I enjoyed this book and the types of new experiences that each young lady had. I've often wondered how an Amish person would react to the many conveniences that are not available to them. Our rural area is the home to a lot of Amish who regularly use our library. I, personally, cannot imagine living as the Amish do. This is a good book.

Great story, I was surprised when I started reading this book, but I quickly fell in love with the story. One is able to relate to the characters in the book and the situations that they have in their lives. Easy read and very east to fall into the story-line.

Keeps you into the story wondering what will happen next. Very easy read and flows very well. Keeps your attention from cover to cover

Fraying at the Edge is the second book in The Amish at Summer Grove series by Cindy Woodsmall. Ariana Brenneman is 20 years old and recently learned that she was switched at birth at the birthing center she was born as a result of a fire that occurred the night she was born.

Ariana must live in the Englisch world with her biological family - her father is Nicholas and her mother is Brandi Nash, but they are not married. Nicholas doesn't believe in God and doesn't have any respect for the Amish culture or organized religion. On the other hand, Skylar Nash is the daughter that was switched with Ariana, and she is given the choice of staying with her birth parents (Lovina and Isaac Brenneman) or going to rehab due to her drug problem and rebellious behavior.

Skylar picks staying with the Brenneman’s and works in the café hoping it will provide a chance to see her boyfriend and drug dealer. Her birth mother, Lovina wants to get to know her, but Skylar is not interested. She feels that Nicholas and Brandi were glad to be rid of her and her birth family did not care enough to look for her.

My heart really went out to Ariana and to Skylar as each of them were forced to adjust to ways of life that are completely foreign to each young lady. It was great to see the closeness, respect and love that eventually formed between Ariana and her birth parents, and between Skylar and her birth family.

This book is very similar to Beverly Lewis' Lancaster County series. It has a similar premise of an Amish girl discovering she's really am "Englischer" (switched at birth vs adoption). This does have a bit more of an edgy twist to it, dealing with not only existential crisis but drug addiction as well. An entertaining story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.

Faith and love of family are exquisitely and artistically stitched into Ariana's Brenneman's beautiful patchwork quilt of life. But the Amish life Ariana loved with all her heart vanished when to her horror, she discovered that she was switched at birth two decades ago. Quill Schlabach is Ariana's only link between the two Amish and Englisch worlds. There is only one question to be answered. Can he be trusted? Into this most unpredictable scenario enters Skylar Nash with one of two choices to make. Brand new ties link Ariana and Skylar together, as unparalleled wisdom and strength lead them to follow God's guiding threads into the future He charts out for them.

This was a great follow up book to the first novel in the series. I would recommend that book one is read then followed by book two. However, the author does a wonderful job of bringing the reader up to date if book one has been skipped.
Ariana, an Amish woman, and Skylar, an Englischer were switched during an emergency in the hospital by a midwife at birth. Now that they are young women, the mistake of the midwife is found out. To prevent the woman from going to jail, Ariana agrees to live in the Englisch world, while Skylar reluctantly agrees to live in the Amish world to avoid going to rehab for her drug problem. It a terribly rough start for both women, each dealing with cultural differences. Over time, both try to do what is expected of them. Ariana's birth father Nicholas eventually softens his stance and allows Ariana to return home. What will Ariana's return home mean to Skylar who has found a place with her true birth family?
I certainly look forward to the third book to find out the conclusion as to what choices are made.

I received an e-copy of the book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. FRAYING AT THE EDGE was an emotional read that I so was not expecting. I mean I should have been, I read Ties that Bind earlier this month. It was so emotional, with Ariana missing her family, being forced into a world she wanted no part of and having everything stripped away except a friendship with Quill that she didn't want. Likewise, Skylar, going from being a not exactly only child, but one with everything handed to her -- and a drug addiction, to being one of like a dozen children in a small house with a family that is dirt poor. How would either girl survive the culture shock?

Quill. Oh. My. Word. I am so in love with him. And Abram. They are both so wonderful, thoughtful, beyond awesome men. I am looking forward to reading Gathering the Threads (releasing next month, squeee!) so I can read more about them. And yes, I have my wants about how I want this series to end, but whether they go the way I want or not, I know I'll be engaged.

This is a series you will want to read in one sitting, starting at the beginning with Ties that Bind, Fraying at the edge, and Gathering the Threads, so you might want to start now at the beginning. I absolutely loved the first two books in this series. There is a reason why Ms. Woodsmall is one of my favorite Amish authors.

I was given a free copy of this book. All opinions are my own

This book was really good!! BUT....you need to read the first book(ties that bind first) I mean I guess you can just read the little catch up part before the actual story but I highly recommend starting at the first book.



Definitely get ready to not want to put this book down, between sticking with Ariana and seeing how she's adapting to the english world and Skylar getting used to the Amish, this book is a bit of  wild ride you won't want to get off of. Luckily as soon as you finish this story there a third one to pick up.

Book 2 of Cindy Woodsmall's The Amish of Summer Grove Series was a good read, a story about two girls, one Amish and the other Englisch who were accidentally switched at birth and now found by their biological parents and finding themselves living in a culture that neither of them can relate to despite the fact they were born in that culture.

The challenges they both face are realistic and sometimes very difficult to cope with.

I liked this book a lot. I may have enjoyed book 1 a bit more, but it was a good read and I will probably quickly grab the next book in the series. The book was a definite cliff hanger. Can't stop with book 2!

I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Two babies, switched at birth. One is raised Amish and the other is raised by her unmarried mother with very little input from her father. What happens when the switch is discovered and both families want to get to know their “real” child?
Fraying at the Edge is book two in the Amish of Summer Grove series by Cindy Woodsmall and it picks up seamlessly where Ties that Bind left off. Nicholas Jenkins, Ariana Brenneman’s biological father, has forced Ariana to leave the only home she’s ever known by threatening a lawsuit against the aging midwife who mixed up the two baby girls. Forget the fact that there was a fire in the birthing center and that one of the births was a set of twins. Nicholas, an atheist and free thinker, cannot stand the fact that his daughter was raised in such a cloistered religious community. He sees his demand as more of a rescue from a cult than an unfair disruption of Ariana’s life.
Skylar Nash, the other girl in the mix-up, grew up believing she could do whatever she wanted because her parents didn’t really care about her. They were too busy fighting each other to notice what she was doing. When she is caught with drugs in her system, her parents issue an ultimatum: rehab or live Amish for a year with your “real” family. Feeling abandoned by the only family she knows, Skylar decides to try living Amish – all the while, plotting ways to get drugs and planning her escape. Arriving on the Brenneman doorstep, she discovers that not only does she have parents who love her sight unseen but she also has 9 – count them – 9 siblings and one of them is her twin! Skylar can leave her electronics behind; she can even leave her phone behind but can she survive without her drugs? Does she even want to?
Will Ariana be able to withstand Nicholas’ constant badgering about why her faith isn’t valid? What happens when she begins to see that some of the things she was brought up to believe appear to be simply dictates of men who enjoy having power? When the time comes to return to Summer Grove and her fiancé, Rudy, will she return unchanged or will the ties binding her to the life she was supposed to live prove too strong?
Cindy Woodsmall weaves so many stories into one cohesive whole it’s an amazing thing to see! Fraying at the Edge is no exception. On the surface we have the two parallel stories of Ariana Brenneman and Skylar Nash. Then she throws in the story of Quill Schlabach and his brothers; Abram Brenneman and Cilla Yoder; Quill and Ariana; Quill and Frieda, Ariana’s best friend; sisters, Susie, Martha and Salome. There are so many characters it can be confusing keeping them straight but each story adds to the richness of the whole. With each story comes a little more understanding into the motivations behind some of the actions.
I can’t wait for the conclusion of the Amish of Summer Grove, Gathering the Threads, coming in August 2017. I definitely recommend this series but I also recommend that the books be read as a series beginning with Ties that Bind, moving into Fraying at the Edge and finishing with Gathering the Threads. While they can be read separately, the first two finish with something of a “cliff-hanger” and I think you miss a lot of the relationship nuances if you don’t read all three books in order. Cindy Woodsmall has moved into my “MUST READ” category and, so far, this series proves why!
I received this book free from the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.