Courting Cate...Review

About the book:
When Amish farmer Pete Treger moves to Paradise Township, Pennsylvania, seeking a better life, he meets sisters Cate and Betsy Miller. Both are beautiful, but older sister Cate is known more for her sharp tongue and fiery temper than her striking appearance. Betsy, on the other hand, is sweet and flirty--and seems to have attracted most of the bachelors in Lancaster County.

However, the sisters' wealthy father has made one hard and fast rule: elder sister must marry first, before the younger can even start courting. Unfortunately for poor Betsy, and for the men who want to court her, her older sister, Cate, doesn't have any suitors--until Pete comes to town, that is.

Though he finds both sisters attractive, something about Cate's feisty demeanor appeals to him. Soon the other bachelors in the district convince Pete to court Cate. She hardly seems receptive to his overtures, though. Instead, she's immediately suspicious of his interest.

The premise was plausible, but not completely believable, although even in this day and age, I suppose an Amish father could make a proclamation like Cate's father did here.  I liked Cate and Pete well enough, but the rest of the main cast of characters, I didn't care for or connect with.  I thought Betsy was one of the most selfish young girls I've ever read about. Her treatment of Cate was downright mean at times.  Cate's development and progression were believable however and I did enjoy seeing her progress from feisty, angry Cate to sweet Cate.

There were times when I almost felt like this was part of an established series, rather than the first in a new series with some of the character discussions and explanations. While I can appreciate the Taming of the Shrew theme here, this was one that I almost didn't finish, because I just didn't like some of the secondary characters and their treatment of Cate.  I will look into the rest of the series and hope future books capture my attention more than this one did as sometimes happens with series'.

Thanks to Litfuse Publicity for the opportunity to review this book.  You can learn more about Leslie Gould here.  You can purchase your own copy here.  You can see other reviews here.

Read 3/5

* * *
3/5 Stars

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