Brides of Lancaster County / Wanda E. Brunstetter

I finally finished my Brides of Lancaster County tome last week, 900+ pages of pure Amish romance and I have to admit, I wouldn't have minded reading another 900 pages. Wanda E. Brunstetter seems to be the queen of Amish fiction, she has a way of capturing this lifestyle better than any other I've read so far. 

 The Brides of Lancaster features four different stories following the people in Lancaster County through the years. Characters actually age, a child in one book is ready for courting in the next book, so you see the progress made among the families as each story unfolds.

 The first book is the story A Merry Heart, which features a woman who's grown bitter after her ex has taken off with another woman, will she grow to love the kind Amish man who needs a mother for his (adorable!) little girl? (I think we all know what will happen, but it's the journey where all the meat of the story is!)

 Book two is Looking For a Miracle. Miriam's niece Rachel is all grown up now but in a wheelchair from the accident she suffered in A Merry Heart. She struggles to find independence while hoping for a good man in her life. Love this character, all the characters, frankly, for their steadfast will and beliefs.

Book three is Plain & Fancy. Young Eli meets a girl- An Englisher girl (gasp!) will he stay true to his religion?? Will Nancy join Eli in the Amish faith just on the basis of her love for him?? Nancy is as obsessed with her figure as the others are with making her fat, if she marries Eli, will a boppli ruin her figure forever?? (I love any story that ends in a boppli!)

The Hope Chest. Rachel's children are now grown and looking for a good man, but when her daughter gets involved with Reuben and leaves the Amish church, how will the family deal with the ex-communication?

Each story is different, and each story has it's own charm.  If you have a month, devote yourself to this book, or-save your wrists and look for each book individually!- there are no disappointments here.

From This Day Forward / Lauraine Snelling

My latest review for Blogging For Books is From This Day Forward by Lauraine Snelling.

    From This Day Forward is a story about Norwegian immigrants and their offspring living in a small midwest community in the early 1900's. This is a break from all the Amish books I've been reading, although the characters capture the same wholesome feel. I liked the setting of an upstart town with nurse Deborah, it reminds me a little of Dr.Quinn Medicine Woman. The only thing missing for me was a little more background on how and why the Norwegians settled in this town. There are some vague references to coming over and people they had lost along the way, but I think it happened in past books and I wasn't familiar with their backstories. Other than that, I caught on to how everyone is related  (with the help of the nifty family tree in the front of the book) and I grew to like these characters, no bad apples in this bunch.   Deborah the nurse struggles with her feelings for two different men- does she take her old friend Toby, or the new hot teacher in town Mr.Gendarme?- I'll say that it ends with a sweet wedding like most romances do....but I won't say which guy wins her heart!
  There's no real life-changing drama, just everyday life for these families. The story floats by like a gentle breeze.

Barons of the Beltway by Michelle Fields

My latest review for Blogging for Books is Barons of the Beltway by Michelle Fields.

   It was pretty clear a couple of chapters into this book that the author was a Republican, because every person she accuses of wasting money in Washington D.C. is a Democrat. I think we all know that's not true, the book would've been more balanced if she reported on some of the Republicans who abuse the system, too.
 She also seems to have something personal against Joe Biden, stabbing him several times in the book with sharp jabs. What she sees as taxpayer waste-Biden goes out for dinner with his wife, interrupting some traffic, and chats with passersby on the sidewalk-I see as a vice president who wants to remain grounded and still in touch with the people of the city. So you have to read this book and form your own opinions.
 The stories are meant to poke the bear and get us upset about taxpayer waste-and in many chapters succeeds. Extravagant parties for staffers, personal planes, outrageous speaker fees...all feels like excess we're footing the bill for. The author ties in stories from history that also features excess from our founding fathers- This is definitely not a new problem. Will anything ever be done about it? I don't think so.
 Again, I would've liked to have seem the author be more objective and feature some Republicans in the bashing, they're definitely not saints either.  Otherwise, the book is an interesting read. I'd recommend it to Republican readers, but they're angry enough already. Democrats? This won't please you either.

The Wish / Beverly Lewis

This is my latest review for Bethany House Publishers, my latest novel I received is called The Wish by Beverly Lewis.

  To start off, I am quite liberal so you wouldn't think I would enjoy these Amish romances as much as I do because they are very religious and upright-but it's just the opposite: I'm a total geek for a good series of Amish romances. In fact, I enjoy the innocent and pure lifestyles these books are about. It's, I believe, why so many people are so fascinated by the Amish, deep down I think many of us would secretly like to chuck our modern lifestyles for this way of living-at least for a while-and you can do that when you  read a book like this for an hour.
  In The Wish, two best friends-Gloria and Leona-are pulled apart as teenagers when Gloria's father is excommunicated from the Amish community they live in. That means pulling up roots and leaving for Arkansas before Gloria and Leona can even say a proper goodbye. A few years pass and Gloria contacts Leona out of the blue, asking her for a visit at her new home in Arkansas. Leona accepts and makes the trip to visit Gloria in her Englischer world. ( That was one of my favorite parts of this book, the differences between modern Gloria and Plain Leona on her visit. Gloria has a cell phone and a car, and Leona is a bit in awe of her new friend, who is the same yet different.) After the visit, Leona invites Gloria back to Amish country for a visit. Gloria has some questions about the her own modern life, since it was thrust on her as a teenager without her say, so...will Gloria decide to return to the Amish life or not?? You'll like watching it unfold.