I Finally Read an Amish Romance

Book Review: Adoring Addie By Leslie Gould

Adoring Addie is a fun, light hearted Amish romance based not-so-subtly on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In some ways, the references are charming and not immediately noticeable, like when Onkel Bob says something along the lines of “They stumble that run fast”. Other times, it’s a bit forced and corny, like near the end, when Johnathan’s pain meds are left out and Addie’s mother briefly assumes that they both ended themselves, when in fact, it was a twisted misunderstanding.

Overall though, I really enjoyed this book. I’m not usually one for romance novels, and I’ve never even picked up an Amish romance before, but I was surprised at how well the characters and setting were established, and how comforting of a read it was.

As you may have guessed, Addie Cramer is our main heroine who is almost single handedly holding her family together. She does most of the chores, all the cooking, and basically is a mother to all her brothers. She recognizes that this is unfair, but keeps a good attitude about it regardless. She has spent her whole life trying to please her parents, but the one thing she can’t do for them is marry Phillip, (who represents Paris in Romeo and Juliet).

Everyone assumes that her and Phillip are madly in love and set to marry any day. He has a good family, lives nearby, and is dependable, so she has no real reason to not marry him, aside from the fact that she has no feelings for him. I love the way they did this in the book, because at first, Phillip seems like a decent, average guy, and Addie can’t figure out why she doesn’t want to be with him. But as the story progresses, his slightly irritating traits become red flags, and finally, when Addie can’t take anymore of her family’s pushing, she says he is conceited and self-absorbed. In the beginning, when she was around him a lot more often, she describes feeling something nagging in her mind, which evolves into feeling sick when she pretends that nothing is wrong. (For anyone who hasn’t pretended to love someone, this is scary accurate). When she finally works up the courage to reject him, he doesn’t take her seriously, and says she’ll change her mind, or as her dad keeps saying, “Come to her senses”.

At a barbeque, she meets Johnathan Mosier, the son of her father’s sworn enemy who happens to be a carpenter. Earlier, Addie’s older brother, Timothy, (Tybalt) broke a mantel that Johnathan carved, and Addie paid for it. Jonathan came to the barbeque to pay her back. Just as in Romeo and Juliet, they are obsessed after just the first meeting, and it’s enough to turn Addie’s whole life around.

Her parents are furious that she’s seeing Johnathan, only because of some childish misunderstanding that happened years ago between her dad and Johnathan’s. The Cramers and the Mosiers (Capulets and Montegues) despise each other because of this, though it’s mostly for the sake of the plot. The whole feud between their families was a little hard to believe, mostly because it was such a dumb argument from years ago, and aside from that, Jonathan is the ideal Amish boy for an Amish girl to marry. In fact, he’s so ideal, I found him boring. But that didn’t bother me too much, because they established Addie so well that I was rooting for them to be together, albeit only for her to have a happy ending.

As the story nears it’s close, Addie keeps suffering one thing after another. Her dad convinces the bishop to “banish” Jonathan to another county, and everyone, even her best friends, are now telling her she should just marry Phillip. Then her mother destroys the hope chest Johnathan carved for her (A big plot element, because it meant so much to her) and now she feels utterly alone. I kept waiting for her to blow up at her parents, and tell them how toxic they were being to her (especially her mother), but instead, she fell out of the window of her room and ended up in the hospital.

Apparently, her parents and brothers showing up to see if she’s ok proves that they actually do care about her, and all is resolved. To be honest, I was excited to see how her parents handled running the home without her, so they could finally realize how valuable she was, and how much they made her do. Instead, her and Johnathan talk it out between the families, they resolve the misunderstanding, and they can now court each other.

But showing up to the hospital as a family is the bare minimum. By the end, I was still not convinced that her mother was at all forgivable, or that Timothy cared about her at all. It was like shooting someone in the chest ten times and sending a “Get well soon” card.

It’s not until the last paragraph of the book, after all the other loose ends are hastily tied up in a time skip that Jonathan actually proposes, and of course, Addie says yes. The romance between them wasn’t all that intriguing, but if it’s anything like Romeo and Juliet, then that probably wasn’t the point. The real resolution was not when they got together, but when the families forgave one another and put the grudge behind them for good.

Though it was far from perfect, I really did enjoy reading this book, and might even read another in the series. The Amish setting and small town vibes are wholesome and comforting, without leaning too heavily on the Christian values. The important characters are well written and relatable, even for an agnostic bisexual who hates romance novels.