The Thorn (The Rose Trilogy, Book 1) (Volume 1)
Impulsive and self-absorbed Hen, who left her Old-Order Amish family to marry a man of the world, and sweetly obedient Rose Ann, the younger sister upon whose slim shoulders falls responsibility for their crippled mother’s care, are both troubled in spirit. Hen now has a four-year-old daughter and yearns for a romanticized version of the Plain life she left behind, thus forsaking her husband for her parents’ house. Rose Ann finds solace in currying and riding her father’s driving horses, accompanied only by her dear childhood friend Nick, the rebellious now-grown foster son of their bishop who refuses to join the church. Suspicion, melodrama, and misdirected passions are the order of the day in best-selling, Christy Award-winning Lewis’ newest Amish romance, the first in a trilogy set in 1985 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and introducing the two Kauffman sisters, one struggling to reconcile her background and beliefs with her obligations, and the other innocently unaware that not one but two young men want to claim her. --Lynne Welch