Tuesday, August 2, 2011

FALLING TO PIECES - BOOK #1 (VANNETTA CHAPMAN)

Story Description:

In this first book of a three-book series, author Vannetta Chapman brings a fresh twist to the popular Amish fiction genre. She blends the familiar components consumers love in Amish books-faith, community, simplicity, family-with an innovative who-done-it plot that keeps readers guessing right up to the last stitch in the quilt.

When two women-one Amish, one English-each with different motives, join forces to organize a successful on-line quilt auction, neither expects nor wants a friendship. As different as night and day, Deborah and Callie are uneasy partners who simply want to make the best of a temporary situation. But a murder, a surprising prime suspect, a stubborn detective, and the town's reaction throw the two women together, and they form an unlikely alliance to solve a mystery and catch a killer.

Set in the well-known Amish community of Shipshewana, Falling to Pieces will attract both devoted fans of the rapidly-growing Amish fiction genre, as well as those who are captivated by the Amish way of life.

My Review:

Twenty-seven-year old Callie Harper has inherited a quilt shop from an aunt she hasn’t seen in 10 years.  After travelling from Houston, Texas to the small Amish town of Shipshewana, Indiana, she has no intentions of staying.  She just wants to sell and get out.

Deborah Yoder pulls up in her buggy one afternoon with an armful of quilts to try and convince this new woman in town to re-open Daisy’s Quilt Shop but Callie is NOT re-opening the shop and tells Deborah all she wants to do his find a realtor to sell.  Deborah tells Callie that her husband, Jonas, knows a realtor and will ask him to send him over to see her about listing the place for sale.  Before Deborah leaves she asks Callie if she can leave the quilts there because she had shopping to do on the way home and didn’t want the quilts to get soiled in the buggy.  Her ulterior motive was that Callie seeing the quilts sitting there every single day would help to change her mind.  Sure enough it works and soon they are selling quilts in the store and at an online auction.

Callie and Deborah are slowly becoming friends when there is a murder and the person the police have pegged as the killer might surprise you.  The two women are fed up with being questioned by police and think they can solve the murder together and begin the arduous task of making up a whodunit-list.

I loved this story as it was a bit different than most Amish stories I’ve read.  I don’t ever remember reading an Amish story that included a murder with such intense suspense and mystery which makes this novel stand out from most.  I fell in love with Deborah, Callie, Melinda and Esther and wished I could sit down and have a cup of tea with each of them.  I’m definitely looking forward to reading books two and three in this series. 

***Preview Courtesy of Netgalley***

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for reading Falling to Pieces. I loved writing it and am enjoying books 2 and 3 as well.

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  2. I read this and enjoyed it as well. The ladies were fun to get to know and I look forward to seeing them again in the next book.

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