Esther Zook has sold her late parents’ farm and moved from Pennsylvania to Byler, Colorado. Here she joins a new Amish community. There aren’t many eligible young people yet, but Esther is happy to be single at thirty. THE AMISH QUILTMAKER’S UNEXPECTED BABY arrives suddenly as Esther’s wandering sister Ivy drops off her infant and leaves with Esther’s housekeeping money.   

I’ve now read a few books about a new baby being deposited onto people who don’t know anything about raising a baby. I always ask who the target readership might be – is it the mom who can sit and chuckle at the panic experienced by the singleton? Or the anxious mom to be, who can learn valuable lessons? This particular romance has plenty of humour but also character-testing drama.

Levi Kiem, the local handyman, turns up in time to aid Esther. Oldest of a large family, he has a lot of experience with boppli, as the Amish call babies. And little Winter, promptly renamed Winnie, is very cute, and can’t help crying for a clean diaper and a feed. Levi is planning to travel to Ohio to find a maid his own age, twenty-four, so the older Esther doesn’t attract him. But he has to grin as this lady rushes around with quilter’s chalk behind her ear, insists on helping with tiling the bathroom, and panics when the child hiccups.

Winnie is not valuable to Ivy until it becomes apparent that the baby might be a tool for a scheming woman to attach herself to a man who could support her. The Amish Quiltmaker series also stars Levi’s grandmother, Hannah Kiem, who blogs, and has a friend who photographs her quilts and posts the images. Hannah has thousands of Instagram followers and her patterns are adored. I always enjoy the way that the Amish are shown as following the rules of their Order but getting around them any time it seems suitable.  

Jennifer Beckstrand is notable for her lighthearted romances, and much as I laughed, I also found the second half of the book hard to read at times, with Ivy returning to manipulate, lie to and disrespect her sister and others. Esther isn’t pure enough of heart to forgive her sister – who could? but she has grown to love Winnie, and the prospect of losing the child tears her in two. THE AMISH QUILTMAKER’S UNEXPECTED BABY is extremely well sewn together with a reverse pattern and neatly finished edges. You’ll enjoy the final picture.