The Reckoning - Beverly Lewis

Katherine Mayfield, the new Mistress of Mayfield Manor, always dreamed of a fancy "English" life. But as the seasons pass, she finds herself grieving the loss of her Amish family and dearest friend, Mary Stolzfus. Shunned from the Plain life she once knew, Katherine finds solace in volunteer work with hospice patients--a labor of love she hopes will bring honor to the memory of her birth mother. Unknown to Katherine, her long-lost love, Daniel Fisher, is desperate to locate his "Sweetheart girl," only to be frustrated at nearly every turn. Meanwhile, she delights in the modern world--once forbidden--cherishing the attention of Justin Wirth, her handsome suitor. Her childhood entwined with Daniel's, yet her present life far removed from Lancaster County, Katherine longs for the peace that reigned in her mother's heart. And once again, she is compelled to face the heritage of her past.

I enjoyed the conclusion to the Heritage of Lancaster County series more than the second book but not quite as much as the first. While living in her birth-mother's mansion in New York, Katie comes to realise that she misses many aspects of her old Amish life - quilting, baking, helping those who are to frail to look after themselves. Can she really throw that all away and become completely "fancy"? I felt that on her quest to discover who she really was, Katie really grew as a character and the immaturities about her that I'd previously disliked diminished. Katie's friends and relatives back in Lancaster also featured more in this book, which is another reason why I enjoyed it. It was great to read about Rebecca coming to terms with her daughter's shunning, Mary finding love and Annie rekindling her friendship with her brother. 

Throughout the book, several characters discussed finding salvation through belief in Christ. I appreciated that Beverly Lewis had picked up on the fact that a lot of Amish don't believe in this and instead think that you have to earn your way to heaven, as this is an aspect of Amish life that I don't entirely agree with. However, I can see how this would make the novel unappealing to a secular audience. Daniel's discovery of salvation in the second book had been a trivial point but it was discussed much more frequently in The Reckoning, so be aware of this if you are not a Christian and are considering reading this book. 

All in all, I've enjoyed reading this series but would not say that it is my favourite of the Amish sagas available. Lewis broke into the scene with the Heritage of Lancaster County books and while this was groundbreaking at the time, her writing has changed a lot since the late 90s. There are some cliches and predictabilities about these books and the speech can seem stilted in places. These novels make great comfort reads, but a better series by Lewis is the Abram's Daughters series. There are several other authors of Amish fiction who I'd recommend, my favourites being Amy Clipston, Vannetta Chapman and Barbara Cameron. The Heritage of Lancaster County is a great place to start in the Amish genre, and because it was the series that started it all, you can only move on to bigger and better books! 7/10 

The Confession - Beverly Lewis

Katie Lapp, a young Amish woman who questioned the strict rules of her upbringing and even her own identity, has been shunned from her Amish community. Katie--now known as Katherine Mayfield--sets out to find her birth mother, and a life, she has never known. 

Her birth mother is seriously ill and Katie must struggle to find her, and prove her own identity, before it's too late. But in the world of electric lights, telephones, and fancy things, Katie stumbles into a web of greed and betrayal where the garb of the Amish is misused to disguise an evil conspiracy. Meanwhile, unknown to Katherine, her long-lost love, Daniel, has returned to the Amish community to find her. Can they ever be together again?

I read the first book in this series, The Shunning, over a year ago and as a result of this had forgotten a lot of the details. I've also read several other Amish-themed books between then and now and have established my views on who the best authors are in this genre and which series is my favourite. Unfortunately, this book isn't among them. As much as I enjoyed the first book and all of its drama and angst, this one just seemed unnecessarily over-dramatic and cliched. Although I wanted to read about Katie meeting her birth-mother and being reunited with her lost love, I didn't feel so connected to her and there were several passages devoted to the points of view of the servants in her birth-mother's house - many of whom were, bizarrely, English. Was it typical to have English servants in an NY home in 1997? Particularly ones who appeared to have stepped out of an Agatha Christie novel? I did enjoy reading about the "imposter" and wondering whether Katie would ever get to meet Lydia face-to-face (although considering the predictability of this novel, it was rather obvious that this would eventually happen) but I felt that this series lost its charm once it was no longer based in Hickory Hollow. I tend to prefer the Amish novels that focus on people who embrace their beliefs, rather than those who escape the lifestyle. I will read the last book in the trilogy as I checked it out of the library last week, but I definitely prefer Lewis's Abram's Daughters series to this one. But to give the author credit, this trilogy was her first and it's obvious that her writing has grown immensely since this was published. 6/10