Hannah Lapp loves Paul Waddell, but she’s pretty sure her parents won’t. As an Old Order Amish teen growing up in Owl Perch, Pennsylvania, Paul’s Mennonite ways won’t be acceptable to her father – and neither will their plans to marry. Everything changes, however, when Hannah is raped on her way home from a meeting with Paul as he returns to college. Can their relationship – and Hannah’s good standing in her Amish community – survive the trauma?
Most books that I’ve read with Amish characters are simple. Simple plots, often about whether to join the Amish church or leave for the English world, or maybe about forbidden love, seem to make up the most of them. This tends to give those books a similarity that prevents them from jumping out and really grabbing the reader – but this isn’t one of those books.
I’ve never read a book about an Amish community that so thoroughly portrays the difficulties of remaining separate but apart in a fallen world; that describes the pull of the Amish faith in such a realistic way.
Well-written, realistic, and suspenseful, this book will keep a reader on his toes and craving more. The first of three, I couldn’t stop when this one ended – and finished the series in a matter of days. If you have any interest in Amish culture, this is definitely a must-read.
Want to find out more? Go here to read an excerpt of When the Heart Cries.
I received a free copy of this book from ‘Blogging for Books’ in exchange for an honest review.
