Almost Amish by Kathryn Cushman

While the name of this book would make you think that this just another fiction book about the Amish, this is not the case. This book is about a modern family that goes off to the country to live like the Amish as part of a reality TV show. The main character, Julie, is a stay-at-home mom whose life is full of meetings and constant stress. In fact, she hates her life. When the opportunity comes along to help her sister-in-law further her career by going on a reality TV show about what it would be like for a modern family to start living like the Amish, she jumps at the change of pace.

Julie embraces the lifestyle and enjoys the simplicity of their lives even though everything is more difficult without modern conveniences, she feels everything actually has a purpose being done. Susan, Julie's sister-in-law, goes on the show hoping to further her career in having a TV show and a line of hospitality products including cookbooks. She needs everything on this show to be perfect and constantly stresses about everything being done just right. While Julie and the kids seem to be enjoying and thriving from the change of pace, Susan seems to be more uptight than ever.

I found these characters to be pretty relatable. Although for the majority of the book, I could care less about Susan as she didn't seem like a very nice person. There really aren't that many twists and turns in the book, but it is a nice book to take a break from everything for awhile.

I would recommend this book if you are just wanting to read an enjoyable story with relatable characters. If you are looking for an Amish fiction book, you may want to pass on this one - though it does give more of a realistic view of what it might be like to be Amish.

I received this book for free from Bethany House publishers in exchange for an honest review. I was under no obligation to give it a positive review. All the thoughts are my own.

Intentional Parenting by Sissy Goff, David Thomas, and Melissa Trevathan

I've not read that many parenting books even though my child is a little over two. The few I have read, I found so ridiculous and really didn't implement many, if any, of the ideas that I read about in the other books. I've been on a search for a good, godly parenting book - not just one to tell me about the statistics of where my child might end up but one that would give practical advice on how to raise my child (or any other children I might have) in a way that would be pleasing to God. I am so glad that I was able to review this book because I believe I have finally found a good, godly parenting book.

This book is broken up into 12 Chapters with each author writing 4 of the chapters. The chapters in this book include:

1. Being an Intentional Parent
2. Being a Patient Parent
3. Being a Grown-Up Parent
4. Being a Balanced Parent
5. Being a Consistent Parent
6. Being a Playful Parent
7. Being a Connected Parent
8. Being an Encouraging Parent
9. Being a Spiritual Parent
10. Being a Merciful Parent
11. Being a Hopeful Parent
12. Being a Free Parent

Every chapter is full of practical advice. There are thought-provoking questions throughout each chapter that really makes you think and reflect on what you have just read. It is hard to pinpoint one particular chapter being more helpful than another as I found each chapter to have some nugget to take away. I did notice that it mostly seemed geared to parenting older children, though I think this is a helpful book even if you are starting out raising kids (as I am).

I cannot say enough good about this book. Some of the thoughts I'll be taking away from this book are:

• My child needs me to be the grown-up (taken from Chapter 3)
• My child needs me to be consistent - no matter what method of discipline...pick one and stick with it. Kids need structure. (taken from Chapter 5)
• My child needs to see that I need God. I was greatly encouraged by chapter 9 in that I don't have to be a "perfect" parent. My child needs to know that I don't have all of the answers, but that because I'm dependent on God that is who gives me my strength.
• And because I'm depending and trusting on God to help me through every step of my life (especially in wisdom to parent my child) that gives me a freedom to not sweat the small stuff.

I highly recommend this book and will be keeping this one to read for years to come!!! So helpful and practical!

I received this book for free through the Booksneeze.com program. I was under no obligation to give it a positive review.

The Deposit Slip by Todd M. Johnson

This book opens with Erin Larson settling her father's belongings after his untimely death. While going through a safety deposit box that she didn't know he had, she discovers a deposit slip that states that over 10,000,000 dollars were deposited into an account. Interested in finding out where this money came from and where it was, she starts checking into its whereabouts only to be blocked at every step. She ends up suing the bank that should have the money and life starts to get interesting.

Jared Neaton is a lawyer whose law firm is not doing well financially. Hoping this claim is legitimate he decides to take the case against the wishes of others. When he starts to investigate the claim, things start to get even worse. The pressure is on and he isn't sure why things are heating, but feels that he must have a case if the other side is being so defensive and wanting him and everybody else off the case.

I enjoyed reading this book for the most part. Most of the book, I kept wanting to read and see what would happen next. It seemed to me though that once the book started to wrap up, it wrapped up pretty quickly. When I got to the last page, I turned it to the next page thinking that there was going to be more, but that was all there was to the book. It just seemed pretty abrupt.
Overall, I found myself wanting to know more about what was going on. I wanted the characters to find out what was going on because I wanted to know what was going on. This book is labeled as a legal thriller and while there were some interesting parts it seemed more like a legal mystery rather than a thriller.

I would recommend this book to anyone that likes legal books as I think they would enjoy it if they like that genre.

I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review. I was under no obligation to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The Hidden Life: An Amish Quilt Novel by Adina Senft

I've read a fair amount of Amish books in my lifetime and this ranks up there with some of the better ones I've read. From the moment I opened the book and started reading, I couldn't put it down - well I had to, but I didn't want to. Emma Stoltzfus just felt so real to me and was a character that I could relate to and I found myself wondering what else was going to happen to her.

This story is the 2nd book in the Amish Quilt Novels though it isn't stated as the 2nd book. I did read the first book, but I don't think that someone who hadn't read that one would find it hard to read this one without the background.

The story of Emma Stoltzfus is one of an "old maid" - well at least I'm guessing in the world of the Amish. She is only 30, but she has never been courted and stays home watching her elderly mother. In her spare time, she loves to write and sends off many recipes and various pieces to the Amish periodicals. The book opens with her sending off a book to a national contest for fiction. She isn't sure how things will turn out, but ends up doing quite well and ranks 7th out of thousands of manuscripts.

Shortly after that, she gets an offer from a literary agent to sell her book. She heads to New York City out of curiosity and to avoid some drama at home and then comes back to her Amish life. For 12 years, she hasn't had any prospects for marriage and in just the space of a few weeks, she has 3 different Amish men interested in her but her heart belongs to only one of them.

I really enjoyed this story and couldn't wait for the ending, but I found the ending to be very abrupt. I'm hoping that more of her story is told in the next book because otherwise I'll be very disappointed. Other than the abrupt ending, this book was so enjoyable. While it isn't full of mystery there was enough of wondering "what will happen next?" to keep me reading until the last page.

I would highly recommend this to anyone that likes to read Amish fiction.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review through Faith Words a division of Hachette Book Group. I was under no obligation to give this a positive review. All thoughts in this blog are my own.