2. Her Restless Heart by Barbara Cameron

#1 Stitches in Time

listened on Audible

narrated by Coleen Marlo

Unabridged audio (7:05)
2012
304 pgs.
Adult CRF/Romance - Amish
Finished 1/9/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.14 - 860 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Paradise, PA - Lancaster County

First line/s:  "A year ago, Mary Katherine wouldn't have imagined she'd be here."

What I posted on Goodreads:  Typical Amish romance set in Lancaster County, but with a number of happenstances and terminologies that don't accurately fit what I've come to understand about current Amish....

My comments: Mary Katherine works with her two cousins and grandmother in Stitches in Time, her grandmother's quilt and craft store where where she is an excellent weaver.  Because she has grown up as an an only child with an incredibly, grumpy negative father, she has dragged her heels about being baptized into the Amish community.  Now in her mid-20s, she is being sought after by Jacob, who has been a close friend since they were kids.  The whole story is about her back-and-forth feelings, his ardent pursuing, and some quite humorous part about him (a bachelor living alone) trying to teach himself to cook.  As I noted on Goodreads, there are happenstances and terminologies that don't fit.  Calling her parents mom and dad?  Wearing jeans and her hair down when she goes to the movies with an Englisher friend?  Stuff like that....

Goodreads synopsis:  Mary Katherine is caught between the traditions of her faith and the pull of a different life. When Daniel, an Amish man living in Florida, arrives and shares her restlessness, Mary Katherine feels drawn to him and curious about the life he leads away from Lancaster County.  
          But her longtime friend Jacob has been in love with her for years. He’s discouraged that she’s never viewed him as anything but a friend and despairs that he is about to lose Mary Katherine to this outsider.  
          Will the conflicted Mary Katherine be lost to the Englisch world, or to Daniel, who might take her away to Florida? Or will she embrace her Amish faith and recognize Jacob as the man she should marry and build a life with?
          "You'll laugh and cry right alongside the characters in this story that tests a young woman's faith in Gods's plan for her life." - Loree Lough, best-selling author of more than 80 award-winning books, including From Ashes to Honor, #1 in the First Responders series.) 

64. Fields of Corn by Sarah Price

An Amish Christian Romance (believe it or not!!)
read on my iPhone
2010 published
272 pgs.
CRF - I have read that Amish Fiction is now considered a genre on its own
Finished July 18, 2018
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 641 ratings
My rating:  2.5
Setting:  contemporary Lancaster County, PA

First line/s:  "The horse, a brown Morgan with a thick black mane, trotted down Musser School Lane, effortlessly pulling the black, box-like buggy."

My comments:  There's a fascination and pull towards the simplicity of the Amish life that more-than intrigues me, especially as I know live near numerous Amish communities.  But my sprirtual beliefs and those of the Amish are so very different that it makes books like these particularly difficult to digest.  The last quarter of the book pulled my rating way down, very hard for me to take.  Or understand.

Goodreads synopsis:  Shana Slater doesn't realize that her life is about to change when she pulls into the Lapp farm in Leola, Pennsylvania, to inquire about renting a small apartment over a mule shed. Yet, the price is right and the rolling fields of corn present a peaceful place for her to retreat when she is not working in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
          Her curiosity about the Amish way of life is piqued when she befriends Emanuel Lapp, the son of her landlord. As she learns about the Amish through his eyes, she quickly realizes that the Amish way of life is more than just religion and a plain way of living. She also discovers that the more she learns, the more she is unexpectedly falling for much more than their plain and simple lifestyle. When two worlds collide, which will survive and at what cost?
          Based in part on the author's experience living on an Amish farm, Fields of Corn presents a sweet and authentic love story.

14. In the Land of Milk and Honey by Jane Jensen

#2 Elizabeth Harris, Lancaster Police Detective
listened on Audible
2016, Berkley
304 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished February 1, 2018
Goodreads rating: 3.95 - 222 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:  Contemporary Lancaster and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

First line/s:  "I pulled into the driveway at the Yoder's farm and turned off my car."

My comments:  My interest and appreciation for the Kate Burkholder Amish murder mysteries by Linda Castillo have beecome overshadowed, I think, but this series.  This, too, follows a police detective - not in Ohio, but in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  I still feel a little bit dissatisfied with the protagonist, but her relationship with a lovely ex-Amish man, Ezra Byler (although a story in the background of the main plot), is very enjoyable.  So yes, I love the setting.  I love this peek inside the life of the Amish.  The plot was different, horrible murders, but cleverly and believably written.  I wish I could put my finger on exactly why I'm not completely taken with Elizabeth Harris, she's a little too...single-minded...perhaps?  I'm not sure, but maybe and hopefully after reading a third installment in this series I'll have a little better handle on why I don't really like her as much as I think I should.

Goodreads synopsis: With its peaceful, hardworking Amish population, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a rural paradise. But former NYPD homicide detective Elizabeth Harris knows that evil lurks there—it’s just easier to hide... 
           By solving the murders of two local girls, Elizabeth has gained some trust in the Amish community. So, she’s the first person its members turn to when a fast and fatal illness takes hold, though many believe that the sickness stems from a hexerei—a curse placed by a practitioner of old-world folk magic. Elizabeth doesn’t believe in curses, and when an entire Amish family is found dead, she begins to suspect something far more sinister...
            As the CDC is called in to investigate, customers of a Philadelphia farmers market selling Amish raw milk start dying. Amid rapidly escalating panic, Elizabeth must peel away layers of superstition and fear to save the livelihood—and lives—of an entire community. Because what has happened isn’t an accident of nature or an act of God, it’s the handiwork of someone who has only just begun to kill...