As I mentioned before, this is definitely not my usual cup of tea. I'm not usually into the historical romance, or the Christian romance, type books. Or any kind of romance, to be honest. When it comes to romance and relationships, I'm pretty much your standard stick-in-the-mud, grumpy-old-man kind of guy. But for what this is, it's pretty good. I'm not saying this book caused me to reevaluate my anti-romance stance, but it was a fairly pleasant read.
Things I enjoyed: the glimpse into Amish culture, especially post-WWII Amish culture. The little bits of Old-style Pennsylvania Dutch language. Aunt Lizzie. The way the book changes point of view between characters, but makes it clear which character you're reading about. The way that the Amish characters recognized that their religious way-of-life was not for everyone - while they kept themselves separate from the "English", they didn't judge them for following a different path. In fact, that's another thing I liked about the book in general - it has a religious theme (and is published by a Christian publishing company, Bethany House), but it's not preachy.
Things I didn't enjoy: the bits told from the doctor's (Derry's father's) point of view. These felt like they were written by a completely different person. The dialog in these sections was stilted and stiff. The fact that several plot lines are left unresolved. I should have thought of the fact that this is the first book in a series of books about the same family. Hopefully the following books cover what happens with Leah and her beau, and answer what happened with Lizzie, Ida and Abram in the past. I might be tempted to read another of these books just to find out!
~Kris
iI have read quite a few of the books by Beverly Lewis. For the most part, I have found them to be well written. I can pretty much agree with your comments about both the things you enjoyed and the things you didn't This book IS the first in a series and you are right, many things are resolved in future books in the series. Both myself, [Karen's Mom], and her Mother-in law, Debbie, were reading Beverly Lewis books...sometimes sharing them with each other. Karen was interested in finding out why we were enjoying them so much! Glad you risked stepping out of your 'comfort zone' too!
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