Amish Promises book review

Amish Promises

by Leslie Gould (Goodreads Author)

 

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: 5/10

I didn't finish this book. It had a beautiful cover and the premise seemed interesting. I've read a couple of Ms. Gould's books before so I thought I'd give it a try. But right off the bat there were about 12+ characters and flip flopping view points and tenses, that made things really confusing. Even after a while, I still have to get my bearings when a new chapter/scene started. It's kind of slow moving and you spend a lot of time with surly, miserable characters and that was frustrating. And on the whole, the uniqueness of being submerged in the amish world and their culture was marred by spending so much time blending it with modern Americans and their culture. This just wasn't my cup of tea.