Faithful to Laura is the second Middlefield Family Novel, the follow up to the book Treasuring Emma. Faithful to Laura begins with many of the same characters from the first book, while introducing some new ones as well. Laura Stutzman is not originally from Middlefield, but is staying in the area while she tries to earn money and to resolve a tragic incident with a former beau that left her face scarred and her spirit defeated. Her anger and discouragement make her hard to get to know, but that doesn't stop Sawyer Thompson, a young man who did not grow up Amish, from trying. The pair strike up an unlikely friendship that soon turns into something more. Their relationship is threatened by Laura's focus on righting the wrongs done to her and new revelations about Sawyer's past.
This book started where the book Treasuring Emma left off. Since I read both books, it was easy for me to follow the storyline in this book. I do think that it is mostly a stand alone book, but reading the first novel will help to clarify what happened to Laura and how she ended up in Middlefield as well as provide information that will help as the reader learns about some of the secondary characters in the book such as Emma and Adam.
I enjoyed this book very much. The main themes in the book are grace, truth, and redemption - and trusting God to work through difficult times on our behalf instead of trying to do everything on our own. The book deals with tough issues that we all face and emphasizes the importance of facing them head on and telling the truth even when it is difficult.
Without spoiling the ending, I did feel that some of the issues in the book were resolved a little too quickly and neatly at the end, but I expect that we may see some of these characters back again in a future novel.
I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. All opinions are my own.
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