The Amish community of Havenlee features in this charming story of bees, flowers and those who tend both. AN AMISH FLOWER FARM resonates with summer, warmth and rich sensual descriptions. We meet Belinda Graber, a hard-working, shy Amish maid. She stays on her family’s farm, growing beautiful flowers as well as the necessary vegetables and fruit. Someday she’d hope to have her own flower farm, as there must be good money in flowers; but she’s too shy to be an entrepreneur among the English storekeepers.  Belinda has a birthmark on her face, making her self-conscious since childhood, when some kids stared at her.

Living next door is a handsome and equally hard-working beekeeper, Adam Fisher, who is challenged to pay his injured father’s medical bills. Between farm work and an extra job at the mill, he won’t have time to harvest and strain the honey. Adam proposes that Belinda – someone he knows but hardly ever talks with – could help with the honey and monitor the hive health, if he takes her flowers into town each day on his route and deals with traders.  Adam had a girlfriend, but she’s just decided to let another man court her instead. Belinda doesn’t know because she doesn’t attend sings and suppers, so she thinks it’s quite respectable to work with the bachelor.  

This gentle and amusing story blends nature lore with warm hearts and family hopes. We meet the good people of Havenlee and see how they put up stores of produce for winter. The orchards depend on the bees, and the folks depend likewise on their community. The Fishers don’t have medical insurance and we see that overwork can be dangerous. Mindy Steele subtly provides examples of positive and negative in the Amish lifestyle, but her main characters are all established in the faith and trying to live their best lives. I particularly enjoyed Belinda’s love of reading and her strong but realisable ambitions.

AN AMISH FLOWER FARM is rich with colour, texture and scent, as well as rounded personalities who grow during the story. I can recommend the read to any nature lovers. This unusual and satisfying romance is suitable for any age of romance reader. More please!