Amish in April is over!
I managed to read three Amish books during the readathon. I read two romance books and one nonfiction book. I did have a couple more romances and cozy mysteries saved on scribd but I did not get around to listening to those. Still, I'm happy that I managed to read three books.
The Hawaiian Discovery
Wanda E. Brunstetter & Jean Brunstetter
Prompts: Cozy, Connection, Contemporary, Classic
This book was a let down. I can't help but wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the first book in the series before reading The Hawaiian Discovery. Usually, in the romance genre, you don't have to read books in order even if characters and couples from previous books show up in the sequels.
The Hawaiian Discovery was supposed to focus on the romance between Ellen and Rob. Instead, the first half of the book talked about Ellen's life in Indiana as well as her friend Mandy and Mandy's husband, Ken, who moved from Indiana to Hawaii. And these characters are not just mentioned in the book. We get to read or hear Mandy's thoughts as well as Ellen's. We also get to hear Ezra's thoughts and that was just not needed in my opinion.
Ezra is a young Amish man who has feelings for Ellen. He bosses her around at her father's shoe shop then cries to himself that Ellen doesn't even look his way. His purpose was to create drama. He was what was waiting for Ellen in Indiana while Rob was hers if she choose Hawaii. We did not need to hear Ezra's thoughts and I just cannot feel sorry for a man who treats women like how he treated Ellen then throws himself a pity party when she doesn't think the world of him.
About half way through the book Ken gets into an accident and that takes up a huge chunk. Ellen is with Mandy in Hawaii to help her out and she finally meets Rob a little past the half way mark of the book.
This reads more like Amish fiction with a romance because the romance was not the central part. I've seen this labeled as an Amish romance though. I was interested at the start of the book, but I lost a lot of interest at about the half way mark.
Like I said above, I feel like you need to read the first book before reading this one. If you enjoyed the characters in the first book then you might enjoy this one as well. I have one more ebook by Wanda E. Brunstetter so I might give her another try in the future.
A Place of Peace (Kauffman Amish Bakery #3)
Amy Clipston
Prompts: Cozy, Cooking, Connection, Contemporary, Country
A Place of Peace is the third book in Amy Clipston's Kauffman Amish Bakery series. This story follows Miriam and Timothy. They were courting before a misunderstanding caused them to break up. Miriam then moved to Indiana and left the Amish life behind. She's back now because her mother has passed away. Her and Timothy soon run into each other again and they cannot deny that they still feel something between them even though they try to deny it.
I am still enjoying the Kauffman Amish Bakery series even though this was not my favorite book so far. I've been listening to the books as audiobooks on scribd.
I felt like this book could have ended sooner if Timothy just grew up for a second and did the right thing. He's courting another woman when Miriam reappears in his life. Instead of breaking off the courtship, he finds himself engaged and then he sticks with the engagement even when the misunderstanding gets cleared up. It took his fiancé breaking up with him for Timothy to finally go to Miriam.
Overall, I enjoyed the story though. I liked the second chance story and it was nice seeing Miriam reconnect with her family and her Amish faith.
Simple Pleasures: Stories from My Life as an Amish Mother
Marianne Jantzi
Prompts: Cover, Contemporary, Country
I saw this on scribd and decided to throw in a non-fiction book into the readathon. It was cute and a nice little look into the life of an Amish mother raising two children in Canada.
Each chapter is short and is composed of little vignettes so that the reader gets little glimpses into the everyday life of the author and her family. I thought this concept was very cute and I enjoyed it. I will mention though that the book did feel a little disorganized because of this writing style. Sometimes the author would be writing about one topic in a vignette and then switch to a completely different topic in the next one. And both little snippets would be in the same chapter so I was just confused as to why they were lumped together.
The charm of the writing style also made it feel a little disorganized. However, I enjoyed the charm more than I disliked it.
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