Book Review - The Fiddler by Beverly Lewis

The Fiddler by Beverly Lewis

Amelia, an extremely talented concert violinist, was struggling to break free of the expectations of her father and manager.  She wanted to be a “fiddler” of country music, a teacher of music to young children, and most of all, she wanted to simplify her life and follow her own dreams.  On the way home from a secret trip where she had played fiddle at a country concert, she became lost and came upon the cabin retreat of Michael, a young Amish man, also struggling to break free of the expectations of his religious community. He wanted an education and the freedom of  the English world.  These two hit it off right away. 

For much of the story, guilt directed their life paths as they aimed to please their parents, rather than themselves.  Each believed  they had no choices.  They had bonded with each other, yet they felt any future together would be impossible and could not even be discussed.

Gradually…very gradually…each finds the courage to face the tough decisions which had to be made.

 Sorry, Ms. Lewis, but this is one of your books that was a struggle to finish.  I found the plot lackluster, the characters uninteresting, and the ending abrupt and unrealistic. I really lost interest in the long exposition on Amelia’s European concert tour, where we have to visit every city with her and the plot advances not one bit.  The first half of the book was more interesting than the second half, but it was hard to become emotionally involved with any of the characters.   This is the first book in the Home to Hickory Hollow series.

 This book was kindly provided to me by Bethany House for my review.   The opinions expressed here are my own.