Review: Good but Not Riveting
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 22, 2014
Judith Hershberger loves learning and wishes she had more than an eighth grade education, although that's all she needs to teach at the two-teacher Amish school, a job she loves. She's always been too shy to go to singings or to talk to boys, but at eighteen, she wishes she had a boyfriend. When Jacob Weaver asks her out, she gets her wish, but he comes with his own set of problems, like drinking with the boys. Neither have joined the church yet, and they need to make up their minds about what they want to do. When Judith decides to get her GED and Jacob gets them cell phones and thinks about getting his driver`s license, their families disapprove. As the two try to work through their problems, will they also work into each other's heart?Like with the first in the series, JOYFUL BREAK, where Judith's older sister, Rachel, had some issues to decide, this one was good, but not riveting. The plot should have created a lot of tension, but it didn't. I liked Judith as well as I did Rachel, but I didn't like Jacob's drinking problem at all for a main character. I know it is a hard habit to break, and there's no real resolution in the book. The book ends with one piece of a happy ending, but there's been nothing else settled. There was some head hopping and scanning problems or errors. The wrong word was used several times, like "Carried" for "Carrie." JUDITH'S PLACE also continued to have the Amish talk about their personal faith and relationship with God, something I've never encountered in any other Amish novel. Katie's situation is still in limbo; Ruth and David started to develop a relationship, but we aren't made aware of what would happen; and Eliza Dunbar, the English college student, has a central role in this book, but she is looking for a boyfriend too. I"ve just learned there is a third in the series, and I imagine it should tie up all these loose ends.