The Thorn

GoodBookStall Review - Mary Bartholomew

The inspiration for this trilogy was found when Beverly Lewis and her husband visited the area ‘just southeast of Quarryville, Pennsylvania’, and discovered the ‘rugged ravine below Bridle Path Lane’ This set her imagination racing into what has become The Rose Trilogy. I ‘Googled’ Quarryville and looked at the photographs of Amish farmland and families. Rose Ann is of marriageable age, but her time is taken up with looking after her badly injured Mother, who some time before, fell into the local ravine when she was catapulted from her buggy as the young driving horse was startled. On their farm Rose’s father employs his friend the Bishop’s adopted son Nick, who has never taken to Amish ways, and is constantly warring with the Bishop’s natural son Christopher. Nick and Rose Ann have always been close friends, nothing more, but when an old acquaintance, Silas Good, seeks to court her things change. Alongside this thread of the story is that of Rose’s sister Hen, who married an Englisher and is now, to her surprise, desperately missing her previously well ordered way of life. All these elements are woven together to make another excellent book from this well loved author.