Amish Fiction

Twenty-year-old Bethany Schrock is restless. Her love life has derailed, her faith hangs by a thread, and she is spending the incredibly hot summer days wading through a lifetime's accumulation of junk at the home of five ancient Amish sisters. About the only thing that holds her interest is the spirited and dangerously handsome Jimmy Fisher - and he seems bent on irritating her to no end.

Lydia still can’t believe that she is Mrs. Samuel Bontrager. Or that she is 17 with a six-month-old daughter. As Baby Mattie grows fussier by the day, Lydia wonders how she will survive a lifetime of marriage to a man she doesn’t love - at least not in the way she wants. Samuel knows that he and Lydia did the right thing by marrying when Lydia became pregnant. He has even grown to love Lydia, though he never seems able to say the words out loud. What if she doesn’t love him back? After all, she pushes him away whenever he tries to draw closer.

Daisy's orange pekoe is flowing at a fundraiser - and she's also made a new friend, Piper, a young woman whose hopes for motherhood were dashed by a foul-up at a fertility clinic. But before they can settle into a long conversation, the event is disrupted by masked protestors who object to building a shelter in Willow Creek. Among the angry crowd is Eli - who left his Amish community some time ago, with help from a lawyer named Hiram.

New York Times and USA Today best-selling Christian novelist Beverly Lewis continues her tradition of Amish stories with the Annie's People series. In the first book, Lewis addresses young Annie Zook's inner conflict between the strong bonds of her family and faith and the allurement of her talent. Her love of drawing has thus prevented her from choosing a husband, much to her Old Order preacher father's consternation.

Christiana Kurtz moves her bake stand to the local market, next to the woodcraft shop, which is run by Jeffrey Stoltzfus. Though their relationship starts off on bad footing, they eventually forge a friendship. When Christiana’s father makes a surprise visit to the market, he is upset to find that Jeffrey uses the building’s electricity to personalize his items. He tells Christiana that Jeffrey is too modern for her, and she’s forbidden from dating him. Christiana is crushed, but she knows she must obey her father.

When her mother passes away, Ella is forced to auction off her family’s farm. Her father died years ago, and she could never manage the fifty acres on her own. But after she moves to town, she can’t deny the pain she feels watching the new owner, Loyal Weaver, repairing her family’s old farmhouse—everything Ella had once dreamed of doing.

After fleeing her hometown, Katharine finds peace and anonymity while working at Stoll’s Inn and keeping to herself. As long as her guard is up, she can protect herself and others from her past, with the hope that one day her family will forgive her for leaving.

Tally Smucker’s quiet life of reading and quilting hides her sorrow over her mother’s declining health and the lack of a fulfilling future for herself. When her daily life is shaken by her free-spirited neighbor Danielle - who grew up Plain but joined the Army at 18 - Tally’s instinct is to distance herself. Yet she finds she can’t turn away when Danielle’s brother, Kenan, specifically asks for her help.

Back and broke in Stoney Ridge, Jimmy Fisher has coasted as long as he could through life on charm, good looks, and deep-set dimples. They always worked just fine for him - until they didn't. His smile has no effect on the violet-eyed beauty he met at the Bent N' Dent, the one with that stunning horse. She's offered him a job, but nothing else. The last thing Sylvie Schrock King needs around Rising Star Farm is a grown boy working for her, especially her neighbor Edith's son. The woman holds a serious grudge against Sylvie and her son....

Annie Weaver always planned to return home, but the 20-year-old RN has lived in Philadelphia for three years now. Her time of rumschpringe is about to come to an abrupt end, bringing for Annie an overwhelming sense of loneliness. She returns home and finds herself face to face with a budding romance with an Amish farmer, and Annie has several important choices to make.

Capable and optimistic Molly Zook has a slight issue with control: She doesn't like giving it up. So she's chafing against her mother's wish that, to save the family farm, she marry Mervin Mosier--especially after she meets Leon Fisher. He's from Montana but is working in Molly's district, training horses at a nearby ranch. He is tall and muscular, with a confident demeanor. Molly has never met anyone like him, and he seems to feel the same about her.

When Ruth Neufeld's husband and father-in-law are killed working for a relief organization overseas, she travels to Wisconsin with her young daughters and mother-in-law, Mabel, to bury her husband. She hopes the Mennonite community will be a quiet place to grieve and piece together next steps.

In Joyful River, Pennsylvania, the faith-filled Amish community lives side by side with the English world, healing problems and overcoming hardship with compassion, love, and abiding trust in Gott's plan.

When Ruth and Ettie discover a dead man in Ruth's bakery with a knife in his back, Ruth is convinced the man was out to steal her bread recipe. It was known that the victim, Alan Avery, was one of the three men who were desperate to get their hands on Ruth's bread secrets. Why was Avery found with a Bible clutched in his hand? And what did it have to do with a man who was pushed down a ravine 20 years earlier?

Amish widower Abram is devastated after losing his wife and son. Wracked with sorrow and guilt, he moves to Indiana, working 16-hour days to keep from focusing on his pain and grief. When he places a help wanted sign in his shop window, pretty Dawn Hartzler applies. While both have a growing attraction for one another, neither is ready to move on from their pasts. As Abram and Dawn grow closer, her ex-boyfriend, Daniel, comes back into her life, and Dawn believes they will reconcile.

Quiet, cautious Ella Lantz has spent her entire life in the close-knit Amish community of the Home Valley. Tending her lavender fields, she finds calm and serenity in purple blooms, heavenly scents and a simple life. But the sudden arrival of a strange visitor to her parents' home heralds a host of new complications. Alex Caldwell is unlike any man Ella has ever met - clearly, he's no "Pennsylvania cousin", whatever the elders may say. In fact, Alex is a Wall Street whistle-blower under witness protection…and he's brought a world of trouble to the Lantz doorstep.

Cherish is happy with her new husband on their farm but misses her family and friends. A surprise visitor shows up at their home, revealing a little more of Malachi's secret past. Ada attempts to keep her friendship with Wilma even though they have less time for each other. Meanwhile, Favor attempts to convince her husband to leave his controlling mother.

With so much to do between running her shop and spending time with her new boyfriend, it's amazing Angie is able to help organize the Rolling Brook library's annual book sale. Luckily she's working alongside brash librarian Austina Shaker, a lady who isn't afraid to make waves to get books to her patrons - even the Amish. Unfortunately this draws the ire of cranky Bartholomew Belier, an Old Order Amish bishop who publicly vows to ruin Austina.

Mattie Fisher's three daughters know that she's been keeping a secret from them. With each item pulled from the beloved family hope chest, they've discovered a new clue about their mother's past. But there's a reason Mattie has been keeping her history hidden, and she's not sure she's ready to reopen old wounds. Will dredging up the past change the way her children view her? Or her marriage to their father? And can she handle the pain of revisiting the memories that preceded the last few happy decades?

When wild child Sophie Deiner - the daughter of an Amish bishop - is forced to return to Nappanee, Indiana, quilt-shop owner Jane Berger is one of only a few who welcome her back. It’s the last place she wants to be, but Sophie’s recent illness requires that she lay low for a while. As Sophie recovers, she befriends a group of migrant workers and is appalled when one of them is detained and threatened with deportation. Sophie begins advocating on their behalf but soon finds herself opposed by an ex-boyfriend, who is the farm foreman.