What would you do if your way of life suddenly stopped? The grocery stores went bare, the electric car wouldn’t work, electricity stopped, cell phones, computers, and any other technology stopped working, how would you survive? The Alliance by Jolina Petersheim explores that realm of possibility in her fiction story. It involves a community of Mennonite’s, and those who live in the modern world working together to overcome their obstacles. It’s quite a story and I love it.

What I loved about “The Alliance”:

• With the character Leora you see a young lady who has the responsibility of her siblings when her father vanished and her mom passed away. She feels guilt, she feels burdened, she feel revenge, and she feels the pressures of giving up her non-violent ways of life. She even experiences the doubts she comes with the man she loves but is not sure she wants to marry. She’s a full rounded character and I like that.
• With the character Moses you see a young man who has his own life struggles. Even the fears that happens when you have gone to war and see terrors. And no, he is not Leora’s love interest in this story.
• It deals with the struggles of drug addiction and the fears and shame they feel when they have ran away from their family and then come back.
• The way that they community both Mennonite and Englischer work together as they fight gangs of drug dealers and each other for the right thing to do and fight for America.

I had a hard time putting this book down. It only took me three days to finish reading this story. I like the way Petersheim smoothly told the story and the imagery she used to describe things. She has three books now to read, and that includes this one. I just might make my way to the library and check out her other two books.

I received a free copy of The Alliance from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for my honest review. All the opinions I express are my own.