Review: Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Your heart misleads you.
That's what my friends and family say.

But I love Noah.
And he loves me.

We met and fell in love in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other's arms.

It should be

ROSE & NOAH

forever, easy.

But it won't be.

Because he's Amish.
And I'm not.

Review:

TEMPTATION by Karen Ann Hopkins is a thrilling forbidden romance. Sixteen-year old Rose and her family move to Meadowview where the local community is Amish. When she locks gazes with Noah, a young man who happens to be Amish, they both feel a magnetic attraction to each other. However, it’s not that simple.

They have to keep their blossoming relationship a secret as the situation would become dire if they were ever found out. Being together should be simple, but when you’re 'English' and your love interest is Amish, you can bet everyone has something to say about it. How many obstacles will Rose and Noah have to overcome to be together?

I loved Temptation. I read this over two nights and couldn’t stop thinking about it in the interval. What attracted me to Temptation was how different it is to other stories out there; it’s the first story I’ve ever read about the Amish. Not only that, but who doesn’t love a forbidden romance?

I was interested in learning more about the Amish after watching a BBC documentary a year ago called Leaving Amish Paradise (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zmdg8) where an Amish family left their community for the modern world. It was very enlightening. It was great to learn a bit more about the Amish community. Hopkins was fantastic at interweaving information about the Amish without boring the reader.

I really liked Rose and Noah. I was mentally cheering them on, hoping they wouldn’t get caught and felt emotionally connected to them. It was great that they loved and cared for each other so much. I do wish their relationship had developed a tad slower at the beginning because I really wanted them to get to know each other. Also, truthfully, they are from different worlds and I wondered how much they had in common apart from liking each other relatively quickly. However, their relationship still felt realistic to me.

Their relationship was sweet but I did worry about their lack of communication with each other; not understanding what the other wanted or even telling them. Noah is Rose’s first boyfriend, first kiss and first love. At points, she seemed so young and naive that I wanted to shake her. But at other points, she was very intuitive and mature. Sometimes, Rose didn’t even know what she wanted. Though this was realistic for someone in her situation, I began to doubt how seriously she considered her options.

Noah was very cute and protective of her. There were some instances where he was controlling and domineering and I wanted Rose to stand up to him instead of kissing him and acquiescing, for example, when he doesn’t want her to go to a party. I get that he wants to protect her, but she should do what she wants to do. There was a moment where I really hated Noah. It was when he insults Rose because of the fact that she likes to dance. I felt like smacking him myself.

Hopkins is a wonderful writer. I loved the dual narration. It was always intense, informative and emotional. There wasn’t a dull moment. The descriptions were vivid and I easily imagined everything that happened. The end was action-packed, gripping and full of suspense.

I was very surprised when I got to the end and realised that Temptation is the first in a series. However, it did make sense. Throughout the story, I was wondering when we would get to meet the some of the characters that I thought were essential in greater detail. I see now that that could happen in future books.

I assumed Temptation would be a standalone because it is a contemporary young adult novel and those are mostly standalones. However, I look forward to learning more about the Amish because I feel like Hopkins gave us a glance of it in Temptation.

I can’t wait to see what will happen next with Rose and Noah and what choices they make. The first chapter of the second book was so terrific; I can’t wait to read the next book. If you’re interested in learning about the Amish or simply want to read about a sweet and forbidden romance, Temptation is the book for you.

My thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin!

Rating: 4/5
Author: Karen Ann Hopkins