I really liked this story. It was very unusual in that it has a character, Sally Riehl who is Amish, almost 20, hasn't joined the church yet and is filled with wanderlust. She gives up the trip she has saved for a long while to help a young man with the funds and has a trip to New Jersey to the seaside fall into her lap to work as a nanny for a 9 year old. She is free on the weekends, which is where the story gets even more interesting. She meets a young marine biology student who is Mennonite not Amish. He turns out to be someone she is attracted to unlike the young men back home. The story just sucks you in, and I have never read of a an Amish person at the seashore. Nothing like the usual Amish stories.
I received this book from Bethany House through Baker Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Here is the information on the book from Good Reads: When a well-to-do family asks Sallie Riehl to be their daughter's nanny for the summer at their Cape May, New Jersey, vacation home, she jumps at the chance to broaden her horizons beyond the Lancaster County Amish community where she grew up. Curious by nature, Sallie loves reading and learning, and she fears that her chances of making a good match with an Amish farmer will be hampered because of it.
Though she loves taking care of nine-year-old Autumn Weaver during the week, Sallie has free time on the weekends to enjoy the shore. It is there that she meets Edward Kreider, a young marine biology student who talks freely about all he's learning and asks about her interests, unlike the guys she grew up with. Sallie wonders if this is the kind of relationship she's been longing for. Then again, Ed isn't from her community--and he's Mennonite, not Amish.
Sallie is afraid of what her parents would think about her new friendship. But that's not all she's fearful of. When unexpected danger threatens Autumn, Sallie will have to put her fears aside. Will this be a summer to remember, or one to forget
