Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins

Title: Temptation
Author: Karen Ann Hopkins
Publisher: Harlequin
Acquired: Received free for an honest review
Age Group: Young Adult
Grade: 77% or C+
Buy It: Amazon

Your heart misleads you. That's what my friends and family say.

But I love Noah. And he loves me. We met and fell in love in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other's arms. It should be ROSE & NOAH forever, easy.

But it won't be.

Because he's Amish. And I'm not.

My Thoughts::
I always get myself into books like this that revolve around an impossible romance that destined to not work out from the start. I hardly ever enjoy books like these, but I can't resist them. I hold out hope that each one will be different. And this one WAS different, which made the outcome a little bit better than usual.

At least with this book about an impossible romance, it had a few things on its side. First, the impossibleness of it all was caused by realistic factors that we don't see a lot of in fiction, very varied social constructs. In this case an famish person trying to date a non-Amish person. Second was that this was very refreshing compared to the usual conundrum faced in these types of teen romance books (Human in love with non-human (VAMPIRE)).

Unfortunately there were also plenty of things that I didn't like. I know all books aren't supposed to be realistic, but it still bothers me when they aren't and it is obvious that they aren't trying to be unrealistic. Whenever characters fall in love so fast it bothers me. There was no factor in the book that made this seem reasonable at all. It was rushed and because of that I didn't care that much if they ended up together. In fact, since it didn't seem real at all I got annoyed by Rose and Noah because whenever they didn't get to be together it was very tantrum like. I wasn't rooting for them because THEM didn't exist to me.

The shocking reality parts of the novel are what I enjoyed reading the most. The difference between the Amish and myself was startling. Not in a bad way of course, just...very different. And of course seeing how difficult it would be for Noah and Rose to be together with their varying beliefs, family pressures, and lifestyles.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book because it brought new information into my thoughts but it definitely had some downsides that almost overpowered the positive.