community. However Gray clearly shows that the Amish are not immune from this type of behavior and Lucy’s husband was just as terrible as abusive husbands from the outside world. What probably made it even more worse for her is that there was absolutely no one she could tell this to and to get any sort of help would have been really frowned upon. I ache that she had to go through all of it alone and the emotional and physical scars that it left on her.
At first I got annoyed with Lucy for making such a harsh judgment about Calvin after one single incident. Her complete 180 attitude and not even bothering to try to listen to his reason for why he did what he did got on my nerves. Then I realized that she is coming from an abusive relationship. She is wary of any sort of hints of abuse in a person’s character because she fears it. I immediately changed my mind about her and began to empathize with her.
Cancer is another topic I hadn’t seen mentioned in this book. Again it shows that even the Amish are not immune to the diseases that ravage the rest of the world. Mattie is very young to deal with breast cancer and it’s painful to watch her have to suffer with it. Even though her faith is quite strong, there are days where she’s angry and sullen which is completely normal and I am glad that Gray portrayed her in that light.
With all the heavy talk, there is still a nice romance thrown in as well. I really liked seeing Lucy and Calvin’s relationship grown throughout the story. It’s well done because the relationship feels to grow at a natural speed. I also really loved how much the Amish love Wal-mart. It’s totally awesome to see them visiting the store and being quite comfortable with it. This is another winner from Gray and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.
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|A new take on the Amish story,
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|Exasperating!,
While I do like Amish romance novels, I found this one exasperating. For one, the POV switches between at least four people, which can get confusing, especially when those people aren’t in the same place as each other. One minute you’re on a train traveling the countryside during a storm, and the next you’re in town going to a medical center for cancer treatments, and the next you’re back on the train. Personally, I prefer novels that start new chapters when introducing a new POV character, rather than inserting completely new scenes into the middle of existing scenes.
I also found the author’s use of sentence fragments quite annoying. The occasional sentence fragment can be used successfully for dramatic effect, but she uses them on every single page! By page 38, I wanted to throw the book across the room. It’s lazy writing.
Then, too, the psychology in the story seems a bit odd. It’s been my impression that women suffering from Battered Women’s Syndrome aren’t aware of the reasons behind their reactions. They may act skittish, and have low self-esteem, and all of that, but they don’t typically sit there and analyze their actions, thinking, “I’m behaving this way because of what my abusive husband did to me.” At least, not unless they’re highly educated in the subject, which (perhaps I’m wrong) it doesn’t seem likely an Amish woman would be.
On the other hand, the characters are interesting. The author has a way of inserting backstory and giving the characters a three-dimensionality that’s refreshing to read. And the story itself is good. The premise puts a twist on the usual Amish romance, so it’s not quite your standard fare. Even so, the writing made the book very difficult for me to read.
Three stars, because while the book has some redeemable qualities, it also has some major issues. I might try this author again after she’s had a few more books under her belt and has had time to mature as a writer.
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