The Amish Bride of Ice Mountain

September 8, 2014
Putting a contemporary spin on traditional Amish romance novels, Long (An Amish Christmas Quilt) halfheartedly explores what an interfaith marriage might mean for family, community, and personal integrity. Mary King has been raised in the conservative and reclusive Pennsylvania Mountain Amish way, but the allure of Jude Lyons, an outsider researching the Amish, is more than she can resist. When the two are caught kissing and forced into a hasty marriage, Mary must figure out how to stay true to her religious beliefs while joining Jude’s much more worldly and material family in Atlanta. The story is peppered with tired clichés and idealized characterizations, but there’s a certain sweetness to the writing that delivers a sense of escape from today’s hustle and bustle into a gentler and simpler world. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary Agency.

November 1, 2014
God puts us all into families, Mary King tells Jude Lyons in Long's newest Amish romance. And family has never been Jude's strong suit, given his distant, mean father and a mother more concerned with the latest fashions than with her son. But a summer spent researching the Amish community on Ice Mountain introduces Jude to a different type of family. After an indiscretion, he and Mary are forced to wed, and life takes on new meaning as the couple learns about each other and their vastly different backgrounds. Long goes beyond the Amish-romance mold, exploring the world of metro Atlanta from Mary's Amish perspective and her Amish town from Jude's outside eyes. With the emphasis on community and relationships, the story is not about a different world than that of most readers but rather about the communication and trust that must exist between a man and woman in order to make a marriage last. Readers will delight in the romance between Mary and Jude and thrill as trust trumps differences.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)