Amish Fiction Goes Beyond the Barn Raising Set

Poor doomed Juliet’s strict parents have designated her future husband. She defies them, sneaking around in the shadows to meet her brooding Romeo – a man who will never break through her tightly-knit community.

This Juliet is Amish and her Romeo, a Mennonite, is an outsider. The star-crossed lovers have found a new home in a new sub-genre of romance novels set in Amish country.

Even as Christian publishing is down during the recession, so-called “bonnet books” are selling like Johnny cakes. Non-Amish authors are ratcheting up sales. Beverly Lewis has sold 13.5 million of the apron rippers. Readers inside and outside of the Amish community line up for books by Lewis, Cindy Woodsmall and Wanda Brunstetter.

Cindy Woodsmall is author of five bonnet books. Her newest, The Sound of Sleigh Bells, comes out next week and she joins us on the line from her home in Georgia.

Wall Street Journal: They're No Bodice Rippers, But Amish Romances Are Hot

The Boston Globe: Contemporary Amish fiction Gains a Following

(Photo by Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr/Creative Commons)