New Directions Books in Order

The New Directions series follows Susan Lapp, a hardworking Amish woman in her early twenties, as she is nudged out of her comfortable routines and into a wider, more complicated world. Rather than focusing on teenage rumspringa, these books explore how an adult woman who is quite sure she does not want marriage or change responds when life pulls her in new directions.

In The Weaving of Life, Susan juggles two jobs in Lancaster County, cleaning houses and working at a deli counter. She enjoys the independence and income that come with steady work and looks at her sisters’ rocky marriages as reasons to stay single. When her best friend Beth starts dating Susan’s brother Mark, the couple gleefully decide that Susan needs a match too.

Their attempts at matchmaking lead Susan to unexpected places. She finds herself torn between an attraction to one of Mark’s coworkers and her own vow to avoid romantic entanglements. A decision to take a nanny job far from home lands her in a place that feels foreign in weather, culture, and expectations. Homesickness, miserable storms, and demanding work test her resolve, yet they also begin to clarify what she truly wants.

Tapestry of Love brings Susan back to Lancaster, where she cautiously opens her heart to Levi Yoder. Courting, weddings, and family events swirl around them, making it seem as if a proposal is inevitable. At the same time, Susan’s sister Kate is trapped in a painful marriage, and Susan cannot help trying to fix what may not be hers to fix. News from out west, including a missing child she once cared for, pulls her attention back toward the life she left behind.

In Garment of Praise, Susan is now living in Wyoming, married to Isaac, a logger and widower, and stepmother to his son, Titus. The setting shifts again, this time to a big log home and a family stitched together from loss and new beginnings. Susan struggles to adapt to the dust, the long hours Isaac spends away, and the chilly distance of a teenage boy who resents her presence.

Titus’s anger and grief, Isaac’s worn out silence, and Susan’s own homesickness make this final volume an honest look at blended families. As new relationships form and old wounds are touched, the characters must decide whether love is something they feel or something they choose to keep practicing when it is very hard.

Across the series, readers will find a heroine who is capable, opinionated, and often unsure of herself all at once. Work, calling, geography, and romance are all on the table. New Directions is especially appealing if you want to see Amish characters wrestling with career choices, long distance moves, and nontraditional family structures while still taking their faith seriously.