The story so far…

Ties That Bind begins at an Amish birthing center, where a single, Englisch college student, Brandi Nash, gives birth to her daughter as a fire engulfs the building. A few minutes later an Amish woman, Lovina Brenneman, gives birth to twins, a girl and a boy. The midwife and Lovina’s husband, Isaac, struggle to get the women and three babies to safety.

Chapter 2 moves forward twenty years, and Ariana Brenneman is trying to buy an abandoned café so she can help support her parents and siblings. She and her twin brother, Abram, have been working and saving for years to purchase it. As time is running out, Ariana’s one-time friend Quill Schlabach offers to help her raise money by holding a benefit, but Ariana wants nothing to do with him. Five years ago he broke her heart when he left Summer Grove in the middle of the night, taking with him Frieda, Ariana’s closest friend. Although Ariana has moved on and is seeing Rudy, a young man she cares for deeply, she resents how Quill and Frieda deceived and betrayed her.

Quill tries to win Ariana’s trust, knowing that if she will act on his ideas, she will raise the money she needs. Although Quill continues to conceal why he left with Frieda, he longs for healing between Ariana and himself. But his main purpose for being in Summer Grove is to help an unhappy, disillusioned family—Ariana’s eldest sister, Salome, and her family—leave the Amish.

Ariana lets down her guard and trusts Quill’s guidance. Although Rudy has reservations, he backs her as she, Quill, and Abram hold a benefit, which raises the needed money.

While Ariana and Abram are focused on the café, their brother Mark sees a musical production in a nearby city and is struck by how much one performer looks like Salome. When Mark tells their Mamm, she seems concerned.

Lovina and Isaac ask Quill to investigate the background of this young woman, Skylar Nash. Quill obtains enough information to validate that she is probably Isaac and Lovina’s biological daughter, which would mean Ariana is Brandi’s daughter. Quill contacts Skylar’s parents, Brandi Nash and Nicholas Jenkins, and a DNA test confirms that Skylar is not related to Brandi or Nicholas, and it also reveals that Skylar has drugs in her system.

Lovina struggles with the knowledge that her biological daughter seems so lost, and Nicholas, an atheist, is appalled that his daughter has been raised in an insulated religious society. When he learns that the midwife suspected the two girls might have been accidentally switched at birth and never did anything about it, he threatens to sue her unless Ariana spends a year with him and Brandi, cut off from the Amish community. And Nicholas gives Skylar a choice—time in rehab or time with her biological family—or he will cut off all financial support.

When Ariana learns that she’s not a Brenneman and that Quill helped uncover the truth, she once again feels betrayed by him and asks him never to contact her again. Ariana leaves Summer Grove with Brandi and Nicholas to spend a year with them. And Quill picks up Skylar, confiscates the drugs she tries to hide, and drives her to the Brennemans’ home.

Fraying at the Edge begins one day after Ariana meets her biological parents and leaves with them to live in their Englisch world. Brandi and Nicholas are married to other people, and the story opens with Ariana at Nicholas’s home as her parents argue bitterly. She has three stepsiblings—two teen boys, who live with her dad, and one teen girl, who lives with her mom, Brandi.

Before she can adjust to the outside world and the loneliness of leaving her family and boyfriend, Rudy, behind, Nicholas gives her lists of things she must accomplish. His list includes removing her prayer Kapp, getting a new hairstyle, dressing Englisch, learning to drive, and being tutored in college-type courses on religion, history, and science. Nicholas appears determined to scrub the Amish ways from her mind and heart before she returns to Summer Grove.

Ariana’s mom, Brandi, seems free spirited and easygoing, but despite that, she staunchly and loudly stands up to Nicholas. Ariana’s parents’ anger and contradictory expectations drain and confuse her in ways she’s never experienced, and she feels herself coming undone.

During Ariana’s time of exile from Summer Grove, Nicholas allows her to have contact with only one person from her past: Quill Schlabach. Since Quill left the Amish as a teen and never returned to join the faith, Nicholas believes he could be a helpful influence in opening Ariana’s mind and heart to better ways of living than in the Amish society.

But Quill’s singular desire is to help Ariana navigate this temporary upheaval and return to her beloved people and the Old Ways. Unfortunately, even though Ariana needs a friend in this strange setting, she refuses to reach out to Quill because twice he’s hidden the truth from her and ripped her life apart.

Nicholas’s expectations of Ariana and the pressure to adjust increase, and then Ariana learns that she is the result of an adulterous affair and that her parents were never married to each other. Desperate to talk to someone who understands her and the Old Ways, she finally calls Quill. Their encounter, which takes place at a bar, is far from smooth, but he gets her back to Nicholas’s home safely.

Quill talks to Nicholas privately and makes him see that in his efforts to strip Ariana’s mind of the Old Ways and religion, he is ripping her apart. Nicholas’s viewpoint begins to change. His goal is still to broaden Ariana’s mind, but his methods become gentler, and he begins to see the true Ariana—not a brainwashed girl, but a unique, fascinating, strong woman who is trying to do right by everyone.

After much angst and a few heated arguments, Ariana forms a bond with Nicholas, Brandi, her husband, Gabe, and his daughter, Cameron. Ariana develops a real thirst for knowledge because of Nicholas’s influence. And her time with Quill becomes healing, helpful, and sometimes fun. He helps her get her feet under her, view God as bigger than she’d ever imagined possible, and learn when and how to stand up for herself.

With Ariana gone, her Mamm and Daed are struggling with guilt and fear for both girls—Ariana and Skylar—and all the changes to the family dynamics are taking a toll.

Abram, Susie, and Martha—three of the Brenneman siblings—work hard to get Ariana’s new café on its feet. They want it to be a success when she returns, but they know nothing about running a café, and none of them can cook the items Ariana listed on the menu before she left.

Skylar is used to a comfy Englisch lifestyle, and her Amish dad, Isaac, quickly confronts her idle ways with the Amish work ethic and the need for accountability and contributing to the family. When pushed to help the family, she chooses to work at the café, knowing that is her best opportunity to see her forbidden boyfriend and get drugs from him.

Because Skylar knows a lot more about how to make a café appealing than Ariana’s siblings do, she talks them into spending money Ariana set aside to pay the mortgage on the café in order to buy expensive coffee machines and a generator. But inside the Brenneman home, Skylar struggles with the endless lack of money and creature comforts. Without warning, Skylar’s boyfriend stops bringing drugs to the café for her, and she has a physical and emotional crisis.

The Brennemans meet the challenges with Skylar, and she gets clean. Because of her Amish parents’ tough love, she begins to bond with them and her siblings. But at the same time, she and Jax, a friend of Abram’s and a former marine, have trouble navigating their emotions for each other. They are drawn to each other but are also distrustful of each other. Jax has good cause to hate drug use and distrust users, but he and Skylar manage a truce for the sake of the café and its workers.

Cilla Yoder, a friend of Abram’s who works at the cafe, has dealt with cystic fibrosis throughout her life. When he witnesses one of her spells, he realizes she needs a better doctor. Jax, Skylar, Susie, and Martha work together to help Abram find one and pay for the medical expenses by dipping into the café’s money.

Gradually Ariana develops a new understanding of God and every adult’s right to stand against authority, including a father’s. She uses this knowledge to talk Nicholas into letting her return to Summer Grove early.

Nicholas and Brandi set up a meeting with Skylar. They come to the café after hours and invite her to return home. Now that she’s clean, they’re willing to pay for her tuition and other perks again. Skylar shares her hurt and anger that they dumped her on the Brennemans and took off with Ariana without even looking back, and she refuses to leave Summer Grove.

Ariana has longed to return to her faith, family, and her cherished Rudy, but after she’s pulled her hair into a bun and put on her Amish clothing, she stares into the mirror and feels unsure about who she really is. When Nicholas drives her home and she gets out of his car, she’s thrilled to embrace her Amish family, but before the evening is finished, she feels a strong need to get away for several days to think.

For a list of main characters in the Amish of Summer Grove series, see the Main Characters list at the end of the book.