Then she's swept off her feet, in more ways than one, by bad boy Eli Lapp, from Belleville, who's rumspringa. Ruth Yoder, a member of the Seven Poplars community in Delaware, says she'll never marry - she will take care of her widowed mother, Hannah, and her younger sister, Susanna, who has Down syndrome. Ultimately, this story wasn’t for me, but as I said earlier, it was nicely written and that went a long way to hold my interest enough to finish. I wanted to actually witness Ruth coming to the realisation that her judgements and treatment of Eli had been wholly unfair up until that point, but no such reflections of self or personal revelations of wrongdoing occurred, much to my disappointment. I wish the emotional gap had been bridged better. It was like I was suddenly reading about a whole different character – a character that was happy, excited, and in love, not to mention suddenly unprejudiced and tolerant where previously she was not. I became very frustrated with Ruth as the story unfolded, to the point that I started wishing Eli would end up with someone more kind-hearted and open-minded than her.Īs for the ending, I didn’t buy Ruth’s abrupt turnaround for an instant. Why not just hear the guy out? So much of the immature drama – which is what it was – could have been avoided had they simply had a conversation that would have dispelled the bad rumours and put Ruth’s mind at ease. Every time Eli tried to explain his past to Ruth she shut him down, choosing to act petulant and disinterested when she was anything but. This leads me to my next issue: the total lack of communication/miscommunication that occurred between Eli and Ruth throughout the story.
This didn’t convey these Amish in a positive light to me.
Where Eli’s “bad” past was concerned, no one ever asked what had actually happened they laid judgement first, labeling him bad and gossiping about him at every opportunity.
I believe some of the attitudes expressed here were negatively presumptuous, with a lot of characters shunning Eli for perceived actions they knew nothing about. Having said that, I was surprised by how judgemental and gossipy I found some of the characters, especially considering they all strived to be good, kind, god-fearing people of the Amish faith. This Amish love story was sweet and unassuming, and I appreciated the writing quality a great deal.
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