Synopsis: Your heart misleads you.

That’s what my friends and family say.

But I love Noah.
And he loves me.

We met and fell in love in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other’s arms.

It should be
ROSE & NOAH
forever, easy.

But it won’t be.

Because he’s Amish.

And I’m not.

Review: What a cute story!! The pages practically turned themselves in this easy to read contemporary romance.

Each chapter alternates from the views of Rose and Noah. Rose is an English (ie non Amish) girl who moves right next to an Amish community, and finds herself falling for an Amish boy, Noah. This is the story of their forbidden love. I really loved the alternative chapters.. seeing the same story from two completely different perspectives, Rose and Noah are from different worlds really.

This book was really well written I thought. Not only was it fascinating (The lives of the Amish are certainly unique!), but I felt like the author really put herself into the shoes of a teenager. Both Noah and Rose, whilst very likable, make some extremely naive decisions at times. Decisions you see teenagers making based on impulse rather than well thought through rationalle.

At times I was gripping the book wanting to yell at Noah for being so completely selfish and putting all the pressure on Rose. And other times I wanted to shake Rose for being so gullable and weak. However I feel this was a conscious decision by the author, and done by design as opposed to poorly written characters. And the best part is that this book is the first in a series, so I am actually very keen to see how their romance pans out in the next book of this series!

I love that even with the Amish there is drama and politics amongst the ranks with the likes of Ella, an Amish girl who wants to start courting Noah. She gets intensely jealous once she finds out about Rose. Likewise with the jealous Amish boys who can’t stand that Noah has won Rose’s heart over them. It was a very exciting read in that way, and I felt as though I learnt a bit about the Amish culture along the way!

It was refreshing to read a contemporary YA romance with a bit of an unusual twist to it. In this case, it really worked well. Definitely worth reading! And personally, I am a fan of the Australian cover moreso than the US cover too - it’s far prettier!

Rating: 4 out of 5