"Until Then," by Cindy Woodsmall & Erin Woodsmall

Audience: Adult

Genre: Amish Romance, Time-Slip/Time Travel, Historical Fiction

Overall Content Rating: Clean

Content Warnings

Blood/Violence

Mention of blood seeping through a person's shirt

Killing of animals for food

Other

Slavery

Overall Review

Until Then is a book that came to me as a recommendation, coupled with high-flying praise and forthcoming suspicion on my end. Would it fulfill these expectations now that it was being so highly uplifted? Well, not entirely.

When I first started reading this book, the first thing that struck me as unappealing was the fact that there's not much time to get into the story before the action starts. I know a lot of people may like that, but it was just really hard for me to get into because you don't get a real good look into who the characters even are and if they have a good relationship before that relationship is in tatters. I wasn't able to really form an attachment to the characters either, so in my case, I was finding it really hard to care as I read. For a large portion of the book, I was reading it because I felt obligated to, not because it was necessarily a fun read.

I really would've loved to enjoy this read, though. With a thread of strong faith representation interwoven through each chapter and each timeline, it gave a very nice grounding aspect and an overarching idea that there's a purpose to each character's actions, one that was more than just based on their whims and wants.

However, there were some characters in this that were supposedly "of the faith" that did not act like it in the slightest. Unfortunately, of all the characters in the book, the church leaders seemed to be the worst. In many instances, they seemed to be understanding, but the majority of the moments we see them, we see them acting as condemning ministers who "know everything that is correct and obviously, nobody else knows anything." As characters, they certainly served to establish more firmly the idea of Amish environments that I have—perhaps to its detriment—but not in a positive way. The only way Amish ministers have ever been portrayed to me is as very toxic, controlling, know-it-all people who think that anyone who argues against them is of the devil. This made Vin's desire to not be Amish anymore immensely relatable and Celeste's reliance on the ministers seem quite foolish.

Despite this uncomfortable portrayal of the ministers, however, this book does do a good job of addressing the differences in worldviews. In many instances, there are mentions of Quakers, Amish, Mennonites, and a few other groups that I'll admit I can't remember right now, and it seems to respect each viewpoint that they come from. Though there were occasions where each person was questioned about their background, there was a firm layer of respect that was spread almost equally over all the characters we got to see in-depth.

As a whole, I believe the highlight of this novel, though, is the time travel itself. Each of the time travel elements—until the answers are revealed in the end—is perplexing, and as a reader, I couldn't figure out just how things were going to work out. Sometimes it seemed mathematical, other times like the thoughts on the person's mind influenced things, but only at the end was the true answer to the equation revealed. All was ultimately handed to God in terms of glorification, rather than to chance or luck, and Vin's ability to provide for his family from the past and the overarching faith aspect of being able to hear the prayers of those they love gave this immeasurable awestruck feeling to me as a reader, not only because it sounded amazing but also because the characters were amazed by it.

Ultimately, while this book didn't wow me entirely, it certainly had its moments of pleasure. The mixture of Amish romance and time travel is certainly an odd one, but in this case, it definitely worked!