Billed as Amish fiction, it's really just more of a backdrop for an adoption drama. It was still good, but not what I was expecting.

Lexie was adopted by Mennonite parents in Oregon, but she has broken from the church and works as a modern midwife in a hospital. She lost her mother at a young age and when her father dies, she finds a mysterious carved box containing clues to her birth mother's identity. This leads her to Pennsylvania, where she assists as a midwife to the Amish. Confused yet? Don't be. The real drama is about Lexie, discovering who she is and who she thinks she should be, and some needless plot twisting.

Lexie is annoying and shallow. She dates a doctor and makes several comments about his apparent wealth. She's childish and pretty unlikeable. Enough that I was tempted to take away a star, because I have to like my main character to enjoy a book. However, the complications and side plots kept me interested, and in the end I gave it a solid three stars. ( )

Not your typical "Amish novel". The main character is not sure she believes much of anything, and many of the characters are Mennonite. It's mainly Amish women who give birth, however. The main thing is the very surprising twist in the book's conclusion. All in all, a very entertaining read and also a good one for church book discussion groups. ( )

This was about Lexie finding her biological family. She is searching for her Identity. Her father died and told her about a box that came and when she finds it set her on mission to find her birth parents. She goes to Pennsylvania to help a midwife in trouble. Though she was to start working in Philly.

She learns some Amish words though her patients that she learns with some true meaning. People in her family are hiding information about her. She arrives at Marta Bayer home and Marta get angry at her. If you want to read more about the surprise or not for she finds a surprise that will be quite suprising to find out. Does Lexie get her Story. You need to read to find out. ( )

Lexie, a nurse-midwife, is on a personal journey to find her biological family. The journey takes her from Oregon to the heart of Pennsyslvania Amish country. This is a compelling story, searching for identity and the ability to trust that God holds our whole life in his hands.

I got up to Chapter 9 of The Amish Midwife—about 100 pages of teeth gritting and eyelid drooping—before I had to put it down. While there are some interesting aspects to midwifery I enjoyed discovering and some issues regarding Lexie's coming-to-terms with her discarded Mennonite faith, everything else about the actual story, the writing style, and the characters, was unsatisfactory.

I knew I couldn't like the main character the moment she first referred herself (emphasis on first, meaning she does it more than once) as the "handsome counterpart" to her "handsome boyfriend." Do people really talk about themselves like that? Not to mention the way she treats her so-called boyfriend, leaving him without closure just so she can aimlessly tread murky waters on the other side of the country on a matter on which she is entirely clueless. She can't seem to think of anyone but herself, and doesn't have a compassionate bone in her body. This all annoyed me; it's one thing for me not to be able to relate to Lexie, but to actually not like her is an entirely different story.

This book is classified as "romance," but let me tell you: if the romantic interest does not show his face by page 100, something is terribly wrong. I admit I haven't tried my hand at Amish romances before, but even for a religious storyline, I'd expect faster action or at least proper character introduction 1/4th of the way through. I didn't even get to the romance part of this story and I was still sick of it... big red flag.

There isn't much else I can say about this one. Nothing worth mentioning that I enjoyed; nothing interesting enough to keep me reading. I actually had to fight from falling asleep in more than one sitting while reading, which means there's a large problem beyond my sleep deprivation that made it really difficult for me to read The Amish Midwife, and that problem would be The Amish Midwife itself.

Pros: Realistic tone // Struggles with faith are well-captured

Cons: Painfully slow pace // Lexie is incredibly dislikable // Character interactions are detached and flat

Verdict: With an entirely self-absorbed and socially oblivious main character, a troubling so-called "romance" story structure, and a HUGE (read: not huge) family secret that lacks all of suspense, action, and intrigue, Clark and Gould's first installment in The Women of Lancaster County was a major letdown for me. Regulars to the genre may enjoy this one better because it does have its individual aspects, such as matters of Lexie's misplaced faith and her vocation, so if you've tried Amish romances before and have liked them, please don't let my review discourage you. As for me, The Amish Midwife has turned me away from all Amish fiction; I now know to stay away from this genre.

Rating: 2 out of 10 hearts (1 star): Not completely a lost cause, but could not finish; I did not enjoy this book.

Source: Complimentary copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you!). ( )