Today I’m reviewing PLAIN PURSUIT, the second novel in the “Daughters of the Promise” series by Beth Wiseman. This is a wonderful story set in Pennsylvania Amish country in which the heroine, Carley Mayek, badly in need of a vacation to heal her aching soul, goes to visit her friend Lillian, who has married an Amish man and become Amish herself. She only plans to rest and recuperate and write a story on the Amish for her newspaper. But her visit becomes more than a visit to a simpler way of life in a peaceful setting.

Lillian’s husband Samuel’s family has experienced a rift after his brother Noah left his Amish life to become a doctor. He has been shunned by the Amish for that and for a book he had written which spoke too frankly of  matters private to his family. When Lillians’s stepson David becomes critically ill, Carley meets the Dr. Noah and they are mutually attracted, but if Carley lets the attraction progress, she risks upsetting Samuel and his family. It becomes necessary for Noah to make a great personal sacrifice to save his nephew, but at first it seems the family will not allow it due to the shunning.

But even after the boy’s life is saved and a sort of peace and acceptance exists between Noah and the Amish, the hero and the heroine are not completely free to love, for Carley has a heartbreaking secret that may prevent Noah’s happiness if he marries her. It’s not until Carley tries to leave and the secret is confronted that this hero and heroine can enjoy their happily-ever-after.

This book deals honestly with the reality of Amish life and does not try to idealize it. The practice of shunning those who go against the Ordnung, the code of Amish rules, is one of the less pleasant of the realities, and one which the non-Amish including myself find hardest to accept. The Amish are steadfast Christians, yet this practice seems to go against grace. Yet I suppose if the Amish did not have this practice, their belief system and way of life would have become hopelessly compromised and watered-down.

I appreciated that in the end the family finds a way to come around and accept Noah, even if only unofficially. I would have liked to see the bishop come around too, but perhaps that would have been too idealistic. I also appreciated that God showed a way to solve Carley’s heartbreaking secret in such a marvelous way.

I’ve become a fan of Beth Wiseman in reading this book, and I hope to read many more. This book was provided for review by Booksneeze.com.

Blessings, Laurie Kingery