5-star review of "Amish Promises"

Review of Amish Promises

by Leslie Gould

When Joel and Shani Beck arrive at their new home on Juneberry Lane in Lancaster, PA, they’re looking for peace. Joel’s recently returned from Iraq and is recuperating, and Shani is just happy to have her family back together. They can’t imagine any trouble with their Amish neighbors, the Lehmans, but things get off to a rocky start when their son accidently hurts Simon, one of the Lehman boys.

Timothy Lehman, a widower, is the family patriarch and demands the Beck boy work in Simon’s place. Tensions escalate, but Shani can’t help but be drawn to Eve Lehman, Timothy’s sister, who runs the household. The two begin to form a strong friendship forged on faith and family, and things seem like they’ve quieted down until Joel’s single and handsome army friend Charlie catches Eve’s eye. Suddenly, life for both families becomes more complicated than any of them could have ever imagined.

MY REVIEW:  This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill Amish novels.  It is a wonderful refreshing look at Amish and English families working to live next door to each other.   Add a romance between the Amish woman and the military friend of the English family and you just might have a formula for disaster.   Readers are certain to enjoy seeing if the two families can learn to exist peacably together.   

Leslie Gould addresses PTSD among former military in the book and does it with respect, dignity and honesty.  Grief plays a part in the characters' lives as well, in several different forms.   

I have always thought it would be great fun to live next to Amish and be able to form close friendships with them, but from this book, I learned that it might not be as simple as one would think.   What do you think would be most challenging in this situation?   Read and see if your thoughts are accurate.    See if the two very different worlds will be collide and explode or coexist and thrive.

I rate this book 5 stars and highly recommend it to readers.

I received a print copy of this book from the author and a pdf version of this book from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own.  

About the Author:

Leslie Gould is the award-winning author of fifteen novels, including the #1 bestseller The Amish Midwife (CBA and ECPA), co-written with Mindy Starns Clark. The novel, the first in The Women of Lancaster County series, was a 2012 Christy Award winner. The Amish Nannyand The Amish Bride, the second and third novels in the series, also hit the bestseller list.

One of Leslie’s stand-alone novels,Beyond the Blue, won of the Romantic Times Book Club Magazine’s Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Inspirational Novel in 2006.

Leslie received her master of fine arts in creative writing from Portland State University in 2009 and has taught fiction as an adjunct professor at Multnomah University. She also teaches workshops at public and private schools and at writers’ conferences.

A varied work history, from curating a historical museum to editing a bridal magazine, preceded her fiction-writing career. She is also an Army Reserve wife who has supported her husband, Peter, through many years of service, including a deployment to Afghanistan as the commander of a field hospital. Leslie and her husband live in Oregon with their four children.