The Bake Shop by author Amy Clipson is an Amish Christian romance. The author has given us an authentic glimpse into the lives of some Amish people. Using vivid descriptions and some Pennsylvania Dutch words, she transported me to Amish Country where I made a new circle of friends.

Characters were very realistic as they had many redeeming factors and flaws. It was easy to become invested in the life of main character Christiana. I felt her sadness and joy. When she sold things I felt a victory. I wanted to sit in the coffee shop and have specialty coffee with her and her cousins, too.

Jeff was a moody character. At times I wanted to sit him down for a lecture but he was still a very likable guy. I loved learning about the different types or districts of Amish and what each allows. The Bake Shop had a wide variety of goodies that I could almost smell!

There are so many good life lessons in this book. Forgiveness, marriage, submitting to a father and husband, moving on, getting along with others are just a few of the inspirational messages. Bible verses and faith are heavily laced throughout this captivating story.

I highly recommend this book. There are discussion questions in the back for groups. Unfortunately there are no recipes. I rated it 5 out of 5 stars.

Christiana Kurtz has a bake stand in front of her family farmhouse. She makes the best cookies and pies in Lancaster County and is famous for her whoopie pies 🥧 as well as her shoofly pies and chocolate chip cookies. Her sister Phoebe helps out whenever she can.
She’s usually swamped with customers and with no extra hand at the bake stand, she finds the task daunting.

Her cousins all have a stand in the local market—Bethany Gingerich owns Coffee Corner booth at the Bird-in-Hand market; Leanna Wenger owns Jam and Jelly Nook, and Salina Petersheim owns Salina’s Farm Stand.

When Christiana shares her concerns with them, they informed her that there’s an empty booth where a knickknack boutique has just vacated and advise her to snatch up the booth before someone else gets it.
Moreover, since the market opens only three days a week she’d have more time to help with chores at home.
While the quartet is having coffee, Jeff Stoltzfus walks in to order a cup of kaffi ☕️ and a doughnut. He owns Unique Leather and Wood Gifts shop right beside the vacant shop. On his way out he accidentally bumps into Christiana spilling kaffi on his shirt.

Earlier that day, Jeff had run into his ex-fiancée who’s now married at the hardware store. Seeing them together made him grumpy 😡
At home she shares the news about the vacant booth with her parents, her father is against the idea. He doesn’t want her moving her business to the market because the market is owned by an Englisher. Besides, the market uses electricity which is against Amish beliefs.
But Christiana assures him she will be using a cooler for her baked goods and she’d set up a propane oven so she could bake cookies during the day.

Her mother tries to make him see reason and eventually he relents, but on a condition that Christiana must keep their Plain ways.

So Christiana finally sets up shop and calls it The Bake Shop. When she meets Jeff a second time, she realizes he’s a quite a likeable person. He’s even offered to help her make a shop sign and at a discount.

For a while now sales have been stagnant for Jeff and customers have been dwindling. To make matters worse, there’s always a long line of customers queuing up in front of Christiana’s shop and blocking his own shop. He’s afraid he’ll have to close his booth. He finally musters the confidence and tells her about this. Then he suggests they come up with a solution so they can both make a profit and he wouldn’t have to close his booth.

Christiana is offended by Jeff’s suggestion and they have a falling out. But then they set aside their differences, and when they finally get to know each other, sparks fly. Jeff wants to get to know her more but there’s one hindrance—Christiana’s father, who rejects modern technology. The only niggle here is Jeff uses electricity in his shop for his burnishing machine. When Christiana's father pays Jeff a visit to his shop and discovers he uses electricity, he forbids Christiana from seeing Jeff. Christiana is devastated, but she must obey her father.

Not one to give up that easily, Jeff switches to an inverter in an effort to please Christiana’s father. Soon after his shop catches fire and at first everyone thinks it’s from the inverter ( though the reader later learns the source of the fire). When Christiana’s father learns about what happened to Jeff and he might be the reason behind Jeff’s predicament, he eventually changes his mind.

In this book, love abounds, romance and food aplenty, as with any Amish romance books. Would recommend

Thank you to Amy Clipston, NetGalley, and Zondervan for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found this a charming and sweet story about a young Amish couple running their market stalls and falling in love slowly as they get to know each other. It's the first time I've read an Amish romance and I was pleasantly surprised how engaging it was and how much it made me smile. It was interesting to read about their type of lifestyle as well. The story is dialogue driven which I enjoyed and you really felt Christiana's and Jeff's connection. In my opinion it's a nice, simple, uncomplicated romance that is very well written. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. 3.5 uplifting stars.

This is one of those books that you'll find yourself sucked into...the characters are so realistic, with understandable issues and troublesome pasts, that you'll be rooting for each of them at varying parts of the story. The dad will tick you off, and he shows that arrogance and narcissism exist in the Amish community, too, and stem from surprising places. In the end, naturally, everything works out nicely. This is where novels are fun to read...because you know it's all going to work out right in the end. No matter how dark it seems.

This is a delightful story with a unique insight into Amish culture. Amy Clipston, has written and published 42 books, loosely based around the Amish community and their faith in God.

In this work, The Bake Shop, she takes the reader into the heart of the home, where the main decisions about everyday matters are made by the father of the household. A place where women are ruled by domestic grit, a simple lifestyle and their faith in God. There are strict rules about who and what might contaminate their culture and these are cleverly slipped into the narrative without losing the beat of this engaging story.

The main character Christiana is unmarried and is attracted to Jeff who is 28. He is her neighbor at the market, where they have booths selling home-made items. Why the good-looking Jeff unmarried and why he has such a moody temperament?

They go through a number of trials and tribulations, the author cleverly building the tension of whether or not they will end up together. She has to ask her father if she can date him and whether or not he will approve of her meeting his family. Everyone knows how strict her father is about the Amish ban on the use of electricity. He discovers that Jeff uses it to burnish his leather crafts at the market and he stops her from having anything to do with him. Jeff has to come up with a solution or risk losing Christiana forever.

This was a good read and I was intrigued by the bakery goods that were mentioned in the text. Macadamia nut kichlin, whoppie and shoofly pies. I would love to have seen a recipe or two for the favourite pastries that were so popular at Christiana’s bakery booth.

It was slightly off-putting, to read the Amish words for everyday vocabulary like mother, father and the various Amish greetings, but the writer has listed all these unusual terms at the beginning of the book.

The publishing house, Zondervan say they publish “… stories that inspire, illuminate, and transform. Stories that captivate the imagination, enlighten the mind, and strengthen the spirit”.

It was refreshing to be taken to a place of simplicity, of old fashioned values, where communities support each other and yet we still find couples struggling with the same angst that everyone else does.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Christiana operates a bake stand at the gate of her parent's property, but when customers start coming down to their house after hours in search of her famous baked goods her family suggests she move to the markets in town. After seeking and receiving permission from her strict Amish father, she moves and her business goes from strength to strength.

Jeff is a man with sadness in his eyes and Christiana is intrigued, though she doesn't dare let on to her cousins. She soon discovers that he is to be her neighbour at the markets. Despite their embarrassing first meeting and initial issues with customer flow, they soon forge a friendship which forces Jeff to confront the reasons behind his deep sadness.

Christiana and Jeff soon discover that their friendship is deepening into love. But when Christiana's father pays a visit to the market and discovers that Jeff uses electricity in his business he forbids the young couple to associate with one another. Christiana is devastated and enlists the help of her sister, mother, and cousins in the hopes of changing her father's mind.

Can Christiana and Jeff move past their differences and convince her Father that Jeff is a committed Amish man?

The Bake Shop is an enjoyable and easy read with likable characters. I appreciated the insertion of a glossary of terms at the beginning of the novel, and think that it is beneficial to a reader who may be unfamiliar with the Amish culture.

This is the first novel I have read by Amy Clipston and would definitely read another!