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.

As love restores Rhoda, a sudden tragedy is the test of faith she never saw coming. More settled in her heart than ever before, Rhoda Byler feels a newfound confidence living in the Old Order Amish settlement she helped establish in Orchard Bend, Maine. Though it has been almost a year since one brother left, Rhoda is happy to be working alongside the other brother as they tend and nurture the settlement' s orchard.

Fifteen years ago, Lainey O'Toole made a split-second decision. She couldn't have known that her choice would impact so many. Now in her mid-20s, she is poised to go to culinary school when her car breaks down in Stoney Ridge, the very Amish town in which her long-reaching decision was made, forcing her to face the shadowed past.

In this forlorn place, no-nonsense, down-to-earth sheriff, Sadie Mills, does her best to bring order and justice to a community struggling with crime, drug overdoses, and hopelessness. Aiding her is Coroner Raymond Russo, who fled New Jersey for a simpler life in rural America in a last-ditch effort to escape a family crime syndicate....

Join retired Amish newlyweds Emma and Lamar Miller in Florida for the winter as they lead another quilting class with a new group of unlikely students: Jennifer, a pregnant new mom; Mike, a charter boat owner; Erika, a wheelchair bound teen; Kim, a waitress; Noreen, a newly retired widow; and BJ, an artist facing illness. When old friends visit from Indiana, will romance also become a subject of class discussions?

When Charlotte sees something underhanded going on beneath the merrymaking, she enlists the help of Sheriff Deputy Luke Little to find out if her unknown correspondent is none other than the town's biggest suspect. And the surprising truth about her suitor's identity has her contemplating leaving her Amish roots behind forever....

Elizabeth is at a crossroads. Will rumschpringe lead her away? Or bring her home? She's been given the chance to experience life outside of her community, away from the responsibility to care for her eight younger siblings, but Elizabeth Bontrager can't decide which road to take. Goshen has its charms and pressures, but Paradise, Pennsylvania, sounds...well, like paradise. And it's also home to her Englisch friend, Paula. Decision made. Elizabeth is Paradise bound.

Doretta Schwartz used to be so happy and passed her positive attitude along to friends in several letters she wrote each month. But that all changed the day she learned of her fiancé’s death and a heavy weight of depression fell upon her. Feeling empty, she puts away her letter writing and won’t even respond to calls from friends. William’s twin brother, Warren, is also grieving his loss, while at the same time, trying to be supportive to his parents and Doretta. Doretta responds to Warren’s friendship, but is he just becoming a replacement for the once-in-a-lifetime love she lost?

Life is good on their Pennsylvania Amish farm for newlyweds Vic and Eleanor Lapp—until the day Vic's youngest brother drowns in their pond and Vic turns to alcohol to numb the pain. Things get so bad that Vic loses his job and their marriage is coming apart. Eleanor is desperate to help her husband and writes letters to her friend, Doretta, living in Indiana, for advice. The trust Eleanor places in her friend and the gentle words she receives in return are a balm for even darker days to come.

When a baby - only hours old - is discovered on the Amish bishop's front porch in Painter's Mill, Ohio, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. The newborn is swaddled in an Amish crib quilt, and the only other item found with the child is a hand-carved wood rattle, which Kate also recognizes as Amish.

A student at heart, Ruth is finally a teacher at the Amish schoolhouse. But after her first day, she wonders if she's made a mistake. The students want nothing to do with learning. Deflated, she makes a promise to herself to not give up - not yet.

With her daughter newly married, widow Charlotte Burkhart should have been content to find a companion for her later years in Amish widower Glenn Esh. Yet, Charlotte longs for more than life has offered her thus far. When she discovers a baby on her doorstep, the child seems like the miracle Charlotte's been praying for. Unfortunately, Glenn doesn't feel the same way. What's a single woman aching to experience motherhood once more to do?

Tricia Troyer is thrilled when Brandt Massey, her cousin's English friend, joins the Troyers's holiday gathering for the second year in a row. When Brandt asks Tricia to be his girlfriend, they both know she'll have important choices to make about her future. But the two aren't as different as some believe-and with open hearts and understanding, their very own Christmas miracle just might be possible . . .

Lillian's first 27 years have been challenging at best. Her decision to get reacquainted with her Amish grandparents in Lancaster County, PA, is an attempt at finding peace in a complicated world. But her plan has a flaw.... Lillian is practicing the Amish lifestyle with no real understanding or relationship with God. And despite her best efforts, complications arise when she takes a fancy to Amish widower Samuel Stoltzfus who has an 11-year-old son, David.

A year after her boyfriend was killed, a traumatized Katie Miller returns to her Amish community in Indiana, struggling with depression and panic attacks. Will she ever find the courage to face her inner demons? Freeman Bontrager has been interested in Katie ever since they were in school. Now that Katie is home, Freeman finds excuses to spend time at the Miller house. Is there any future for him with this emotionally scarred woman, or should he turn to the fair beauty Eunice Byler?

On a warm spring day, Sadie Lapp returns home to her quiet, unassertive life in Stoney Ridge after spending the winter in Ohio. Gideon Smucker, an awkward schoolteacher, has been in love with Sadie since childhood and eagerly awaits her return. But does Sadie feel the same about him?Will Stoltz, a charming and impetuous college student, has been banished for a semester and sent to babysit endangered peregrine falcons nesting at the Lapp farm. He’d rather be anywhere else...until he befriends Sadie. As the hopes and ambitions of these three young people converge, life in Stoney Ridge may never be the same.

After receiving a desperate and confusing call from her sister, Hannah Lapp reluctantly returns to the Old Order Amish community of her Pennsylvania childhood. Having fled in disgrace more than two years earlier, she finally has settled into a satisfying role in the Englischer world. She also has found love and a new family with the wealthy Martin Palmer and the children she is helping him raise.

Danielle Kent is anything but Amish. But as destiny would have it, she has fallen in love with an Amish man. Now she’s 18, pregnant, and hopeful that the child’s Amish father—Matthew Lapp—will do the right thing and marry her. She knows Matthew plans to leave his Colorado settlement for a life in the Englisch world. But that plan never included a baby. When Matthew walks away from her and their unborn child, she has nowhere to turn. Her unlikely friendship with Levi offers some comfort—yet they have so little in common.

Ivy Zimmerman is successfully navigating her life as a young Mennonite woman, one generation removed from her parents' Old Order Amish upbringing. But when her parents are killed in a tragic accident, Ivy's way of life is upended. As she deals with her grief, her sisters' needs, and her Dawdi and Mammi's strict rules, Ivy finds solace in both an upcoming trip to Germany for an international Mennonite youth gathering and in her great-aunt's story about Ivy's great-grandmother's visit to Germany in the late 1930s.

After losing both her fiancé and the happy life she anticipated, Amish maedel Grace Coffman is still stitching the pieces of her life back together. But between working in a quilting shop with an unscrupulous Englisch boss and caring for her ill parents, her threads keep unraveling. At first, the arrival of a kind, attractive stranger feels like a coincidence. But the more Grace learns about Joel Beachy and his story, the more their meeting seems like providence…