I couldn't finish this book; I stopped at 43%. The writing felt choppy for me, but may that's a me problem.

What I learned from reading Temptation:
The Amish would hate me.

Holy cow, you guys. I thought I knew about the Amish culture - and perhaps more than the average. Because I've watched documentaries, I've read a bit, I saw that Bones episode about the musical prodigy who was Amish. I love cultures that are vastly different from mine despite the nearness in environment - which the Amish definitely fall under. But after reading Temptation? Man. I knew nothing.

In terms of the story, it's fairly simple: they can't be together, but they try with everything they can. I will say that if you can't stand insta-love, this may not be the best novel for you. Any way you slice it, the first 10 pages, Rose isn't in love; and on page 11, she is. Now, I'm not a fan of insta-love, but I'll hack it when I have to - and this one is manageable.

Reading Temptation is fascinating since I felt like an entire new world was opening up to me. I had no idea the variations between Amish communities and how different locations will have different rules. And I really enjoyed reading about their daily life; most documentaries or things I've seen/read focus on what they can't do, on how they're different from American society, on Rumspringa and breaking rules. Temptation opened up their entire routine and daily life, allowing readers to see that hey - they're actually not too different. They're strict, sure, but they do things for fun, have chores, care about the family and community.

However, I did have a slight issue with this story. It doesn't happen often, but I had a hard time with the actual writing. Like most readers and bloggers I know, I'm a writer and an editor (I am a journalist, after all), and sometimes, it's hard to put that aside as you read. It's gotten better the more often I read, but the want is still there. And Temptation definitely tested me. Almost every other line tripped me up and made me want to rewrite it, and that was tough to get through. Reading something and thinking how you would have written it is highly distracting, and I have to admit that it put me off sometimes. I don't mean to say the author is a bad writer (god I hope that's not how this sounds!), but sometimes, there were sections that I felt I would have written differently. Would my version be better? Probably not. But that's how it was for me.

Overlooking that hiccup though, I'm taken by the story of Noah and Rose. I cheered them on, I wanted them to get together, and I held my breath every time they snuck off to meet with each other. They were sweet, and even though sometimes I wanted to punch both of them for being so stubborn and unbending in their beliefs and upbringing, they're both very likable characters. I also liked that both of them were getting flack about being together - it would have felt very typical and stereotyped if it was just Noah and the Amish culture banning it. Rose's father not approving, and her brother being completely against it? That was a great additional element to the story.

I'm quite curious to see what will happen in Belonging, the second book. DON'T read the summary if you don't want to be spoiled about what happens in book one, but how Temptation ended...definitely looking forward to more of Noah and Rose's story.

I love a good Amish romance story - I used to read a ton of Beverly Leary. This is a novel about love - more specifically, forbidden love.

The relationship that Rose and Noah have is wonderful and confusing and frustrating all at the same time. The way they interact is authentic, their feelings for each other are believable (and not cringey), and the way they deal with their differing beliefs makes sense! I loved that we got both perspectives in the book.

However, I found it kind of difficult to like Noah sometimes. His problematic beliefs, while I understand are influenced by the way he grew up, were awful to read. He's also super controlling, which was annoying. Besides those, underneath all that, he was a kind person, I think. Rose was my favorite. She's a naive, sweet teenager who fell for the Amish boy. On top of that, she still thinks for herself! She thinks of her own well being and takes a lot of time in making decisions.

It was a fun read, overall! The writing was good, the characters were well-developed, and the plot was simple and classic.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Requested and read this book back in 2012 but never got around to posting review on blog and now don't recall it enough to leave an accurate review.

I don't really know a lot about the Amish. Come to think of it, I don't think that I know anything significant about them, other than the way they dress. Also, I don't think I've ever read a YA book that has an Amish even as a minor character, so suffice to say I haven't really been exposed to the Amish through YA literature. I'm not going to lie though - the Amish fascinate me. Anyway, my ignorance of the Amish's way of life is one of the reasons as to why Temptation appealed to me as a novel - other than the fact that this said book falls under the genre of YA Contemporary (readers of my blog ought to know by now just how much I adore this genre), I also get to know more about the Amish people. Win win, right? Moreover, I have to admit - the forbidden love aspect of the novel positively intrigued me as well.

One of the things I loved about Temptation is that it was told through two perspectives. Obviously, we get to see how Rose and Noah's relationship progress through their own eyes, but other than that, we also see the Amish through Rose's point of view; the world of the 'English' (apparently, this is what the Amish call the non-Amish) through Noah's eyes, and vice versa. Narrating the story through dual POVs enriched the novel as a whole because simply put, we are privy to both sides of the story. I also loved that the readers are able to see just how differently the two view a specific thing - for example, something that Rose considers normal or nothing out of the ordinary is something that blatantly shocks or displeases Noah.

Furthermore, I loved just how painstakingly detailed Temptation is. It was rather obvious how meticulous Karen Ann Hopkins' research in creating this novel was. Everything - down to the clothes, the setting, the celebrations, and the means of transportation of the Amish, was accurate (I checked!) and nothing was let unexplored. Every single detail of the Amish's lives not familiar to the English world was described thoroughly, and next thing I know, I suddenly knew all sorts of things about the Amish. As a matter of fact, it was so easy to get lost in the world that Hopkins shows her readers - that's how realistically she portrayed the Amish community.

To this date, I'm still torn on Noah and Rose's relationship - I have no idea if I support it, yes, but that doesn't mean that I don't believe that what they feel for each other is real, or that I didn't enjoy reading about it. It's just that reading about how they try to get their relationship to progress is god-damned frustrating, simply because they come from two different worlds. Let me be clear, however, that I don't mean 'frustrating' in a bad way. It's only a must that any relationship development between Noah and Rose be full of challenges because they are from two different walks of life; and while seeing them progress with regards to their relationships only to take step backs made me want to groan out loud, it was realistic, and I have to laud Hopkins for that. Everything about Noah and Rose's love story was realistic - everything was believable. In retrospective, let's face it - upon picking up this novel, I knew for a fact that this wouldn't be a happy-go-lucky love story, and that's what I got.

I both loved and hated reading about Noah as a character. While I loved how accurately portrayed he was (Noah's positively Amish through and through - there's no denying that), some of his actions irked me and ruffled my feminist feathers, and I guess I did kind of expect that. He is from a completely different culture, after all, and of course he would act in the way that he sees as normal. It was interesting to see how he and Rose attempted to meet halfway with regards to their cultures, and how they were truly dedicated in making their love last.

All in all, I enjoyed reading Temptation. The novel was well-written, and I loved reading about every aspect of Noah and Rose's lives. Both characters also made lasting impressions, and I want to know more about them. While I wasn't really fond of some of Rose's choices in the book, I did understand why she made them, and I can't wait to see how everything unravels in Belonging.

I'm really sort of torn on this book. On the one hand, it's unlike any other YA book I've ever read, so that's good. It was also interesting and readable, which is also good. But my goodness, the MC in this book makes some terrible choices! And while there's going to be another book and maybe Rose redeems herself in that one, it's hard to imagine her saving face at this point.

First, I feel like I should mention that I've never read an Amish book. There are a TON of them in adult fiction (specifically Christian romance, if you like those types of books). But I've never ventured into that territory, as the Amish have never really interested me. I had a friend in college whose family wasn't Amish but had a lot of the same beliefs, and it really screwed her up for a long time. So it sorta bugs me that they add all these extra rules to a religion and then gives that religion sort of a bad rep. Anywayyyyyy...

So I didn't think I was going to read this book until I actually saw some positive reviews. Then I saw it on NetGalley, so I grabbed it. I was in the mood for a contemporary recently, so I picked it up. And okay, I'll admit it - the story is definitely interesting. It kept my attention throughout, despite the eye-roll-worthy drama and sometimes annoying romance. I think maybe it was the drama itself that kept me reading. It was like watching a train wreck - I had to know what happened next.

I think a LOT of people aren't going to like the characters in this book. Noah has a lot of ideas that aren't, well, modern. And he tends to impose them on Rose. For me, I had to separate him from his upbringing, and once I did that, I could accept him. But there's no way in Hades that I ever would have wanted to date him.

Which brings me to Rose and my confusion as to why she's attracted to this guy who wears suspenders and thinks ballet and makeup are equal to pole dancing and string bikinis. Her motivation wasn't clear for me. I understood that she was confused after her mom's death, but that didn't seem like enough reason for her to run into the arms of a guy who has such rigid ideas about gender and society.

Also, the romance is so FAST! Again, I could understand Noah. He's from a culture that gets married early. There's not much dating. You look at a girl, decide she's pretty, and then starting courting her with the intention of marriage. But Rose? She was just too okay with talk of marriage and becoming Amish and everything he threw at her so quickly. I didn't buy it. The only way I could imagine a modern girl actually wanting that would be if she had a TERRIBLE home life - like she'd been abused or something. But Rose wasn't.

Okay, let's talk about that climax. Holy. Shintoes. TOTALLY didn't see that coming. And honestly, for that alone, I'll read the next book. I'm just reading along, wondering if Rose will make the right decision and realize that she's insane for even considering going Amish to be with this guy, when BAM! While I didn't agree with how the book ended, I've got to say it kept my interest really well.

I think if anyone wants to like this book, they're going to have to leave a lot of their own ideas at the door. It's easy to hate Noah and his pushy ways, but I think it's important to remember that he's from a totally different culture with different standards and ideals. If you can really internalize that, you can deal with him.

You'll also have to stomach Rose's immaturity and bad choices. I can't see this series ending in a way that modern readers will like unless Noah decides to go "English" and give up his Amish ways. But honestly, I hope he doesn't because that would be too easy, and I think it would feel contrived.

If you're interested in contemporaries with lots of drama and romance, then this book is for you. Yeah, it's a little on the weird side, but I thought it gave a lot of honest information about the Amish lifestyle (both good and bad), and it has the potential for having some interesting themes. I'll read book 2.