Dark Harvest

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable and Disappointing
Review: I am disappointed in this book as it had potential to be unique mystery, and I do not quite understand how it earned itself a spot on the NYT Best Sellers list. I found the heroine of the book not very credible, and in fact too down right stupid to be believed. The harrowing moments in the book are brought about not by the sharp inquisitive mind of someone who is supposed to be a decorated officer, but a bumbling ditz who I put the clues together for half way through the book. Predictable to a fault, (which makes it harder and harder to identify with the main characters), the "whodunnit" environment drones with all the usual suspects and a formula that's been played out in every Scooby Doo cartoon. I found myself skipping through the last chapters just to get to the end.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Book!
Review: Karen Harper's DARK HARVEST is a super well written suspense novel about hate crimes (based loosley on actual occurences) against the Amish in rural Ohio. The reader "follows" the heroine, an ex-cop, into the lives of the Amish that are being terrorized by someone that wants them to leave, no matter the cost. This is a can't-put-down book. You will really care about the characters in the book and feel like you "know" them. Atmospheric, super believable characters- BUY DARK HARVEST, you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of excitement...
Review: Kat felt it her duty as a policewoman and as a person to investigate, obliquely, when she suspected a little boy was being abused. That cost her when the father shot her, making her shooting hand ineffectual.

Months later, rehabilitation behind her, Kat starts a new life near Amish country. Someone is out to get these peaceful folk; pranks are becoming dangerous. Investigating will require Kat to become Katie, an Amish girl from another community there as betrothed to Luke, a handsome widower. As she delves into the community, a new world is opened to her. She also begins to feel things she never expected to for a man who is not part of her world. Things become dangerous, both for her heart and life.

**** For a book set in a peaceful farm village, Dark Harvest has lots of excitement. In this cultural clash a sweet and thrilling romance is the result. ****(...)

Rating:
Summary: remind readers of the Ford-McGillis movie Witness
Review: Someone is attacking the vulnerable especially the young of the Amish community of Maplecreek. The people prefer to handle the problem without outside help, but the assaults are turning uglier and increasingly dangerous. Widower Luke Brand knows his community must turn to professional police for help.

Former urban police officer Kat Lindley almost died in her last major action and the memory still haunts her because the kid she tried to help died. Still, she agrees to go undercover as Katie of the Amish betrothed to Luke of Maplecreek to find the culprit threatening the children. As she works closely with Luke, they fall in love, but both know a devout Amish person and an outsider could never forge a relationship that is if they even survive the deadly menace that threatens a peaceful town.

This is an exciting romantic suspense that will in many ways remind readers of the Ford-McGillis movie Witness. The story line combines a dangerous foe willing to kill vs the romantic backdrop of two people from opposite cultures falling in love. Though the suspense is terse, it seems minor when compared to the relationship between the wonderful lead couple (at least it is not police corruption).

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: An excellent mystery/romance
Review: This book was a delight to read. I know a little about the Amish people but not a whole lot. This book was actually educational. I didn't know if I would like it because it seemed far fetched that there would be romance between an English woman and an Amish man, but it just goes to show that you can't help who you fall for. There were lots of characters who could have done it and the mystery was hard to figure out. It seemed like some of the events were pretty random and thrown in there for confusion but all in all well done without being over the top. The romance was sweet, and I really liked the kids. I am not a "kids" kind of person so it was refreshing when I actually cared about what happened to them. All in all, definitely one I would recommend.