Falling to Pieces: A Quilt Shop Mystery (Shipshewana Amish Mystery)

For years all I read were cozy mysteries until I got into the Amish fiction genre. Falling to Pieces written by Vanetta Chapman beings both reading styles to me. I love that we were trying to fiqure out who did it while still getting the Amish feel too.

Falling to Pieces: A Quilt Shop Murder is the first book in Chapman's Shipshewana Amish Mystery series. The story starts out with Callie Harper comes to Shipshewana after inheriting her Aunt Daisy's Quilt shop. She plans to come and sell it. After meeting with someone about selling the store, she learns that she will make more money on the property if it is a running store. So, she decides to keep the store open and keeps her aunt's promise to help three Amish women sell there quilts. Deborah Yoder, one of the quilt makers, becomes friends with Callie and ask her to sell the quilts on e-bay to help them make more money on the quilts. Callie agrees and everything seems to be going well until the newspaper editor writes and artile saying Callie is taking advantage of the Amish by selling the quilts on e-bay. Callie tries to get the editor to listen to her when she ends up finding him dead. Callie becomes the number one suspect in the murder. The murder ends up breaking into other business in town. Deborah and Callie decide to do some detective work to prove Callie was not the murder. Will they ever find the murder or will Callie take the heat?

I really loved this story. It was so neat getting to know the characters. I really did not want to leave Shipshewana. I wanted to know so much more after reading the story, so I'm sure I will be reading the other books in this series. This is a hard book to put down and a very easy fun read.

I was able to read this book thanks to Zondervan publishing and Net Galley. I was not required to give a postive review but an honest one.        

Book Review: A Simple Amish Christmas

A Simple Amish Christmas by Vannetta Chapman is her first novel. It is the story of Annie Weaver, a young Amish girl who has lived in the city with her aunt during her Rumschpringe. She becomes a nurse at a children’s hospital. She receives a phone call at the hospital one day that will change her life forever. Her mother calls to tell her that her father has had an accident and they need her to come home and take care of him. They do not know that she is a nurse though. Annie ends up coming home and getting baptized and helping her community by using her skills as a nurse to help them. She immediately dislikes the town “doctor,” Samuel. Samuel is older than Annie and lost his wife and child in a buggy accident. We learn about other people in the community through her medical calls. One woman experiences a hard birth and another teen girl is pregnant possible by rape. Along the way Annie begins to fall in love with Samuel and learns her place in the community.


I really enjoyed this book. This is a perfect read for the winter. It made me want to pull out the blankets and drink some hot chocolate. I really enjoyed learning about the unusual characters. I would love to see this as a series. There was so much left to the reader’s imagination as to what happens to Samuel and Annie and the other characters. I wonder why the author picked the tile of, A Simple Amish Christmas. None of the plots seemed simple and neither did the romance between Samuel and Annie. I also was left wondering about the store in town. We seem to learn something is going to happen to the ownership, but we never really learn anymore about that, which lead me to believe the author may be planning a sequel. I definitely would read another book by this author and highly recommend this one. This book came out October 1, 2010. You should really check it out for a great fall/winter read. I received a copy of this book from Abington Press through NetGalley and was not paid for this review.