Tricia Goyer is writing a brand new series called Seven Brides for Seven Bachelors. The series is a fictional work about the Amish. The Memory Jar (Zondervan, 2012), is the first book. I read it over a month ago. I have read a few of Trisha’s books and have enjoyed them.

Like many books I read, this book is about relationships. It doesn’t matter if you are Amish, Baptist, Evangelical, Reformed or whatever type of Christian you label yourself, relationships are key to your and my existence. This post could quickly become my soap box if I allow it to because of my views and expectations of relationships/friendships. I have a beef about Christians, even though I am one, and how flippant many are in how they develop and maintain relationships/friendships. So often what comes across to people really isn’t how it is, it’s just the emotional barriers a person has put up to protect themselves from being hurt…yet again.

But that’s not what this post is about, so onward….

The Memory Jar is about a young Amish woman, Sarah, who lives in Kootenai, Montana. The memory jar is her special way of remembering a cherished friend who died. Like many unmarried women her age, she wonders if she will ever find a special man to share her life with.

I really like the sweet friendship and common bond – love of baking – that develops between Sarah and Jathan. Jathan, a visiting bachelor, among dozens of visiting bachelors who seek to live there for six months in order to receive “resident” status for the fall hunting season. What I didn’t like was how swayed Jathan was by other people in his life, at least initially. It was rather heart wrenching to read the turmoil this couple had to go through.

It was also hard to read about Sarah’s grief journey over the loss of her beloved childhood friend. I can relate to grief on a different level but always find it hard to read about because it evokes so many emotionally charged memories, not all of which are good. So as usual I cried.

The difficulties Sarah and Jathan had to go through to be understood by family members, the hurdles they had to overcome for having a new generation of ideas end up being character building, as well as foundational in strengthening their relationship. Something I think every relationship endures at some point or another, the key is whether or not the relationship makes it through them or breaks in the process.

As always, I love the show of community among the Amish, but in this story a different side to that community was shown and not in a positive way, especially in Jathan’s home town.

Trisha Goyer’s The Memory Jar receives two thumbs up from me!

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