Customer Reviews

The Bishop's Daughter (Daughters of Lancaster County, No. 3)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jimmy, kidnapped from an Amish farm at age one, is now celebrating his 21st birthday. His beloved mother, Linda, has been dead several years and his dad, Jim, is the alcoholic owner of a painting company in Washington State for which Jimmy works.

Before her untimely death, Linda had asked her husband to promise to tell Jimmy (when he was old enough) all about his adoption which she believed was a legal, attorney arranged adoption. However, years of shame, sadness and guilt kept Jim from revealing anything at all to his son about his birth and first year.

Ironically,assuming he would have already been told, a birthday card with a pre-written letter from his mother reveals the whole story and tells him how much he was loved. Shocked and angry that his dad has kept all this from him, Jimmy starts demanding answers to his questions. When he is not satisfied with his father's answers, he leaves, alone, in search of his "real parents" and birthplace 2,000 miles away.

A stop at the attorney's office reveals that Jimmy was not adopted there at all and Jimmy is furious with his father for yet another lie. In a cell phone call to his dad, he demands to know the whole truth. His dad answered "When the adoption fell through, I was distraught and drove through Amish country, seeking answers. I happened upon an Amish farm that sold home-made root beer, and while the young girl was gone to the house for a cold jug, I grabbed a little boy she had left sitting on a picnic table and I fled. That baby was you." Jimmy now became extremely angry, believing his dad not only lied, but made up a preposterous story. All he had to go on was 20 years, an Amish farm that sold root beer and a baby abducted from a picnic table. However, since he was already in the area, Jimmy rented a place and got a job with a local Amish painting crew. Then his search began.

His quest to find the truth about his heritage makes this a very heartfelt, suspenseful book. Jimmy's falls in love with a young Amish woman which only further complicates matters. After several severe tongue lashings from elders threatening him not to pollute their community, Jimmy decides he has made a huge mistake and decides to go back home to Washington State. However, the pull to the Amish is too strong for Jimmy to get away from.

Brunstetter does an awesome job holding the reader spell-bound to the end of this book and the conclusion of the series.

I am sad to have this series be over. Thank you for three excellent books, Wanda. I am already ordering others you have authored!!!!

I know I'm behind the times as I've never read a Beverly Lewis novel, so this was my first experience reading a novel about the Amish. It was a pleasurable journey for me. I loved the plot and the twists and turns. The characters were also well-developed. I think the author sprinkling in Amish words helped me to get a feel for their culture. It reminded me of a soap opera in that every time the secret was about to come out someone interrupted them. Can you say As the Amish World Turns? :) Seriously, I really enjoyed this story. It was unique in many aspects and the conflict was good and seemed very realistic to me. I don't want to spoil it for the reader so I won't go into details by identifying the secret, but I'll just say that this story will put a smile on your face and bless you as you experience God's hand moving in the lives of the characters. The Englisher's father's struggle with alcoholism was well developed and true-to-life as well, making this novel a page turner for me. Again, I loved how the secret almost came out about twenty times. I wanted to shout at the characters to stop interrupting them--the hero and heroine (like on the soaps when someone walks past them in a crowd who has been missing for years. You want to reach into the screen and turn the person's head.) The Bishop's Daughter is listed as general fiction, but had just enough romance to satisfy me. (Did I mention it was a "sweet" romance? Those don't normally appeal to me, but this was so well done I enjoyed it anyway.) I highly recommend this novel, and now I wish I had read the first two books in the series as well.

The Quilter's Daughter is the 2nd book in this series and both were absoluly wonderful. Living in Amish country my whole life (as an "Englisher"), the stories are accurate and descriptive of their daily life and struggles with just the right amount of drama and romance to take us away from our lives for a brief time.

Wanda generously spreads God's word through the pages of her books, offering encouragement and enlightenment to all who read them.

I whole heartedly recommend the first two books and am planning on buying the third tomorrow.

I love the use of the German words with the English translations. This also adds a believability to the story. It also explains what my great-grandma was muttering under her breath all those years ago.

Buy the book. You won't be sorry.

I am sorry to say that this book 3 was a disappointment to me, after really enjoying books one and two in the series. It just left me...Flat. It might be because I did not enjoy the male protoagonists/antagonists that were featured here. I had always found the kidnapping/adoption scenario of Jimmy /Zach to be implausible anyway, but this book was "weird." Example: the manner in which Jimmy and his friend in Seattle (Allen?) speak to one another..it was awkward and NOT the natural way two friends, especially two male buddies, would talk to one another! It was like they were two old biddies at a coffee clatch sometimes.
I also found this 3rd book to be too much proselytizing for my tastes. Your opinion may differ (that is what makes these reviews our own reviews, after all)
I will continue to try Ms.Brunstetter but she really fell short on this one in my humble opinion. What a let-down.

Excellent book. I have read the other 2 in this series and each magnificant in it's own.
I read them out of order but still you can enjoy. Well written and are fast reads.

this was a good read though i do wish they could have discovered that he was his son sooner in the book and focused on that more in the book. but this was overall a good read and kept me guessing when the truth was finally going to come out.

Wanda Brunestter is great, and again I have been able to make my lady happy, she has almost the entire series and will as lone as she enjoys them, thank you very much.

Leona's faith is tested over and over again. She starts to question why God would let things these happen in her life. Then she meets Jimmy Scott, an Englisher, who is in Lancaster County searching for his real family. Jimmy learns that he is adopted on his twenty-first birthday and wants some answers. Upon his arrival in Lancaster, Jimmy takes a job as a painter with Jacob Weaver and starts to get to know the Amish community. Leona and Jimmy become close friends and start having forbidden feelings for each other since Jimmy is not Amish. In the end, God shows his involvement in Leona's life and His reasons for all of His actions.

This book ended the Daughter's of Lancaster County series very nicely. Although I knew where Ms. Brunstetter was going with her story, it was nice to wait and see how it worked out. This was the first series that I read by her and I am anxious to start another one soon.

Wanda Brunstetter is a master at taking you to Amish country through her books. This is the 3rd in her "Daughters of Lancaster" series. After reading one of her books, you feel as if the characters are alive and you can't wait to find out what happens next to them. This book is no exception. I would highly recommend this series of books to anyone who loves to read about the Amish or who has been curious about them.

The Bishop's Daughter
By Wanda E. Brunstetter
Review by: Karen Higson
Price $9.97

The Bishop's Daughter is a wonderfully written book with an endearing story of love, heartache, fear and disappointment. Wanda E. Brunstetter sets her story in Lancaster County, PA, in an Amish community. Here we find Leona Weaver in mourning over the death of her fiancé. Leona is convinced she will never get married and is trying to be content to live her life as a school teacher. Her dad is the Bishop of their church. He is a man who leads with grace and wisdom, until the accident...

Jimmy Scott is a young man living in Washington State until his grandparents send him a surprising letter from his dead mother. As Jimmy travels east to try to unravel the truth about his life, he meets the Weavers and stays in this rural community. He learns much about himself as well as the Amish way of life and in the process falls in love with Leona, which is forbidden for her.

You will have to read for yourself if they can make this difficult relationship work, and the struggles they face along the way.

I found this a very sweet story full of life, laughter, tears, joy and Godly lessons for us all. In the process of reading this novel I learned a little about the Amish culture. I enjoyed this book very much; it's not a heavy read, but it contains the meat to keep you coming back for more. Now I have to get the others in this series to see what else Wanda has in store for us.

Go ahead: read and enjoy--you won't be sorry!