Romance Book Review: Leslie Gould's Courting Cate

Author: Leslie Gould
Series Connection: Courtships of Lancaster County
ISBN: 978-1-4412-6049-9
Genre: Amish Romance
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers

Purchase Link: Amazon 

Cate Miller has come to terms with the fact that no one wants to court or marry her, except maybe if it meant having a piece of her father's money. Her father on the other hand would like to see her married and giving him grandchildren, so he make a rule. Her younger sister can't court or get married until Cate does.

This does not make her happy and she hopes she can convince her father to break his rule and leave her to spinster life she assumed she'd have.

Pete is looking to settle down in a new Amish community after traveling around for seven months. He makes clear to Cate he is looking to do some courting, get married and start a family. He also tells her he is dirt poor and that makes Cate believe he is just another looking for what her father's money can offer to his future.

When her sister pushes Cate to let Pete court her, Cate begins to like Pete until her overhears a secret that changes everything.

This is a heart-warming version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Cate's insecurities are believable, even if some of the facts around the Amish community don't ring quite true. The story is told from the first person and enough hints are distributed throughout the pages that you get to know the other characters in the story, even though I would have liked to have had more true interaction between Pete and Cate.

Description:

When This Couple Gets to Courting, Sparks Will Fly!

In Paradise, Pennsylvania, Cate Miller is known more for her sharp tongue and fiery temper than her striking appearance. Her sweet and flirty sister, Betsy, on the other hand, seems to have attracted most of the bachelors in Lancaster County!

But the sisters' wealthy father has made one hard-and-fast rule: older Cate must marry first, before younger Betsy can even start courting. Unfortunately, untamable Cate has driven away every suitor--until Pete Treger comes to town, that is.

Prodded by the men of the area, Pete turns his attention to winning Cate's hand. But is his interest true or is there a scheme at play?

Romance Book Review: A Time To Love

Author: Barbara Cameron
ISBN: 9781426707636
Genre: Inspirational/ Amish Romance
Publisher: Abingdon Press

Purchase through Amazon

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Amish romance has become very popular over the past year. For many these stories are like opening a door in a new world that people have heard of but don't quite understand. Barbara Cameron sets the scene of the Amish Country in Lancaster County as if the reader were roaming the hills and roads. Scene after scene she offers her readers a close up and personal look at the lives of the Amish viewing it from the point of view of an Englisch woman and an Amish man.

When Jenny needs to heal after surviving a car bomb explosion, she goes to her grandmother for help. Living in an Amish community is all that Jenny's grandmother knows, but Jenny's father moved away from the Amish long before Jenny was born. Jenny remembers summers when she was a teenager visiting her grandmother and the Amish country she fell in love with.

While she heals Jenny reunites with her childhood crush, Matthew, an Amish man who has lost his wife and is raising his three small children.

Matthew loved Jenny when they were teenagers, but their worlds conflicted. He felt the call of the land and his belief in God. He married someone else and loved his wife until she died several years earlier. Now that Jenny is back and he can't forget how he felt about her before and how he still feels about her.

This is a wonderful story of challenge and love as two worlds come together.

Description:
War correspondent Jenny King thinks she’s just a temporary guest in her grandmother’s Amish community while she recuperates from the devastating injuries sustained in a car bomb attack that changed her world. But when she meets Matthew Bontrager, the man she had a crush on as a teenager, she wonders if God has a new plan for her.

Jenny has emotional and physical scars and though she feels she has come home to this man and this place, she's not sure she can bridge the difference between their worlds.