This is a new author for me. This was a very enjoyable book. I really liked all the characters. Books with the Amish, Mennonites, Mormons, Shakers religion seem to be pretty poplar right now. My book club just read one. The story is all about a subtle love triangle between Amalie, her fiance Fredrich and his best friend Matthias. The Amana Colonies were a different type of religious sect. From the cover I assumed it to be Amish, but it never tells what religious sect they belong to. I would like to read more about the Amana Colonies, I'll have to search this out. Do Amalie and Fredrich get together? Or is is Amalie and Matthias? You'll have to read the book to find out.