Amish Fiction

Shy, skittish Rose Christner is more comfortable tending to the beehives on the family farm and keeping her aunt's unruly cats in line than attending social gatherings with the rest of the die youngie. A childhood trauma and secret shame keep her heart under lock and key, and Rose just cannot accept the sweet attention she's receiving from a handsome neighbor. But the more she shies away from Josiah Yoder, the more their families sneakily plot to bring them together.

Unrest is stirring in Nellie's Pennsylvania Amish community. Some of the farmers are even demanding forbidden modern conveniences, such as tractors. Nellie, meanwhile, is distraught over the impediments set against her courtship to handsome Caleb Yoder.

Wilma is recovering from the wedding while Favor deals with doubts that have crept into her mind about getting married. Cherish is left wondering if it's time for her to pursue her own happiness, but can she cut loose the ties that bind her to the orchard? Later, Cherish gets a surprise visitor who changes her life forever. That's not the only change for the Baker/Bruner family when tragedy strikes. Can Wilma allow the entire extended family to come together to overcome the challenges they face?

The tranquil little town of Willow Ridge is facing a startling challenge. Wealthy Nora Glick Landwehr is determined to make it her home again - and put her past to rest. Cast out by her own family, Nora can't reconcile with old Amish ways or her strict father. But she'll do anything to help her community embrace the future and to and make amends to the daughter she had to give up. So she certainly has no time for her reckless new neighbor, Luke Hooley. They disagree about almost everything.

Leisel Bachmann left her Amish roots and beloved sisters to pursue a career in medicine without a second thought. She has an Englisch boyfriend, Nick Jordan, and dreams of a new life - but those dreams come crashing down when her sister Marie is diagnosed with cancer. Soon nothing is going as she planned - not her state boards, not her first nursing job, and certainly not her relationship with Nick.

Bailey King's in New York wrapping up a six-week shoot on her first cable TV show, Bailey's Amish Sweets. But back home in Harvest, Stephen Raber keels over from an apparent heart attack - with Bailey and Raber's pet bunny as witnesses. Except it wasn't Raber's heart that suddenly gave out - a lethal dose of lily of the valley was mixed into a tasty piece of toffee. Who'd want to poison a jovial rabbit farmer who reminded Bailey of an Amish Santa Claus?

One moment Ben Miller was high up in the rafters at his neighbor's barn raising. The next his foot slipped, and he plunged to his death, leaving behind a young wife and six children - the youngest born four months after his death. Ruth Miller is not alone. Her Amish neighbors help her to make the difficult transition from wife to widow. But while the community has been generous, raising six growing children, all grieving their father's death, is overwhelming.

The sun rises on a quiet June morning in 2009. August Epp sits alone in the hayloft of a barn, anxiously bent over his notebook. Eight women - ordinary grandmothers, mothers, and teenagers; yet to August, each one extraordinary - will climb the ladder into the loft, and the day's true task will begin. This task will be both simple and subversive: August, like the women, is a traditional Mennonite, and he has been asked to record a secret conversation. They have 48 hours to make a life-altering choice on behalf of all the women and children in the colony.

Katrina Stoltzfus thought she had life and love all figured out: She was going to marry John and live happily ever after. Those plans started to crumble when her father moved the family to Stoney Ridge then completely collapsed when John decided to marry someone else.

From bestselling author Kelly Irvin, the compelling Every Amish Season novels are now available in one audiobook collection.

In The Quilter's Daughter, 21-year-old Abby Miller - loving, responsible, and unselfish to a fault - struggles to overcome a staggering tragedy. After her widowed mother marries a widower from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Abby inherits her mom's thriving quilt shop in rural Ohio. When she learns her 47-year-old mom is pregnant, however, she leaves her store in capable hands, bids her long-suffering fiancé goodbye, and goes to help.

Mary Stoltzfus is 30 years old, splashed with freckles, and unmarried. In her Amish world, that qualifies her to be called an old maid. She is living her quiet schoolteacher life in the Lancaster County Amish community when she gets a surprising invitation in the mail one day. Would she come to Montana to teach?

The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: Circumstantial evidence suggests that 18-year-old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn's mother, took the child's life. When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to defend Katie, two cultures collide - and for the first time in her high-profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own.

"Spring Is in the Air": As the young people of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, plant a garden in memory of their friend, Katie Ann begins to worry that her older brother, Ephraim, is dating her best friend. What if she somehow loses them both? "Home by Summer": Clara Hertzler's surprised when Jerry Petersheim, her old friend, comes to the garden to drop off his younger sister-especially because Jerry has been gone for years and now seems to be living as an Englisher. As the friends get to know each other again, Clara pushes Jerry to examine why he abandoned his Amish beliefs.

Restaurant critic Derek Schumaker, notorious for his bitter reviews, is about to visit Daisy's Tea Garden, and Daisy and Aunt Iris are simmering with anxiety. A bad word from the culinary curmudgeon could really hurt their business. But how can he resist her cucumber sandwiches with pimento spread - not to mention the cheesy cauliflower soup and strawberry walnut salad? Schumaker takes a to-go order when the afternoon tea service is done, which Daisy hopes is a good sign. But when he perishes from a seizure, it looks like his food was dosed with something deadly.

Wilma Baker was a widow for the second time. She had buried her first husband when her daughters were still young. And now, here she was, burying her second husband when she was only middle-aged.

At age 20, Jessica Bachman left her two beloved sisters and her Amish community after clashing with the new bishop about her role in the family and the future of their farm. She tried to convince Silas Kemp, who'd been courting her for two years, to join her, but when he said no, she fled anyway. Three years later, she returns home for the first time since leaving Lancaster to attend her father's funeral. Her arrival back revives all sorts of emotions - yearnings and sorrows alike.

When Anna Konig first meets Bairn, the Scottish ship carpenter of the Charming Nancy, their encounter is anything but pleasant. Anna is on the ship only to ensure the safe arrival of her loved ones to the New World. Hardened by years of living at sea, Bairn resents toting these naive farmers - dubbed "Peculiars" by deckhands - across the ocean. As delays, storms, illness, and diminishing provisions afflict crew and passengers alike, Bairn finds himself drawn to Anna's serene nature.

As a bright season brings a fresh start to Willow Ridge, Annie Mae Knepp feels she can never make peace with the past. Her disgraced ex-bishop father is furious she has taken her five siblings to live with her. She's never been truly at home in her faith...or in believing in herself. And Annie Mae fears no man will want to take on the responsibilities she's gladly shouldered. True, her quiet neighbor, Adam Wagler, has been steadfast and unshakeable in helping her through her trials, but he surely couldn't think of someone so lost as more than a friend.

New York Times and USA Today best-selling Christian novelist Beverly Lewis continues her tradition of Amish stories with the Annie's People series. In the first book, Lewis addresses young Annie Zook's inner conflict between the strong bonds of her family and faith and the allurement of her talent. Her love of drawing has thus prevented her from choosing a husband, much to her Old Order preacher father's consternation.