Treasuring Emma (Middlefield Family, #1) by Kathleen Fuller

Treasuring Emma (Middlefield Family, #1) Reviews

• 
  Rachel

  This was a extremely well written Amish romance novel with great character development. I enjoyed seeing the relationships between both Emma and Adam as well as Clara and Peter be restored. I liked the themes of forgiving those who've wronged us and of trusting God for provision. The only problem I had with this novel is that I'm not sure how I feel about the author leaving a con artist in the process of wooing another victim. However, I really loved this novel, and it has earned its place on my favorites list.
• 
  Carolyn Vandine West

  I love the other books I have read by Fuller. But somehow I just didn’t connect with anyone in the story. Emma the main character seemed to be a little wish washy and wasn’t able to forgive Adam for his past abandonment. But she also didn’t seem to move on with her life. I will read the next book in the series because I do want to know what happens. Library book.
• 
  Sylvia

  I loved this book!! Great story!! Didn't like her sister at first!! Didn't like mark!! Glad her and mark got back together!! Can't wait to read the next book in the series!! Love this author's books!!
• 
  Terese

  Not as good or heartwarming as her stuff usually is. The Mark plot felt awkward and forced. So many things were just glossed over.
• 
  Maureen Timerman

  This is a book that you want to get to the end to find out what happens, but you never want it to end! It is Emma's and Adam's story, along with a lot of family! The book opens at the home of Emma and her Grandmother, just after burying Emma's Mom Mary.
  Adam has left being Amish and was embracing the English life, or was he? When Leona, Emma's Grandmother, writes him to tell of Mary's passing and that his Mom Carol has not been well, he decides to come home for a visit.
  Emma is trying to figure out what to do now that he Mom has passed, and she has a lot of bills to pay. Her sister Clara, now wants to turn her Grandfather's shed into a Fabric Shop. Adam was her "lost Love", her heart is torn in so many directions. Makes you wonder if things are ever going to work out? Enter Clara and Peter's cousin Mark, who appears to have taken an interest in Emma?
  There is a lot of suspense and scary things going on, you will not be able to put it down.
  
  Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
  
• 
  Judy

  Treasuring Emma had me from page one. When I had to put the book down I couldn't wait to pick it back up.
  
  Emma Shetler's story begins with the death of her Mother. Emma feels completely dead inside. It was Emma and her Grandmother Leona now. Of course there was Clara, her Sister, but they had never gotten along. Clara, her husband Peter and their three children lived in their own little house not too far from Emma and her Grandmother's.
  
  Emma's first love and best friend Adam left the Amish community two years ago breaking Emma's heart. She had loved Adam. Adam didn't feel the same way or he would never have left. Emma knew she was a little on the heavy side and thought of herself as homely. Who would love her?
  
  The author from the beginning of the book and throughout the book right up until the end made it a point to teach us that God will provide if we only allow Him to. It is about turning everything over to Him in complete Faith. As you will read in the book several characters in the book were not doing this. Will they eventually do this?
  
  I think another lesson to take away from this book is lasting love. Do we treasure the love we share in our own relationships? Did the characters in this book treasure the love in their relationships?
  
  This is a book you won't want to miss!
  
  
• 
  Carrie Schmidt (Reading is My SuperPower)

  Ohhhhh this book hit home - on many levels. I saw myself in both Clara and Emma and found lessons I could learn from each. The element of mystery included in "Treasuring Emma" added an extra boost to an already wonderful story, and the questions left unanswered at the end of the story provide the perfect lead-in for the next book in the series. I'm excited to see how Fuller knits the threads together.
• 
  Kay ❦

  This book was quite good and I liked it. The reason for 3 stars is that it wasn't as good as
  Written in Love also by K. Fuller which was my first book by the author.
• 
  Rachel Brand

  GENRE: AMISH ROMANCE
  PUBLISHER: THOMAS NELSON
  PUBLICATION DATE: AUGUST 02, 2011
  RATING: 3.5 OUT OF 5 – GOOD
  
  PROS: Storylines provide an interesting contrast; easy, compelling read
  
  CONS: Villain seemed slightly caricatured and had unconvincing motives; found it hard to sympathise with one of the central characters; romance is relatively predictable
  
  Several years ago, Adam Otto left his family and Amish community, breaking Emma Shetler’s heart in the process. Emma never stopped grieving for Adam, and now the death of her mother has created more pain. Emma needs to find a way to support herself and her ailing grandmother, but she isn’t convinced by her sister’s idea to open a fabric shop in her grandfather’s old workshop. But Emma doesn’t know that Clara and her husband are struggling financially, especially now that their cousin, Mark, has come to live with them for an indefinite period of time.
  
  Clara’s marriage is experiencing difficulties, not only because her husband, Peter, has been out of work for nine months. The strain of having an extra person living in their house only seems to make things worse, especially as Mark’s interest in her younger sister is making her realise what she’s missing in her marriage. But someone else isn’t too pleased with the attention Mark is paying to Emma – Adam Otto, Emma’s first love.
  
  Home on a visit from the English world, Adam can’t help but keep running into Emma. Initially he just wants to help her and her grandmother get back on their feet, but when he realises that she’s caught the attention of a newcomer to the community, he can’t help but feel jealous. Or is it more than jealousy that he’s feeling? Do all of Emma’s friends have reason to feel uneasy about Mark’s unexpected presence in their community?
  
  Although I’m a devoted fan of Amish fiction, Treasuring Emma is the first full-length novel that I’ve read from Kathleen Fuller. I enjoyed reading a few of her novellas last year and hoped to experience more of the same with the first novel in the Middlefield Family series. The story of a young man returning to his Amish community and trying to win back his lost love is a fairly common one, but Kathleen adds a few twists to it by inserting a potentially dangerous love interest and exploring the relationship between Emma’s married sister and her husband. The main storyline was still fairly predictable, but Kathleen’s writing is very compelling and I found myself returning to the book whenever I had a spare moment. Even if Treasuring Emma isn’t the most original Amish novel that I’ve come across recently, it certainly contains a lot of the key aspects that make this genre so popular.
  
  Much like some of the other well-known authors in this genre (Shelley Shepard Gray, Mary Ellis, Amy Clipston) Kathleen explores multiple perspectives in Treasuring Emma. While following multiple characters often means that you connect with some of them more so than others over the course of the story, I appreciated being able to gain insight into the minds of Leona, Clara and Mark, as well as Emma and Adam. Leona’s sections provided some encouraging insight into the grandmother’s wisdom and deep faith, while Clara’s allowed us to see the reasons why she was so pushy and overbearing with Emma at times. While I did eventually understand why Clara was such a difficult character, I still never felt like I completely sympathised with her. I’m not the sort of person who tries to take complete control over a problem and fix everything by myself, so I had trouble relating to her, although I’m sure her behaviour is typical of some women. I did find Mark’s perspective quite interesting to begin with, and I was intrigued by the mystery that was built up in his initial sections of the novel. However, as the story progressed I found Mark to be a bit caricatured. His story wasn’t entirely finished by the conclusion of Treasuring Emma, so I hope that the second book in the series provides more insight into his backstory and what made him into the kind of person he was in Treasuring Emma. While I appreciated the suspense that his character provided, his villainous nature felt a little over the top in places, particularly as we had little insight into his motives.
  
  As I said, Emma and Adam’s romance is relatively predictable until Mark enters the picture. I liked the way that Mark bridged the gap between Emma and Adam’s story and Clara and Peter’s. The two couples provided an interesting contrast, which means that the reader never gets bored with one storyline as the book switches between the two fairly equally. Although the primary romance is one that’s been done many times before in this genre, I did really love Adam’s character, and I wanted him to win Emma’s heart simply because of how caring and genuine he seemed. Strangely enough, I actually found him a lot more realistic and sympathetic than Emma. The same can be said for Peter and Clara; while I loved Peter’s patience and wisdom (not so common among male Amish characters) I found myself getting frustrated with Clara after a while. It’s not common for a writer to make me connect with male characters over the female ones, so Treasuring Emma surprised me with this.
  
  Ultimately, I was pleased with how most of the storylines worked out. It was encouraging to see Adam realising that he needed to make things right with God before he fixed matters with his family, community and Emma. The issue of Adam’s faith was never overbearing and seemed very natural. I was also pleased to see how his relationship with Emma concluded, just as I was with Clara and Peter. While I’m sure that both couples still have a lot to work on, the ending was open but optimistic. I’m intrigued to see where Mark’s storyline goes, and hope that it is wrapped up later in the series, since his plot was the only one that I felt needed more attention.
  
  I’ve read a lot of great Amish books lately, so Treasuring Emma was up against some stiff competition. Although it wasn’t quite as original as some of my favourites in this genre, I did find Kathleen’s writing to be very compelling and easy to read. Some characters were less convincing and sympathetic than others, but as Treasuring Emma is part of a series, I hope that this is something that will be improved upon in the next book, Faithful to Laura.
  
  Review title provided by Thomas Nelson.
• 
  Catherine Flusche

  Not a bad story
  
  Not a bad story so long as you don't think too hard about the details. The main issue is that in a secular romance communication issues are expected because people are "lone wolves" . But the Amish have a foundation of family and community, two things that shouldn't exist without excellent communication...except that's exactly what happens. Religious communities are usually governed by submission; everyone is submissive to someone older or in the case of women, male. Real communication isn't necessary because one person always has more say.
  
  Clara got thrown under the bus twice by this author. Yes, she's a poor communicator, but her husband wasn't giving her much to work with, literally, and like I said above, she wouldn't have had any real practice really communicating because of their society. But I'm sure most readers will be content to think she's a bitch who needs to put more faith in God.
• 
  Mayda

  Adam was Emma’s best friend and first love. But he left the Amish community for the freedom of the English world and to get away from his father’s many rules. Now, a couple of years later, he is back, mostly because of his mother. Fearing she is in poor health, he decides to remain for a few weeks. But his attitudes -and his heart - are changing. Emma attracts the attention of a new man, and the whole situation distresses Adam. This first book in the series is well written, with likable characters placed in an interesting plot. It’s a nice story and a good lead-in to even better tales to come in the rest of the series.
• 
  Larisha

  I enjoy Kathleen Fuller’s writing style and the transparency of her characters.
  
  In Treasuring Emma, Emma learns that she doesn’t need to be dependent upon Adam fir her happiness and contentment, but instead that when she relies on God, HE will bring His best plans for her life together.
  
  Adam goes through great growing pains, leaves the Amish faith, but through it all...God’s plans unfold and Adam grows into the man he was called to be and appreciates his upbringing, values he was taught and how to “treasure” the woman God called him to be with.
• 
  Marsha

  Treasuring Emma (Middlefield Family, #1) by Kathleen Fuller is just so sweet and nice. It is a good change up for me. In this one, it is obvious from the beginning who is the bad guy, but always a surprise to see the lengths he will reach to get his revenge. It is really well written with wonderful characters. I would read a hundred of these.
• 
  Gail

  Returning
  
  A young man who left Amish life returns to find the girl he left still angry with him. Life is confusing for Emma as two men peruse her, her grandmother becomes ill and her sister tries to force her into a business she doesn't.
• 
  Melissa H

  Emma never forgot her best friend Adam, even though he was bann and excommunicated from the Amish community. Despite others expressing interest in her, she holds true to her heart and Adam discovers life outside isn't what he was looking for after all.
• 
  Patricia

  Very good story - enjoyed reading this book. The end part was a mystery - which you don't often find in this type of literature. I will try to find more books by this author.
• 
  Megan Rang

  This Amish story was action packed an a great book to read.
• 
  Dawn

  Good story, more dramatic than most Amish stories. Will read the rest of the series. Shows there are good and bad in all communities.
• 
  Mary J

  A pleasant story to listen to. I find listening to stories like Emma, relaxing when I need to download my worries.
• 
  Lisa Quenon

  These are sweet, tender books that I am very much enjoying.
• 
  SteFF

  Wonderful Amish book with a suspenseful twist. There's no better love story then an Amish one.
• 
  Elyssa

  Standard Amish romance. Though I feel the need to point out "God helps those who help themselves" isn't in the Bible.
• 
  Randy Tramp

  Suspense, with great lively characters.