Adina Senft - The Sweetest Song: Amish romance

Senft is a talented author and her research on various herbs is a welcome surprise to readers... This sweet romance has a believable storyline and a lot of heart.

RT Book Reviews on Herb of Grace

Senft perfectly captures the Amish setting of the novel.

Christian Fiction Addiction on The Wounded Heart

Senft has crafted an appealing tale of searching for ones true identity. An interesting study of two mothers and how they have copedone with her loss, the other with her guilt, and the role of faith in that process.

BookLife on The Longest Road

The sweetest song comes from a forgiving heart. Whinburg Township Amish proverb

The summer Simon Yoder broke her heart was the summer Cora Swarey lost her ability to hear the music in Colorados high country. She thought God had brought them together, but when Simon dropped her to pursue an Englisch woman, she wondered how shed ever trust again. Yes, he came back asking forgiveness, and she gave it because that was what shed been taught. But she never forgot. It was almost a relief to know shed never see him again.

Until she is invited to a wedding in Whinburg Township, Pennsylvania.

Cora is the only woman Simon Yoder has ever wanted, but because of his own pride and conceit, she is out of his reach forever. So at his aunts wedding, its a more than a shock to see his biggest regret walk in with the other young women. God may be giving him another chance, but hes pretty certain Cora wont. Words dont hold much value, so he lays out a plan of action.

He knows that music is the key. Can he help her find the music again? And if he succeeds, how can he show her that shes the one who makes his heart sing?

For my readers, with gratitude

Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. Psalm 42:8 (KJV)

Late December

A wedding was a lot like Christmas, Cora Swarey had always thought. Both involved giving, and family, and a lot of good food. But while the focus of Christmas was on the little baby who would change the world, the focus of a wedding was on the couple who had accepted that little baby into their hearts, and whose vows would change their lives.

She sat at the back of the womens side in the big white tent the Isaac Yoders had rented for the occasion, watching Amanda Yoder and Joshua King say the words that would make them husband and wife. Amanda wore the blue dress and crisp white organdy cape and apron that shed begun making practically the moment shed stepped off the train in Lancaster in October. Joshuas white shirt, black pants, and vest and coat had been made by his mother Savillas loving hands.

Amanda came home from her summer in Colorado a changed woman, the brides sister-in-law Sarah Byler, the Dokterfraa, had told Cora as they were helping Carrie Miller decorate the wedding cake yesterday. I dont think it was all Joshua, either. Its as though she became the woman God meant her to be.

They say that love transforms us, Cora offered, half wondering if she believed it. For her, love had been a consuming fire, leaving her a heap of ashes that she somehow had to turn into a young woman again.

It does, Sarah allowed, her face glowing as she caught sight of Englisch Henry Byler, her husband, as he set out the twelve coffee mugs he had made as a wedding gift. The handle of each mug formed a different flower, one for each month of the year.

Cora would have given a lot to have even one of those mugs. Their beauty gave her a pain in her hearta good pain, the kind that came when she heard a red-winged blackbird sing or saw the sun set in glory over the Sangre de Cristo mountain range back home in Colorado. The kind that came when she sang.

But that thought caused pain of an entirely different kind, because she didnt sing anymore. Not her own songs. Her music had gone silent, and she despaired of ever hearing it again.

When her gaze slid toward the mens side where Simon Yoder sat with his young Aendis male relatives, she controlled the impulse and fixed her attention once more on Amanda and Joshua facing each other at the front of the tent.

Do you solemnly promise with one another, the bishop said, looking between them, that you will love and bear and be patient with each other and shall not separate from each other until dear God shall part you from each other through death?

Ja, I promise, Amanda said softly, echoing the same vow Joshua had made to her.

Coras throat ached at the sweet emotion in her friends face. It was hard to believe theyd only met for the first time in Junea mere six months ago. Joshuas family had moved to the Wet Mountain Valley from Kansas when Cora was a teenager. Some had thought he might choose her, but Cora had known from the beginning that she would always be his sister in Christ, and no more. Besides, back then he had carried a torch for some girl who didnt deserve him in Kansas. Only when Amanda had started work at the Lost Creek Ranch had he realized the torch had burned out and it was time to toss it away. Theyd become engaged in October, and then Amanda had come home to Whinburg Township to prepare for their wedding.