To call this book artless would be both the kindest and the truest thing you could say about it. The author doesn't seem to understand that merely withholding information is not enough to create interest or intrigue. It would be like me inviting you to dinner next week and refusing to say what we're going to eat, and making a big deal out of the mystery, and then it turns out to be pizza. Ho hum. The transitions from one thought to the next were jagged and unnatural. As for the dialogue, I can't comment on whether it's authentic, but it seemed like an odd mishmash of countrified yokel plus a little bit of Amish-style German with smatterings of a southern or maybe Scottish accent. All of the characters' thoughts are blameless; even the character here who seems to be doing wrong focuses on feeling guilty rather than on what she's doing. This whole world feels spiritually airbrushed.

I'd heard of this author as a writer of Amish romance novels pitched at Evangelical Christians, so when I saw this pop up for free on the Sony bookstore, I thought, why not--after all, I read Left Behind and survived. I can see the appeal of the Plain theme, I suppose. Not only do the Amish not have cars or electricity, they also don't have a women's movement or cable news. The Amish were central to my own Laura-Ingalls fantasies when I was growing up in Pennsylvania. But much like Left Behind, this book has negligible literary value if you're not invested in its religious viewpoint.