The Narrow Path

Title: THE NARROW PATH
Author: Gail Sattler
Publisher: Abingdon Press
May 2010
ISBN: 978-1-426-70237-2
Genre: Inspirational/contemporary romance

Miranda Klassen is a talented worship leader and song writer and she has written and directed many cantatas. When she is hired by a Mennonite church in Minnesota, she isn’t expecting or prepared for the snow when she arrives. Seattle gets little to no snow, and she only has open toed heels and a thin jacket with her.

Ted Wiebe is the music director at his Mennonite church and he is Old Order. He is not expecting a thoroughly modern girl, in jeans, and a tight t-shirt to be the Mennonite music director his church hired. Miranda seems to have every electronic gadget available. He doesn’t expect her to last a day in his community, let alone a whole year.

To Ted’s surprise, Miranda is welcomed, and she embraces the community with open arms even though she causes raised eyebrows. But while Ted grows to care for her, how can it possibly work when he is Old Order Mennonite and she is a thoroughly modern girl?

THE NARROW PATH is the first Abingdon Press novel Ms. Sattler has published, and it is good. Ted is a rather dull, drab hero, made even more so by the colorful heroine. Ted is steady, stable, and a smart business man, while Miranda is more flamboyant, stands-out in the crowd, and is not happy unless she’s going a thousand miles an hour.

The romance was kind of flat, without sizzle, and Ted’s dialog was very stilted, though I think Ms. Sattler did that on purpose. Still, it was fun seeing two people from very different worlds as they struggled to understand the other. $13.99. 275 pages.