Author: Serena B. Miller

ISBN:  781451660371

 

Hope Schrock had never met a bull she liked.” That opening sentence says so much. It tells me Hope is a woman who knows her own mind; and that trouble, in the form of a bull, is brewing. Curiosity led me to read on. By the end of the first chapter, I was hooked on this fascinating story that took me deep inside Amish country. But that is not the main reason I agreed to review this book when the publisher offered me a copy. 

The hero of the story, Logan Parker, is a bestselling crime fiction author from New York City whose latest book has fallen flat. As an author myself, I was naturally drawn to that character, and I wanted to find out how he would handle the bad reviews and get his writing back on track. I wanted to discover how a man from a fast-paced city would go from taxis and upscale restaurants to a world of horse-drawn buggies and homemade bean soup. The premise of these two opposite cultures meeting sounded interesting.

Serena B. Miller is a master at creating multi-dimensional, believable, and sympathetic characters. It didn’t take long until I was wrapped up in the personal stories of both Hope and Logan. Scene after well-written scene took me deep into the story until I found myself happily turning the pages, lost in this world that is so different from my own. 

Although this novel is part of a series, it reads just as well as a stand-alone book. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything for having not read anything by Serena B. Miller before.

The story is long enough to give readers many hours of enjoyment. As with all romances, the journey to the end is the fun of reading. Spoiler alert ahead… 

Nevertheless, I do want a satisfying conclusion, and this is where I think the book fell short. I was completely blindsided when the story ended, because according to the page count, I had 45 pages of delightful story ahead. I was looking forward to reading the culmination of the heroine and hero’s long journey. I couldn’t wait to see how this author, a master at her craft, would write a NYC-Amish wedding. It was sure to be quite a scene! Was I ever in for a shock when I found out the story came to an abrupt end and that the last 45 pages are an author Q & A! The Big Event that I read over 300 pages to get to is not even in the book. The proposal is disappointing, the wedding is skipped over completely, and then the Epilogue hurriedly sums up everyone’s lives. For me, the ending was a let-down on an otherwise fantastic and perfectly-told story.

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