First book in the Plain Path series!
Christina�s Courage by Susan Lantz Simpson is the first book in the Plain Path Series. Christina Brubacher finds a man dead in her shed at her business, The Green Thumb. The death is ruled an overdose. Christina finds a couple of clues in her greenhouse that raise questions. Christina gets help from her crush, Noah Zimmerman. Christina�s search for answers stalls out until the victim�s sister, Jill, shows up asking for help. Christina�s Courage is an Amish romance with a touch of mystery. Christina lives in an Old Order Mennonite community. I wish the difference between Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite had been explained. They seemed identical based on the information in the story. Christina�s Courage reads like a young adult novel. The characters seemed young (younger than their actual age). Christina is twenty, but she comes across as sixteen. Annie, Christina�s best friend, is very immature (acted like she was twelve). The story alternates between Christina and Noah�s point-of-view. This leads to a great deal of repetition. We get to hear how Christina likes Noah and has had a crush on him for years. Noah likes Christina and feels protective of her. The mystery moves at a snail�s pace (actually, snail�s move faster). I did not like how Christina and Noah sneak around to help Jill. I understand their bishop would not like them to get involved nor their parents. I wish the author had found another way to have the Amish characters involved in the mystery. Christina�s Courage is an Amish romance with a tiny bit of mystery. The story is long (could easily lose a hundred pages) and the pacing is leisurely. I appreciated the epilogue at the end that nicely wrapped up the story. Christina�s Courage is a light Amish mystery with a dead man in a shed, curious clues, a distressed sister, pretty pink begonias, a flirty friend, and a blossoming romance.