The Decision Preview (The Prairie State Friends Book 1)

The Decision by Wanda E. Brunstetter is the first book in The Prairie State Friends series. The Decision is such a joy to read. This book picks up after The Discovery Saga Collection (A 6-part series from Lancaster County). Jonah Miller has moved from Lancaster County to Arthur, Illinois. He did not feel he could stay in Lancaster County and get over Meredith. Jonah’s twin sister, Jean and her husband, Nathan (along with their two children) live in Arthur. Jonah has bought a property and started a buggy making business.Elaine Schrock lives with her grandparents, Lloyd and Edna Schrock. Her parents died in a buggy accident when she was little and her paternal grandparents took her in and raised her. Grandfather Schrock dies suddenly of a heart attack with his last words asking Elaine to take care of her grandmother. Shortly after his death Edna starts acting strangely. Edna is getting forgetful as well as having dizzy spells. Elaine takes her to the doctor and finds out that Edna has Type II Diabetes. Edna will have to modify her diet and take medication to control the diabetes. Elaine knows this will be difficult since her grandmother loves sweets. One day Edna passes out at a local diner and is taken to the hospital. The doctor runs tests and discovers that Edna has dementia. How will this diagnosis affect Elaine’s life?Jonah and Elaine have been courting for the last year, but when her grandmother becomes ill Elaine feels that she must handle her responsibilities on her own. Elaine tells Jonah that she does not love him and pushes him away. Jonah feels hurt. This rejection is especially hard after what happened with Meredith. Jonah starts spending time with Sara.Sara Stutzman is a widow with a two year old son, Mark. She was married to Hurley who was a friend of Jonah’s. Sara is tired all the time and has a tingling sensation in her arms and legs. Sara gets diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Sara has to decide to whether to stay in Arthur or go back to her home town (where her parents live). How will Jonah handle the news of Sara’s illness?To find out what happens with Elaine, Jonah, and Sara, please read The Decision. It is such a marvelous book. I did not want it to end. I have to warn you that it gets sad towards the end. You will need to have your hankie close by! I give The Decision 5 out of 5 stars. I cannot wait for the next book in The Prairie State Friends series.I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Decision is the first book in the Prairie State Friends series by Wanda Brunstetter. I picked this book up after reading two books with dark content and a lot of death so maybe that’s why this book seemed so depressing. There was so much sickness, injury, death and heartache for everyone. Even the happy occasions had a dark cloud of illness hanging over them. It isn’t that I expect everything to be peachy in a book. I don’t mind themes of darkness and illness but typically I like to see characters find a way to at least come to terms with their struggles.Another thing, though I enjoyed this book enough to pick up the rest of the series—I didn’t connect with the characters. Well, one character—the main character. To be frank, Elaine kind of got on my nerves. I felt like she was so quick to close her heart because she was too stubborn to let anyone help her. Not because of the excuses she kept throwing out there. She wasn’t truly thinking of her grandma. Elaine was just stubborn and needed to have her way.She was selfish and not someone who I truly think that I would like to spend time with. I was slightly frustrated that she broke up with a good guy but then had to act jealous when he found love with someone else. He had waited for her and she rudely let him know that she didn’t just want to break up but she lied and said she didn’t even love him. I understand needing time to come to grip with illness and loss but to completely shut a person out without thoughts to their feelings is selfish. Sorry, it just is. I couldn’t bring myself to truly like her or feel sorry for her.I truly did like Jonah and Sara and wish that the book had focused solely on them since I had such difficulty connecting with Elaine in any profound way.The book is okay. It’s definitely readable and I will read the rest of the series. I’m truly hoping that the rest of the series has characters that are more friendly and personable than Elaine.The spiritual applications and wisdom imparted is the redeeming key feature of this story. Make Each Day count, Lainie, no matter what. Things happen for a reason, and although we may not understand it, in time, you’ll find the answers you seek Wanda Brunstetter, The DecisionA complimentary copy of this book was provided by Barbour Publishing, Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and have not been compensated for this. All opinions are my own.

Great start for Wanda Brunstetter's new series, Prairie State Friends. I wanted to shake several of the characters by turn, and tell them to give their individual decisions more time and prayer.Elaine is just into her twenties when her grandfather dies suddenly. This is tragic because she has been raised by him and her grandmother since she was young. As Elaine and Edna, the grandmother, begin the grieving process, it becomes evident that there is more going on than normal grief.Elaine's beau, Jonah, wants to help her through this difficult time. However, Elaine is fearful she can't marry and take care of her grandma both. What will she tell Jonah? Will he wait for her?Brunstetter shows the fierce pride of the Amish people, how they care for their own, and how they are reluctant to seek medical help (but eventually will) from the Englischer world.Remember the ditty, "Anticipation is making me wait..."? I certainly felt like that with this book! I was tossed gently back and forth with the rolling tides of emotions, wondering where the loyalties, duty, and love were going to take each character.And of course, there are loose ends, because this book, The Decision, is the first of a series. So glad the next is due in a few days!

I read this on the KindleThis is a book series which is about 3 friends in this book Elaine finding her grandfather dying promises to look after her grandmotherShe does & as it goes on her grandmother has dementia & to a certain extent she doing alone pushing her Beau Jonah awayThe book had a surprise ending but will find more about this story in the next book

A very good read.

This story caught my interest, but it is only a preview, not a full story and I didn't realize that when I downloaded it. There was a little bit of interest as I wondered whether Jonah will wait for Elaine to finish her mourning over her Grandpa, or whether he would 'rescue' the widow, Sara and her baby boy, Mark by marrying her. Considering all the books out there and all the full books on my kindle waiting to be read, I have decided my interest is not great enough to order the full story for now. Not a fan of authors offering a preview of a book and yet showing the full Table of Contents at the beginning so the reader thinks they are starting a full story. Yes, I realize that there is a red Preview over the cover, but still, why should I waste my time reading part of a story - the blurb on the book is what helps me decide whether I want to read it or not. The other downfall of this is that many of the readers left a review on the full story under the Preview book section which included spoilers for the full story, taking away my desire to order the full story. Sorry!The author writes well, but the story, so far, is not that much different than many of the other Amish stories that I have read. Light, clean reading but not 'much meat' to contemplate on.

It is not often that I finish a book and think, “What on earth was the point of that?” but this book has earned that dubious distinction. There is a whole lot of nothing and misery in this book followed by a tacked on epilogue that is supposed to convince us that everything did actually turn out okay in the end, but it was a case of too little too late for me. I never really got to the point where I believed that the ending was the intended outcome. I felt as though things were derailed as a result of ‘the (unilateral) decision’, and the characters then had to make the best of the options that remained to them. That is not to say that God cannot work for good in such a situation, but I didn’t feel I was shown that in this novel. Perhaps that will come in the second novel in the series, but I'm not sure it was worth reading this one to get to that point.Ironically, considering this is a Christian novel set in the Amish community, I felt a large part of the misery was due to the fact that the main characters did not look to God for direction and comfort but relied instead on their own wisdom. There are plenty of Christian platitudes offered throughout, but there was a disconnect between these and the way the characters dealt with the circumstances they found themselves in. They didn’t make particularly wise decisions (I thought) and therefore struggled along under self-imposed burdens until they were all but crushed by them. For me, the greatest irony was found in the final lines, where Elaine whispers a prayer: “Heavenly Father, may Your will be done in my life. Please give me the wisdom to make good decisions in all things.” I couldn’t help but think that if she had only prayed that prayer in the beginning, the whole book would have taken a different course.*SPOILER ALERT*The relationship conflict in this novel came about because Elaine lies to Jonah about her feelings in order to play the martyr and look after her ailing grandmother. Not that there’s anything wrong with wanting to look after an ailing grandmother, but why lie about your feelings for someone under the noble pretense of ‘setting them free’? Surely it is for that person to decide, being fully and truthfully informed of the situation, how they wish to proceed. My one consolation here (and it was a feeble one, at that) was that Elaine reaped the harvest she had sown. That, at least, was a realistic outcome, but without actually showing how she grew as a result it was also an unsatisfactory one.*END SPOILERS*The pace of this novel was pedestrian at best, with many scenes consisting of little more than the characters becoming mired in their thoughts. Of those scenes that did show some action, the vast majority of it seemed to be aimed at showing over and over again the symptoms of the various illnesses presenting in the characters and how tough things were for them or their carers. I found the writing to be uninspiring, lacking in any kind of imagery, and even simplistic at times.I gather from some other reviews that this is not the best Wanda Brunstetter has to offer, so perhaps I will give her another chance, but it might take me a while to work up the courage...

Thank you!