Amish Wildflowers continuing story... All Jane wants is to be a normal child, but she's convinced she needs super-powers to help her survive her tormented childhood at the hands of her alcoholic mother. By the time she reaches her teen years, Jane is tired of living in fear, feeling she is about to break. When a friend tells her that he believes it's her destiny to save her mother's life--the very person who'd been so cruel to her, when the opportunity presents itself, Jane doesn't believe she's up to the challenge, since she wishes only the opposite for her mother. Will she be brave enough to look beyond her own pain and find the strength to save them both, or will Jane become a sacrificial lamb for her mother's sake?
This book contains some mildly disturbing situations in order to maintain the authenticity of the story of Jane’s stormy childhood with her alcoholic mother—before she found Jesus and got saved. Jane’s story is based on true events…
This book was previously titled: Little Wild Flower: Unto Others. This is a revised edition with over a hundred pages of BONUS MATERIAL.
Enduring unimaginable abuse as a child, a handful of friends kept Jane from giving up on life. Based of true facts, this story depicts alcoholism and its hold over a person, the pain and devastation it inflicts on families, and deliverance through Christ. If you’ve read the Wildflower series, this will fill in a few questions rattling around in your head; it for me anyway. If not, it would be a good one to begin the series off with.
"Unto Others" by Samantha Bayarr is the background history for Jane, the main character in The Little Wild Flower series. Jane was brutally abused by her alcoholic mother from a very early age until approximately age 15. This book is so vividly written, I could feel Jane's emotional pain. It is a heart wrenching story written in such open honesty that I felt a part of this young girl's life.
This book will have you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next. Jane is a remarkable girl. The way she suffers is truly awful. You will feel God working throughout this whole book.
This is the final book in the Little Wild Flower Series by Samantha Jillian Bayarr.
But it is actually a prequel to the other 3 books in the series. You can read my review of the first three books by clicking here for book one, here for book two, and here for book three.
This book takes us back to the childhood of Jane, where everything began.
I do want to give my readers a WARNING, unlike the other three books in this series, this book is VERY GRAPHIC including STRONG LANGUAGE and ADULT TOPICS.
The main topic of this book is recounting Jane's experience as a child in which she was severely abused by an alcoholic mother. It would be a lie to say that it wasn't hard to read at points...
Throughout most of the book we learn of the severe abuse, mentally and physically that Jane endured as a child and how she tried to cope. It shows the mind of a young child that slowly grows up and traces the different mechanisms used to survive. It's sad, heartbreaking, and definitely not a happy read. I just want to save her from everything she is going through.
I would say it takes a little more courage to read this book, so if you are not interested in this type of topic, then read only the first three books in the series as you don't miss much by skipping this book.
The only criticisms I would have is that I find it almost hard to believe that despite her years and years of severe abuse Jane still turned out fairly normal. I guess it's the psychology background I have, but I feel like most people would have been carrying bigger scars, or not been able to deal with it and cope on their own without professional help. Also, we know from the first three books that Jane's mother eventually changes when she finds religion, yet the book hardly showcases any of this. It's almost like it happens overnight which makes it hard to believe because someone as hateful and spiteful as Jane's mother is portrayed in this book doesn't seem like to suddenly make such a huge change, rather it would seem to me to be a laborious and rather tedious process. So it cast a little doubt on the relationship Jane has with her mother in the first three books because it'd be hard to survive what Jane did and then go on to have such a normal relationship with one's mother...
This book may be difficult for some to read as it was for me at points. Samantha J. Bayarr writes this prequel to The Little Wildflower series to explain how Jane and her family came to the Amish community. The events that came before their joining the Amish community are painful ones. Jane's mother is an alcoholic and is highly abusive to the family. She is especially abusive to Jane and her sister, Nadine, and baby Lucy. Jane finds refuge with Bradley when he visits his grandmother each summer. He gives her hope when he introduces her to a loving God and gives her a Bible and teaches her how to read and study it and how to pray. For me, this book dredged up painful memories of my own. My own father was an alcoholic and it is a painful, lonely existence for families. There is shame and there are secrets. I know that God certainly kept me alive and kept me filled with hope. As a young child, I was saved and when no one else was there to hold me, God was always there with His loving arms wrapped around me. It saddened me that Jane lived for so many years in the alcoholic home without knowing that same warm assurance of God's love. I am glad that she found it later and that the Amish community helped to save her mother and ultimately, her entire family! Samantha Jillian Bayarr