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Sunday, January 18, 2015

A Match for Addy


Available for Pre-order. This item will be released on February 1, 2015.

      Product Details                    Book Description



February 1, 2015
In Search of True Love
Spinster Addy Coblentz fears she'll never marry. So her parents hire the new matchmaker who's moved to their Amish community of Seven Poplars. But Addy doesn't just want a match. She wants love. While some of her potential suitors are perfectly fine, only one man catches her eye. Gideon Esch is everything Addy's looking for: strong, kind—and handsome. But he's only a poor hired hand who can never give her family the stability they want. With her future happiness at stake, will Addy follow the rules…or follow her heart?
THE AMISH MATCHMAKER: Bringing love to Seven Poplars—one couple at a time!


This was an interesting read.  It ends on a very satisfying note.  On one hand, we get to see what appears to be an insider’s view of the Amish heritage and learn how they do certain things.  This is one of the most interesting aspects of this book.  But on the other hand:
Dorcas or as we soon find out, Addy seems to be according to her parents, in desperate need of a husband.  Especially one well off enough to take care of them in their old-age. Now Addy is supposed to be a plain, Plain girl and she is almost 30.  (Yes, I meant to type the word ‘plain’ twice since the Amish are sometimes called the Plain People).  Addy is constantly being reminded by her mother that she needs a husband and that she owes it to her parents to do so as soon as possible, that Addy is being too picky.  I suppose the mother means well in her own way, but as I am a non-Plain woman, it struck me as a non-Amish way to be (at least looking at if from the point of view from the other Amish and Mennonite books I have read).

Right off the bat Addy meets up with the handsome Gideon who happens to be the local matchmaker’s hired hand.  This was not the best of circumstance in which to meet!

Now Gideon just really rubbed me the wrong way – if this were not a book about the Amish, I think I could have expected him to be a player just strutting his stuff all of the time, waiting for the women to fall down at his feet!  This is how he acted.  One minute he is preening for Addy, wetting down his shirt and hair and singing – loudly. I was waiting for him to strip out of his shirt and flex his manly muscles at her and then do a dance! He is actually ticked at Addy because she was ignoring him while talking to another man and the next minute he claims that he thinks of her as ‘another sister’.   Why does Gideon, who  in  his 30’s, keep thinking of the men and women he frolics with as boys and girls?  I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around that.  I understand the Amish are not worldly – but Gideon seems to be more so than most others are and I would have expected him to  act more like an adult.

I had to keep reminding myself as I was reading this book, that this was about the Amish or I really would have been annoyed as to how this story spun out. These two thirty-something’s act like schoolyard children and I eventually wanted to give up on the book.  However, I did not because I really wanted to see if Gideon finally steps up to bat, so to speak and admits to his true feelings.  The last 20% of the book makes everything come together and makes you appreciate the story more.

The writing is good, the romance aspect is a little frustrating and the story is a little repetitive, but the lessons a reader will learn in pride goeth before a fall, makes up for some of the flaws. I ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I would.

ARC supplied by publisher.

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