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# ‘Sister’s Choice’ Judith Pella • Bethany House Publishers
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/sisters-choice-judith-pella-bethany-house-publishers/
- Published: 2008-07-12T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T00:21:19.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By By Dane Roberts Wans On Bookreview*

Sometimes it is hard for us to see what is right before our eyes. We can grow up around someone and not really know that person. Also we can grow up thinking wrongly.

This book is a continuation of a series. In this book we zero in on the younger sister, Maggie Newcomb, who feels useless, “I’m no good at anything. I’m a lump of plain nothingness.” Thinking about it, “she couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause. She felt she was floating around aimlessly in a fog.

Everyone else seemed to have a purpose in life.” Her mother reminds her, “You said you are a lump — well, it doesn’t have to be a bad thing, you know. It’s like the lump of dough that made this bread. It starts out as not much, but before you know it, it turns into this wonderful bread.”

Her attempts to impress Colby, whom she has decided she wants to marry, are being ignored. “Colby Stoddard was, after all, still a very eligible bachelor.” Only he is not interested in her. He is more interested in the new girl, Tamara.

Also arriving is Evan, Colby’s rival, who has been studying law in Boston. “Well. I did very well at Harvard. I passed every theory course with flying colors. I stumbled a little over the practical elements, mock trails, that sort of thing.” He finds himself attracted to Maggie. And he discovers when he takes on the case of a man called Tommy who is accused of killing his father just how unfit he is to be a trial lawyer.

One of the messages this book puts forth is that life doesn’t always turn out as you think it will. Another one is that you can’t run away from your problems.

Maggie wants Colby. Tamara wants Colby. There is an undercurrent of jealousy surfacing. Evan is intrigued by Maggie. Maggie remembers him. “She recalled that he had always been an odd sort.

The other boys his age tended to make fun of him.

They called him four-eyes because he wore glasses, and teachers pet because he always made good marks.” She discovers he enjoys her tom boyishness. He spends lots of time with her soon finding he wants to impress her.

There is the trail of Tommy who is accused of killing his father. This is one of the more serious plot lines in this book. Evan is hired to help him, but is not too sure of his abilities.

In fact it develops that he might not have the stomach for trials both figuratively and literally. And how can he impress Maggie if he can’t be a good lawyer?

This is historical fiction set in 1880’s Oregon in an area called Columbia County. At the back of the book is contained some patchwork patterns named Sister’s Choice Patterns. This should interest the readers who do patchwork.

Summer reading. Let me know what you are reading. Contact me at

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 12, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071208.pdf?ref=smdp.com)