The Choice (Lancaster County Secrets, Book 1) [Paperback]

Suzanne Woods Fisher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

Lancaster County has always been her home--but where does her heart belong?

Carrie Weaver is torn between following the man she loves or joining the community of faith that sustains her. As she questions some of the decisions of her elders, her choice begins a torrent of change, including a marriage of convenience to silent Daniel Miller. Staring into a future as broken as her heart, Carrie is faced with a choice. But will this opportunity be all she hoped?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The newest entry to the growing ranks of bonnet fiction writers is Fisher, who has written Amish nonfiction (Amish Peace). This Lancaster County tale centers on Carrie Weaver, who marries an Amish man for convenience though her heart is committed to another. Carrie struggles to care for her hemophiliac younger brother as she lives with the consequences of her own choices. The outline is promising, but the execution flawed. An intriguing heroine shows the author's potential, but major problems compromise the book's overall merit. The plot creaks too loudly; a few too many characters die to complicate the action, and the character who poses the biggest threat is more a caricature than credible villain. Minor characters—an oversized lovable ex-con, a harpy stepmother—likewise mostly serve plot rather than populate a convincingly drawn world. The language can get adjective-laden and trite (The air had grown thick and heavy). Bonnet fiction devotees might be able to overlook some problems, but this is not a strong new offering in the subgenre. (Jan.)
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From the Back Cover

Lancaster County has always been her home--but where does her heart belong?

One moment Carrie Weaver was looking forward to running away with Lancaster Barnstormers pitcher Solomon Riehl--plans that included leaving the Amish community where they grew up. The next moment she was staring into a future as broken as her heart. Now, Carrie is faced with a choice. But will this opportunity be all she hoped? Or will this decision, this moment in time, change her life forever?

A tender story of love, forgiveness, and looking below the surface, The Choice uncovers the sweet simplicity of the Amish world--and shows that it's never too late to find your way back to God.


"Fisher's writing brings that Amish sense of peace into your own world. The Choice brings an entirely new perspective to the Amish way of life. You will love it!"--Kristin Billerbeck, author of What a Girl Wants

"A story of endearing characters. . . . Fisher writes with a fresh mix of humor and depth, splashing raw emotion onto the pages. I guarantee your heart will be touched."--Ginger Kolbaba, founding editor of Kyria.com, former editor of Today's Christian Woman, and author of Desperate Pastors' Wives


Suzanne Woods Fisher's interest in the Anabaptist culture can be directly traced to her grandfather, W. D. Benedict, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Suzanne is the author of Amish Peace and lives with her family in California.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Revell; Original edition (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800733851
• ISBN-13: 978-0800733858
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (133 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #480,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In no particular order, Suzanne Woods Fisher is a wife, mother, writer, lifelong student of the Bible, raiser of puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, a gardener and a cook...the latter two with sporadic results.

Suzanne has loved to write since she was a young teen. After college, she started to write for magazines and became a contributing editor for Christian Parenting Today magazine. Her family moved to Hong Kong for four years, just as the internet was developing, and she continued to write articles in a 44-story high-rise apartment, sending manuscripts 7,000 miles away with a click of a key.

After returning from Hong Kong, Suzanne decided to give her first novel a try. For four and a half months, she worked on an antediluvian computer in a cramped laundry room. She didn't even tell her husband what she was up to. When the novel was completed, she told her family at dinner one night that she had written a book. "That's why there's no food in this house!" said her slightly insensitive sons.

Undaunted...Suzanne found a small royalty publisher for that book and wrote three more (all earned multiple). With help from an agent, she has five books currently under contract with Revell. On September 1st, Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World, a non-fiction book of stories and examples about the Old Order Amish, will be released by Revell. The Choice, a novel about the Amish, will follow on January 1st.

Writing, for Suzanne, is a way to express a love of God and His word. With every book or article, she hopes readers get a sense of what faith really looks like in the daily grind. She hopes they realize that life can be hard, but God is good, and never to confuse the two.

Suzanne can be found on-line at: www.suzannewoodsfisher.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

143 of 148 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read, February 1, 2010

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Choice (Lancaster County Secrets, Book 1) (Paperback)

I'm a guy, and guys probably aren't supposed to read Amish romance books - but oh well. If I did what everyone else thought I should do, or not do, I'd never have any fun. I have read a few in my lifetime. One of my favorite vacation spots, second only to The Outer Banks, is Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, so I do enjoy books that take place there, such as this one.

I haven't read a lot of Amish books of this type, but I do think it is one of the best I have read. Move aside, Beverly Lewis, you have some new competition!

There is a lot of Amish beliefs/traditions in the book, but through one of the characters, there is also shown grace, and a side of God the Amish don't normally see - and I am afraid some of us non-Amish never see - the God of love and grace. The book is a good story - very likable characters, and it has its low places and high, sad and happy - but among the great story is the message that we can know we are going to Heaven, and God does love us and want a relationship with us - not just a far off worship of fear.

This is Suzanne Woods Fisher's first novel, and I would say she hit one out of the ballpark with this one.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars emotionally amazing, February 27, 2010

By 

readaholic (Canada) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Choice (Lancaster County Secrets, Book 1) (Paperback)

sooo Good!

lol I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I would. I've never read Amish fiction before, but Suzanne Woods Fisher made me fall in love with it! This incredible book just had my heart thumping and my eyes watering! So engaging, I couldn't put it down!

The story is basically this girl falls in love with a boy, but he decides to leave the group while he is on his rumspringa (their time when they get to experience the outside world if they want to before comitting to the church) and she ends up marrying someone else... it goes through love, forgiveness and about the choices we make that it's never too late to find ourselves with God... I even cried, and it takes a lot of me to cry in a book!

Whether your Amish or not this book has a lot to offer, the characters show depth and the emotions run raw in this book. I loved how much turmoil the main character when through and yet she learnt from it. So often we wonder why we go through things and we learn about forgiveness and God's real grace through it all.

It was sort of ironic that one of the books I just finished, Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris started off with the discussion of rumspringa, so the bit I had been learning about the Amish fit in nicely to this book and gave it more flavor for me.

If I could give a story 6 cherries I would! She'll be on my top author's list!

** review copy provided

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Choice, December 31, 2009

By 

Lollipops "lollipops5" (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Choice (Lancaster County Secrets, Book 1) (Paperback)

THE CHOICE is the first book in Ms. Fisher's Lancaster County Secrets series. I couldn't help but fall in love with Carrie as she struggles to find herself among many sudden, shocking changes, but I think Carrie definitely came out ahead, learning to lean more and more on God as each event unfolds.

Some of the events in the first third of the book were quite unexpected and broke my heart. But while I would have liked to not have read about some of the events that transpired, the book ultimately had a happy ending, and I was sad that it ended. I thoroughly enjoyed reading THE CHOICE and am looking forward to Ms. Fisher's second book in the series, The Waiting, coming in October 2010.