Book Review: The Scent of Cherry Blossoms

From the back cover:

Annie Martin loves the Plain ways of her Old Order Mennonite people, like those revered by her beloved grandfather. Retreating from a contentious relationship with her mother, Annie goes to live with her Daadi Moses in Apple Ridge.

But as spring moves into Pennsylvania and Annie spends time among the cherry trees with the handsome Aden Zook, she wishes she could forget how deeply the lines between the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite are drawn.

Can Annie and Aden find a place for their love to bloom in the midst of the brewing storm?

My thoughts:

I have read many of Cindy Woodsmall's previous books and I was really looking forward to reading this one. She USUALLY has great character formation both with the main characters and with the secondary ones. And there are usually overlapping plot lines that make the reading very interesting.

I was disappointed in this book. While good, it was NOT one of Woodsmall's better books. The character developments seemed shallow to me and there was really no great plot. In fact I found that the plot was rather predictable and not very exciting. I would have preferred a plot that would have spent more time on the relationship between Aden and his brother Roman, and/or the relationship between Annie's grandfather and Aden's parents. I found that Woodsmall focusing solely on Annie and Aden's relationship made the book seem simplistic.

That being said, it was a good read. If I had not read any of Woodsmall's other books, then I would have probably liked this one much more. It was a good story. Just lacked the meatiness that I have come to expect from Woodsmall.

DISCLAIMER: I was provided a FREE copy of this book by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Blogging for Books program. All opinions are my own. I did not have to write a positive review.