Plain Pursuit
By Beth Wiseman
Reviewed by Martha Artyomenko
Carley Marck leaves her “fancy” lifestyle for some time in Amish country, visiting her friend Lillian, who has married into the Amish and now has a family. She wonders if she can find some of the peace that her friend has found, but there are so many things she does not understand. As she tries to get used to the quiet ways of the plain community, Lillian and Samuel’s son passes out going to bed…and it is the start of turmoil and questions for the whole family, including Carley. The doctor Noah, seems to have some connection to the family, and Carley is determined to find out what it is. Will she ever understand Amish ways and will her persistance ruin her friendship with Lillian?
I agreed to review this book and since I am not a fan of Amish fiction, it has taken me awhile to write the review. Some of these stories seem to focus on the Amish families as they interact with the “English” as normal as possible. This story addresses how far shunning goes sometimes, as well as sometimes some of the healing that can happen later. I was a little surprised how well they had Lillian acclimated to the Amish lifestyle and so accepted into it, as that is not usually the case, but since this story was more about Noah and Carley, they did not focus on it too much, but that seemed a bit unrealistic.
Over all, if you are a fan of Amish fiction, you will probably enjoy this story. It would have been a better story without the Amish spin on it, but it is well written, good storyline, and has some good morals to the story about forgiveness, sacrifice and redemption.
This book was provided by Thomas Nelson for review