Painful Untruths by Brenda Maxfield
Description: Fern & Joyce are sisters & best friends. But Joyce is now shunned because she married an Englisher. Fern has been visiting Joyce & telling her family she is helping a friend. Fern feels guilty but Joyce is pregnant. And what will Reuben, who likes her a lot, do if he finds out? Her parents? The Bishop?
Review:
Painful Untruths is not in a series, but it is.** Well, kinda. Sorta, in a way. You can spot these quick reads by their covers. The picture for each story changes; the title & author remain the same. I’ve read nine of these novellas and have enjoyed all of them. Number 10 for me is still in that category.
Fern and Joyce have always been exceptionally close as sisters. So, when Joyce falls in love with an Englisher and marries him, she is shunned. Fern misses her sister SO much she visits her telling her family she is visiting and helping her friend, Nora. I picture an angel on her right shoulder because she thinks ‘Liar! Liar!’ more and more. Reuben who is definitely showing *that kind* of interest in Fern would be shocked if he learned of her deception. Joyce is in her final trimester of pregnancy.
Brenda Maxfield is a masterful novella-length storyteller. Fern’s story doesn’t feel chopped. If there is any weakness in the pacing, it’s the ending which seems, well, frankly, *too* easy a solution.
However, the four stars are due to Joyce who KNEW the dire situation she was putting her sister in. Joyce is depicted as clueless about what could happen to Fern. I wished Joyce to have been more aware — needy, but aware.
#PainfulUntruths #BrendaMaxfield #KindleUnlimited
