Love in Unlikely Places — Linda Byler

When Emma leaves the security of her Amish community for a job in North Carolina, she finds herself navigating choices, circumstances, and a relationship that she never could have imagined. Follow as she struggles to reconcile her faith and her complicated feelings in this romance by bestselling Amish writer Linda Byler.

Emma had had plenty of offers for marriage. Several young men had noticed her smooth auburn hair, her quick intellect. But at twenty-six years of age, she was still single, much to the bewilderment of her Amish community. "She's just too picky," they said, and she supposed they were right.

When she becomes a nanny for an English (non-Amish) family along the coast of North Carolina, her world opens up in exciting -- and confusing -- ways. Not only is she getting used to life outside the safety of her Amish culture in Lancaster, but she finds herself spending a great deal of her free time with Ben, the handsome older Amish man who is working as a contractor on the house where she's staying. He is charming, outgoing, strong, and the familiarity of their shared upbringing cements their friendship quickly. Sure, there are things that Emma doesn't approve of -- like the fact that he drives a truck instead of a buggy -- but life in North Carolina is so different from Pennsylvania. Maybe it's not such a big deal, she reasons.

When Emma is forced to leave North Carolina, saying goodbye to Ben is the hardest part. A group of Amish youth invite her to go camping and she reluctantly agrees, only to discover her friends have schemed to set her up with a young Amish man, Randy. Annoyed and longing for Ben, she decides she must get back to the beach town where he still lives. When she does, her world is shattered in a way she couldn't have imagined, and she is left to grapple with her faith, her future, and her complicated feelings.