Lancaster Hearts (Amish Connections, #1; Out of Darkness, #5) by Ruth Price

Lancaster Hearts (Amish Connections, #1; Out of Darkness, #5) Reviews

• 
  Rachel

  This is The first book of the series Amish Connections, however it is also part of the Out of Darkness series (#5). It's best to read the others of the series to have some background. I finished last week, but have been unable to review until now.
  
  My rating: 4 1/2
  
  Storyline/plot: 5 stars.... First, this book provides a wonderful lesson. The information about performing CPR was excellent. I was glad to find that it was included. .... Now, Ms Price departs from the normal Amish fiction in the first books of the series (with the mystery-suspense). She continues in this book, with Judith, a young Amish girl/woman struggling with her decision to pursue more education instead of doing as expected (courting, marrying and having children). She does include a budding romance which I liked.
  
  Characters: 5 stars..... Some new character were introduced in this book and I enjoyed "meeting" them. I really liked the character of Isaac. He seemed sweet and shy, but yet he stood up for what he wanted(a relationship with Judith)to his father. I didn't care for the father, however I believe that is actually the way things would be in the "real" Amish community. In the end I did
  like him somewhat. There were others, however I won't go into them.
  
  Editing: 3 1/2 ...... Unfortunately this has been the biggest problem for the books of this series. There were so many errors in the first and second books that by the third I quit counting (or noting what they were) - just shook my head and went on reading. This one, I didn't actually notice that many, however, that again is probably because I'd trained myself not to notice them. Thus, the lower score. I apologize if I'm in error and there weren't many mistakes.
  
  Enjoyment level: 5 ...... It was fascinating to see how Judith's life was affected by the death of her father. And not in a negative way as so often happens. She wanted to try and see that it didn't happen again, so she decided to do something about it. I found myself reading beyond my "limit" so that I could see what would happen next. The only problem I have is the same I had at the end of In God's Hands...there is no true ending, we have to provide one ourselves, and I dislike that.
  
• 
  Elisabeth Furlong

  Usually I enjoy Christian fiction and a little Amish fiction, but I did not like this book. There are so many grammatical errors in the Kindle edition that it made it hard to figure out the story. The writing wasn't bad, but there were also lots of sentence fragments and sentences that just didn't make any sense. It seems the author would confuse the names of her characters and it made it very difficult to sort out which character she was talking about. I will not be reading the sequels to this book, although I did enjoy the general plot and the way that the book ended.
• 
  Tony Parsons

  Lancaster County. The Hershberger family had got their corn in.
  Samuel Hershberger (14, kinner) helped Mark Hershberger (mann/daed) in the field.
  Esther Hershberger (fraa/mamm) watched as Judith Hershberger (8, oldest kinner, hospital cleaning) helped them also.
  Sweet Potato Hershberger, Mary Hershberger, & Miriam Hershberger are the other 3 youngest kinner.
  
  Isaac Graber lived in Ephrata borough Lancaster County, PA.
  Rumspringa is a natural phase of Amish kids’ life.
  He met Joseph (13, kinner) & Caleb (16, kinner) who helped on the Hershberger farm also.
  Caleb fancied Judith.
  Mark had collapsed/died in the field.
  Hannah “Fawn” is sweet on John.
  Deacon Hilty (35) had collapsed & had to be revived by the Amish EMT’s.
  
  Judith went to ER to see him.
  
  I do not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing free books from publishers & authors. Therefore, I am under no obligation to write a positive review, only an honest one.
  
  An awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A very professionally written Amish romance book. It was quite easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters & facts to keep track of. This could also make another great Amish romance movie, or better yet a mini-TV series. To be continued. There is no doubt in my mind this is an amazingly easy rating of 5 stars.
  
  Thank you for the free Author; Global Grafx Press; Amazon Digital Services LLC.; book
  Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)
  
• 
  C Janet

  Finding God's destiny for your life.
  
  This is a short novella. It is put together well but novellas are too short for depth. I am giving this a 3.5.
  
  JUdith lost her dad at age nine from a heart attack. After that she had a desire to know if something could have been done to prevent it. AT 16 Judith volunteered at the local hospital and signed up to get her high school diploma and take a CPR course. This caused quite a stir in her Ordung especially when a young man Isaac wants to court her. AN interesting novella wondering if you can be Amish and still follow what you feel is your destiny
• 
  Pam

  I enjoyed this book. It is written from the perspective of a young Amish girl (16) trying to figure out how she wants to live the rest of her life while staying true to her Amish religion. She wants to learn how to help her community with health concerns. She learns how to do CPR against some of the wishes of the strict Amish in her community.
  Short but good. There are a few grammatical errors in the Kindle edition, but not enough to make it unreadable.
• 
  Susan

  A freebie ~ an easy read… with of course a happy ending.
  
  Judith is Amish and as a young girl her father dies of a heart attack. Growing up she wants to study medicine (unheard of for an Amish girl) ..but her mother encourages her. And one day she saves a deacons life And now she is finding support among the people.
• 
  Merry

  Amish
  
  I enjoy reading about the Amish in books, their faith in God is wonderful and I understand some of the rules but sometimes I don’t.
• 
  Keren

  Very nicely written. A few grammatical (pronoun agreement) errors, but easy to figure it out correctly. Looking forward to reading more of the author's books.
• 
  Lynda

  I really enjoyed this (short) book. An interesting idea for a solution to how an Amish young woman can stay in her faith and yet follow her dream which she fully believes is God's calling for her life.
  
  The visiting preacher and her son experience different reactions to Judith's family.
  
  I loved how Judith's mother did not buckle when it came to support of her daughter.
  
  This is the first book by
  Ruth Price I have read. It won't be the last. Highly recommend.
• 
  V.J.

  This is the first Amish novel i have ever read but i LOVED it - this was a short sweet simple yet powerful read for me one afternoon in the back of the car on a long drive - i read this book and then jumped right onto my kindle and brought the next two in the saga that same afternoon - i'm just away to start Courting Miriam book now !
• 
  Susan Faloon

  The overall plot was a good one but there's a few problems for me with some things I don't think are true to the Amish way of life. I just can't believe that an Amish person would say, Oh my G-d! That really irritates me. Also I have read many fiction books based on Amish and in every one but this,they pray silently at meals. It was still worth a read.
• 
  Pam

  Loved it enough to seek out the next two books in the series. Very well done Amish romance.
• 
  Joleen

  Aside from editing problems, I felt the author needed to research Amish ways a bit more. There were atypical story items to normal Amish ways.
• 
  Skeeter Jorgensen

  good
• 
  Linda

  I loved the story, plot, and characters. I wish the typos and other errors of the kind had been caught in proofing this story.
• 
  Anne

  Loved the series!