Book Review: Just Plain Sadie by Amy Lillard

Hello all my fellow readers :)

I'm super excited to be back on my blog today with a new book review for you all.

While we were at RT BookLovers this month (which I'm still working on getting the rest of the recaps from posted), I was lucky enough to receive quite a few ARCS. While I will definitely be doing a book haul from this event soon, I have been trying to read the ones that are coming out soon, so that I can review them before there release date.

It's one of those arcs that I'm here to review today, and that is Just Plain Sadie by Amy Lillard. This is my first book by this author, and although it is part of a series, The Wells Landing Series, I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything by not reading the others before I read this one.

To anyone who's unfamiliar with this particular novel, I'm going to start by including the synopsis from goodreads:

"The Amish of Wells Landing, Oklahoma, treasure their close-knit community, and the promise of their growing families. But one young woman is struggling to choose a future that is true to both her heart and her faith…

Everyone in Wells Landing has long expected Sadie Kauffman and Chris Flaud to marry--despite Sadie's telling them differently. While she loves Chris, it is more as a friend than a husband. Yet at twenty-two, the plainest girl in her group, Sadie is also the only one who is still single. Perhaps it's time to be practical and marry Chris--though he still has not asked. But when Sadie meets a kind, handsome Mennonite, it seems her prayers have been answered… 

With Ezra Hein, Sadie at last feels the joy she nearly gave up on. Unfortunately, others only feel shock that she would consider marrying an outsider. To complicate matters, Chris has finally begun talking to Sadie about their future. Distressed, Sadie will have to search her heart to recognize God's marvelous gifts to her--and find the courage to accept them, challenges and all…"

I really enjoyed this sweet, inspirational novel about a young Amish woman trying to find her place in the world, after her best friend chooses to leave on an adventure to Europe, rather than to propose to her, like she had thought he would. Sadie was a sweet, easily likable character, but the reader also saw that she had a bit of sass hidden inside her, and she wasn't afraid to fight for the things she wanted. Obviously from the blurb on the back of the book, the reader knew going into this book that it was going to feature a love triangle, but I actually didn't find myself minding it, because of the angle from which Amy Lillard wrote it. I enjoyed both Chris and Ezra's characters, although I definitely had my preference for which one I believed should end up with Sadie.

I have previously enjoyed many fictional novels written about the Amish, like Beverly Lewis" The Shunning, The Reckoning, and The Confession, but it was really neat to see a novel written about Amish that work outside of the typical farming lifestyle. Sadie's family runs one of the most beloved restaurants in her hometown of Wells Landing, and it was interesting to see how they considered it okay to use electricity to earn their living in the restaurant, even though it was still taboo to have in their own private dwelling.

One other aspect I found so interesting about this novel, is the issue of a relationship occurring despite religious differences. For myself, when I think of a couple coming from differing religious backgrounds, I more think of a type of situation where a Christian or Jewish man is marrying a woman of Islamic or Hindu faith, or vice versa. But it was extremely interesting, and eye opening to see the differences that exist even between religions that so many people would consider similar, like in the case of the Amish and Mennonite people featured in this novel.  

I have also mentioned previously how much I usually enjoy the presence of kids in a romance novel, and that definitely occurred here. While Sadie. Ezra, and Chris obviously didn't have children, Sadie's siblings Daniel, and Cora Ann played a big part of the story, and I found both to be adorable, entertaining, and an amusing addition to the overall story.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this sweet, inspirational romance by a new author to me, and I'm really grateful that I decided to pick it up off one of the book tables at RT. I highly recommend checking this one out, and my final rating is 4 out of 5 stars. I look forward to picking up more books from this author in the future, including the first three books in this series, as I would love to read more about Sadie's older sister, and the mysterious events that were obviously revealed in an earlier novel. 

Thanks for reading everyone, and I will see you all back here on Wednesday for a Top 5 Wednesday Catch Up Post!

This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. I was given this book for free, but not strictly for review purposes. It was a book that I chose off a table at the RT BookLovers Convention. The photo does not belong to me, all rights to the respective owner. Also, the synopsis was taken from the goodreads page at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25852889-just-plain-sadie.