Falling to Pieces (Shipshewana Amish Mystery #1) in Quilt, Read, Eat, Sleep.... What Else Is There?

Oct 17, 2011 Judy Iliff rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011

Kathryn H recommended this book to me because she knows I like 1)cozies, 2)quilting, 3)stories centered around the amaish. Falling to Pieces fit the bill in all 3 areas.

Callie goes to Shipshewana, IN, to settle her aunt's estate. The aunt owned Daisy's Quilt Shop and sold quilts for some of the Amish women. When Callie gets to Shipshe (as they call it), her plan is to sell everything and then move on. Instead, she learns that she needs to actually operate the shop so people will be drawn to a pr ...more

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Nov 15, 2015 Heidi rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, audiobooks

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Amish romances are one of my guilty pleasures, and so I don't expect great literature when I read one. This book, however was so poorly written and poorly narrated that I have to share some of what made me crazy. First, the narration. Callie, one of the protagonists, was supposed to be a young lady from Texas, but the narrator kept making her sound like a old lady from the Midwest, in my opinion. Also, I don't think much editing was done on the recording, there seemed to be several times when th Amish romances are one of my guilty pleasures, and so I don't expect great literature when I read one. This book, however was so poorly written and poorly narrated that I have to share some of what made me crazy. First, the narration. Callie, one of the protagonists, was supposed to be a young lady from Texas, but the narrator kept making her sound like a old lady from the Midwest, in my opinion. Also, I don't think much editing was done on the recording, there seemed to be several times when the wrong word was used.

As far as the story, I had several problems with it. First and foremost, as a quilter, I just couldn't buy that a woman with no quilting experience could just step in and start running a quilt shop successfully. She had made friends with quilters, but there was no evidence they were helping her with the shop. I am not suggesting that Callie could never run the shop, but there would be a learning curve of more than a month. The time frame was also a problem. The events were supposed to take place over the course of a month, but there wasn't much narrative to suggest the passage of time. The newspaper angle also bothered me. I found it hard to believe that the editor of even the smallest town paper would also be the regular pressman, even if it was only a weekly, which it did not seem to be. It would be a 24 hour a day job, or at least more than one person could seemingly handle.

Another problem was the relationships between the characters. I might be okay with the women quickly becoming fast friends, but I had a hard time believing that Callie would go from being angry that the officer that came to the newspaper office to check out the disturbance was so tough on her to being interested in him, as well as being interested in the new newspaper editor and the police detective who took her in for questioning multiple times.

My last pet peeve is the way that people were referred to in the book. Sometime it was Callie, sometime she was referred to as Harper, sometimes a both practically in one sentence. I had a hard time believing that Amish Deborah would refer to an older woman by just her last name, even in her own thoughts. Grrrr

I gave this 2 stars because I did have to finish it to find out who committed the crimes, but I don't think I will read/listen to another by this author. ...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Susan rated it liked it

Shelves: nook, off-the-shelf-2012, 2012-reads

Callie Harper moves to Shipsewana, Indiana, following the death of her aunt. Her aim is to sell her aunt's quilt shop and move on. In the interim, she is befriended by an Amish woman and involved in a murder investigation. The story is a little transparent on why the murder was committed and who did it, but Callie's adjustment to small town life and the friendships she develops overcome this. I understand that this is the first in a series or three mysteries and I'll definitely be looking for th ...more

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