Sense and Sensibility

An Amish Classic!

What transpires when you blend Jane Austen's memorable characters with Sarah Price's unique Amish voice? A classic retelling of Sense and Sensibility is born—a truly captivating, but heartbreaking tale of two sisters who learn the hard way that the road to love is sometimes incredibly rocky—and appearances can often be painfully deceptive!

While on his deathbed, Henry Detweiler exacts a promise from his eldest son from a previous marriage, John, to take care of his second wife and daughters—Eleanor, Mary Ann, and Maggie. However, when John's wife, Fanny, moves to their farm she makes no bones about her feelings for Mrs. Detweiler and her daughters, and proceeds to make life miserable for them. Edwin Fisher, Fanny's brother, is not at all like his sister and Eleanor begins to fall for him despite the fact that he has shown her nothing but friendship. When a relative makes a way for the Detweilers to move into a small cottage in the Amish community of Quarryville, they jump at the chance.

While Eleanor quietly pines for Edwin and wonders if he will visit, her impetuous sister, Mary Ann, welcomes the attentions of the very handsome and charming John Willis, falling head over heels in love after only knowing him for a short while. Will these two sisters with very dissimilar temperaments and different approaches to love receive the proposals they long for...or will both be left grief-stricken and alone?

I absolutely loved this delightful novel and finished it in two short evenings! In my opinion, Sarah Price has truly shown her phenomenal writing skills in this novel as never before! Although I have always enjoyed her books this one has to go down as my favorite. You'll find yourself reaching for the tissues as the Detweiler sisters have to suffer pain and heartache to learn humility and gain maturity...especially the impulsive Mary Ann. Sarah Price has splendidly brought my best-loved Jane Austen tale to life—a modern day masterpiece for "sure and certain" (as the Amish would say!)



Thanks to Net Galley and Realms for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Detweiler women were forced from there home after the unexpected loss of their father and husband. When they get settled Eleanor wonders if she will be able to remain close to Edwin or if the relationship and moving has taken its toll and its time for her to move on. Mary Ann meets a man who she believes is the love of her life but her family quickly see he may just be hiding something that could destroy Mary Ann all the while Christian sits back and knows he will have to bide his time so that he can show her what everyone else sees. But will it all be to late for the girls or will they both find love waiting on the other side of the loss?
I just loved this book. Usually I like to have the story told from both peoples point of view but Sarah did and amazing job nailing it with this book. I loved each of the characters from the nasty sister in law to the busy body neighbor and the sassy little sister who is just to happy to be grown up. The loss in the book just get you but you see Gods working hand in all of it. There was not one thing I did not like about this book. I found it extremely hard to put down the book is extremely captivating and draws you in to a point where you just need to know what happens. Such a page turner. You really can not go wrong with this book so worth the buy.

While on his deathbed Henry Detweiler asks his son John to make him one promise that when he takes over the farm that he will continue to provide for his stepmother and three half sisters Eleanor, Mary-Ann and Maggie. He makes the promise, but within a few weeks of his father's death John and his wife Fanny along with their spoiled son take over the farm, and it doesn't take Fanny long to take over, and she makes it pretty clear that the family that her husband promised to take care of are nothing but a burden. When Fanny's brother Edwin comes to the farm to help out a relationship of sorts forms between him and the oldest daughter Eleanor, but when the Detweiler women decide to move to another relative's farm that is a good distance away what will happen with Eleanor and Edwin? Meanwhile Mary-Ann blames Eleanor for not making her feelings clear where Edwin was concerned. When two men show an interest in Mary-Ann she overlooks one and begins openly dating the second, but when things don't work out as she anticipated she finds herself heartbroken. What is in store for these two Amish sisters?

I must admit I haven't read Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, but I can't imagine that it could be any better than Sarah Price's Amish twist on the story. I found myself drawn in immediately and couldn't put this book down. The story was compelling. It was interesting to see the different way that Eleanor and Mary-Ann think about courtship. I really could commiserate with the Detweiler women, I could just imagine how it must have felt to have Fanny move in and take over, and then to act like they were a burden. I really kept hoping that John would get some backbone. I would love if the author would provide another book in order to see what happens with the youngest sister Maggie. I really feel like her story could be fantastic. Truly an enjoyable read that has me wanting to read Sarah Price's other books on the retelling of Jane Austen Amish style.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review.

Full disclosure here: I have never read the original Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. My review of Sarah Price's retelling is based solely on my enjoyment of her book on its own and not as a comparison of it to the original. Now for my review...

I really enjoyed this book. The story was so easy to get involved in, and I found myself hooked from page one. The character development was fantastic. My favorite character was Eleanor. I felt she was the easiest to relate to and was everything you would expect from a young, yet mature, Amish woman. I found Mary Ann to be a bit immature but enjoyed seeing her character grow and mature throughout the story. Widow Jennings reminded me of the jolly nun from the movie Sister Act, always chatty and laughing. Although after a bit one could see her true colors as a gossip and she didn't seem quite so nice to me. And then there was Fanny. Don't even get me started on her! It has been some time since I have wanted to smack a fictional character upside the head and give her a piece of my mind but that's just what I wanted to do with Fanny. This just shows Sarah's ability as an author to make the characters come to life and make you have feelings towards them.

This story has all of the elements one would expect in Amish fiction. In fact, the story didn't seem like it was a retelling of a classic but just a well-written story about an Amish family facing changes and challenges in their lives. I found myself totally immersed in the Detweiler sisters story.

The story progresses nicely and there were enough twists and turns to make me wonder what was going to happen next and keep me reading "just to the end of this chapter" until I had read chapter after chapter and reached the end of the story.

I think I now want to read the original of this story to see how it compares to this one. Hopefully, I won't be disappointed!

I received a free copy of this book from the author for reviewing purposes. All opinions are mine and mine alone. I was in no way pressured or encouraged to leave a positive review.

Sarah Price does an amazing job with this story and unfortunately for me I had it all read in less than a day, I wanted more, and there was with the epilogue, which I loved.
When Henry’s oldest son takes a vow on his deathbed to take car of his family, and John agrees, you could feel the sick man’s sigh of relief. Of course, things are not about to be running smooth, when John’s wife banishes the family to the dawdi house, and talks her husband out of giving them the money he was supposed to give them. I hated that she had Maggie’s favorite climbing tree cut down, could really dislike Fanny.
Wait until you see what God has planned for Eleanor and Mary Ann, and will choose correctly? What a read you are about to experience, and once you start you won’t be able to put it down.
We meet manipulators at their worse, and you want to shake them, but we can only hope that these girls will come the their senses and follow God’s plan for their lives. We find that sometimes, the evil some people display does come back to haunt them, and then I felt sorry for them also. Don’t miss this great read you won’t be disappointed!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Realms, and was not required to give a positive review.