A Review of Critical Reaction by Todd M. Johnson

I typically read historical romance novels, so this book was a new genre for me. This book is categorized as a legal thriller, so I was not sure how I would like it. It took a few chapters for me to get into it, but I did and I really enjoyed it. The plot was really interesting. We were given information from both sides in the story (Kieran and Hanford), but at the same there was enough mystery where I would want to keep on reading to find out what would happen next. I was glad that as the reader we weren't completely in the dark, but we were able to see what was going on through other character's perspectives. Even though this was not a romance novel, there was a small love story intertwined with the main plot, which I enjoyed. This story also had depth to it, dealing with the different personal relationships the characters had with each other. It was more than just the legal matters. The only negative I had was that there were many characters being introduced in the beginning. There would be a chapter about one character and the next chapter would be about someone else and I didn't know what was going on at first. There were a few different character perspectives in the book.  Once the story started to fall into place and everything made sense I truly enjoyed it. This was a book that I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. I would definitely read another book by the author and I would recommend this book as well.


I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers for my honest review.

A Review of A Simple Change (Home to Amana #2) By Judith Miller

I began reading this book during the end of a semester of graduate school. Usually when I am reading a really good book, I cannot put it down and I will read it instead of focus on what I really need to get done. I guess I should be thankful that was not the case with this book. It was boring and it was easy to not read it every day. With that said, this was my first Amish book. I wanted to give it a chance and I read it with an open mind. However, it was not for me. I found it really simple, as the title states, and dull. It did not catch my interest and it is a story that I will quickly forget. First of all, I didn’t care for the main character Jancey. She actually annoyed me many times. She would make so many dumb choices and as a reader it would aggravate me. For some reason the way that Ritt was introduced made me view him as a teenager/young boy, not a man that could be a potential for Jancey. So after that it was weird reading about them having feelings for each other. I just didn’t believe the relationship.

There were a few things in the book that I did not like at all. I understand that the Amana Colony is a community of Amish people, but their lifestyle seemed very cult like and that bothered me. I do not like the fact that everyone has to follow all these strict rules. For example, there is a bell that rings constantly telling people when to eat and go to sleep. They also are not allowed to talk in the dining halls and men and women cannot sit together. I do not agree with these rules and I do not like reading about it. It would make me angry and it took away from the book. I also was angry when I read that Jancey could not be a teacher in the village because that is a job that men had. The people in Amana also had to ask the elders in the community for permission for many things and again this is something I do not agree with.

I am feeling generous with giving the book 3 stars. Technically I would say it is more 2.5 stars, but it wasn’t a horrible book. It was just boring and I didn’t agree with a few parts of it. Overall it was somewhat well written. If you love Amish books, you might enjoy it. If you do not read Amish novels, then I would not recommend it to you.

I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers for my honest review.