Wednesday 25 August 2010

Plain and Fancy - Wanda E. Brunstetter

Is it good for two people-one plain, the other fancy-to fall in love? Laura Meade loves her modern life, yet she fascinated by the Amish culture in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she is studying interior design. Upon their first meeting, she is immediately attracted to Eli Yoder, one of the Plain People, but Laura has no real concept about faith, God's love, and forgiveness of sins. Eli is also enamored with Laura, but to marry outside his faith would be forbidden. What then is the hope for love?

This is the second Wanda Brunstetter novel that I've read and I have to admit that I'm not really compelled to read any more of hers. This story was so simplistic with no space for originality or creativity - just a standard romance set in an Amish community. While it was a bit more fleshed out than the other novel I've read from this author - On Her Own - the characters were total caricatures and not developed enough to actually have motives behind their actions. And the speech was incredibly stilted and fake-sounding. Furthermore, the main character really irritated me - she was so selfish and childish, definitely not mature enough to be getting married and taking on all the responsibilities that an Amish wife and mother has! She only redeemed herself in the last few pages but by this point I was rather fed up with her. I'm giving this book 5/10 as it was fairly enjoyable to read and did keep my interest, even if I feel like I could write a more compelling novel myself! I have one more Brunstetter novel on my TBR and I really hope it's better than this - otherwise, I won't be trying any more of her books.

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