Plain Paradise

Title: PLAIN PARADISE
Author: Beth Wiseman
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
March 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59554-823-8
Genre: Inspirational/Amish/Women’s fiction

Linda is hoping that her Amish boyfriend will propose so she can marry in November. She’ll be eighteen by then and ready to have her own home. But then she discovers a terrible secret when a stranger, an Englisch woman, comes to the family farm house. Linda discovers that she’s adopted, and that her Amish parents have kept this secret from her. And that this Englisch woman is her real mother.

Josie was just seventeen when she gave her baby up for adoption. Now Josie is dying from a brain tumor and she wants a chance to get to know her daughter before she dies. She and her husband relocate to Paradise so they can be near to Linda, and Josie starts stalking the young Amish girl, praying for the courage to approach her.

When Linda and Josie do get together, Linda finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Josie’s world, while her Amish parents and boyfriend struggle to understand how this can possibly be God’s will. Will Linda jump the fence, or stay in the world she’s grown up in?

PLAIN PARADISE is the final book in the Daughter’s of Promise series by Beth Wiseman. I enjoyed reading this series, and am looking forward to her new series where readers will be following the Amish to Colorado.

I wasn’t adopted, so I really can’t relate to Linda or Josie, but I did feel that Linda over-reacted somewhat when she did learn she was adopted. (I may be wrong, and that may be how people react, it just seemed a bit melodramatic to me.) But otherwise, I thought the story was very well done, and interesting and I enjoyed getting to know the characters a bit better, since they did show up in previous books. A discussion guide, Amish recipes and an interview with Amish Author Kathleen Fuller is included at the end of the book. $14.99. 301 pages.