Book Review: Temptation

Author: Karen Ann Hopkins
Title Temptation
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publish Date: June 26, 2012
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: Your heart misleads you.
That's what my friends and family say.

But I love Noah.

And he loves me.



We met and fell in love in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other's arms. It should be

ROSE & NOAH

forever, easy.

But it won't be.

Because he's Amish.

And I'm not.

Review: I love Amish fiction. I'm a sucker for it, so when I saw this new YA Amish book, at NetGalley, I had to dive in. Not many stories deal with the youth in the community, so this was definitely something different.

However, I found myself wondering how much research the author did when writing this book. The community Noah belongs to, is obviously Old Order Amish, but they didn't allow rumspringa? That doesn't fit with much of what I know about the Amish. I could be wrong though, but that part of the story bugged me. The other thing is, the sects of Amish that they could possibly have been wouldn't have had neat tidy farms either.

The story reads much like a twist on Romeo and Juliet, but since it is a Harlequin the ending is not a downer, even though there are times when you think otherwise. Or so you think, because this is the first book in a series.

~big sigh~

Would it be so hard to write a book about the Amish that wasn't part of a series? Tell the story and finish it all in one volume?

I didn't think so.

The ending of the book is the most unsatisfactory part. Not because of anything that happens but because the last 100 pages are total drama and the last 10...Meh...the book ends very abruptly, a'la Beverly Lewis.

OH and I know this isn't a Christian novel, but the religious aspect of the Amish was swept under the rug in this book and that is really taking a huge part of the culture away.

There still is quite a bit to like about the book. The characters are strong. I liked Noah better than Rose. Noah's behavior was pretty much what you'd expect for a young Amish man. Rose however seemed to be a smart girl that was pretty stupid sometimes. She had to ask her father about the Amish. Uh, what about the internet? I don't think a 16 year old, falling desperately in love wouldn't Google Amish to learn more about their ways.

I'm definitely going to check out the rest of the series, because I have to know how things turn out for the young couple.

Rating: 3 flowers