“…There is a Friend Who Sticks Closer Than a Brother”
It has been a year since Ethan died, but his sister Charlotte Dolinsky is still devastated. 
She is sure that the Amish community that he had recently joined is responsible for some sort of cover-up. Growing up in a dysfunctional family, Mary and Ethan were separated as older teens. They were put in separate foster homes where they both were cruelly treated. After becoming adults, they reconnected and were very close. She has been suspicious ever since she found out her brother was joining the Amish faith, and is sure someone, possibly his Amish fiancée, Hannah King, drove him to his death.
Charlotte decides to take things into her own hands, and investigate things herself. By pretending to be Mary, a distant Amish cousin visiting the King family, she hopes to become a part of their community. After briefly interviewing Amish women in her native Texas, and buying Amish dresses in a second-hand store, she believes she is ready to go to Pennsylvania.
Is it ever right to lie?
Mary has quite a culture shock when she comes to live with the close-knit Amish family. She has no religious background, experience with a loving family, or homemaking talent.
The King family is often perplexed by her lack of everyday skills and social blunders. Mary tries to cover this by making up lies. Those lies seem to get more involved by the minute, and Mary doesn’t know if she can keep them all straight. She doesn’t know which will happen first, uncovering the truth about Ethan, or the discovery that she isn’t really the Amish woman she claims to be.
The longer Mary stays among the Amish, the more complicated her relationships with them becomes, especially with Hannah. Mary is surprised by her change in feelings about the Amish in general, and the King family in particular. Before this story ends, will Mary decide to become Amish herself? Will Mary’s true identity be discovered, and will she then be shunned? And will Mary really find out the truth about Ethan’s death?
How unexpected!
This is a very different story-line for an Amish book, and I really enjoyed it. Events turn out differently than Mary/Charlotte thought, including some unknown information about Ethan she discovers while investigating. This story stands on its own, but it is easy to see how future books could explore story-lines further–and I look forward to that. I highly recommend this 5-story book to fans of Amish books, as well as, fiction lovers of all types.
The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of Her Brother’s Keeper through The Thomas Nelson Publishing BookLook Bloggers Program for the purpose of review. I have not been compensated in any other manner. All opinions expressed are my own, and I was not required, or influenced, to give anything but an honest appraisal. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
Author’s Website: http://bethwiseman.com
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