Somewhere To Belong By Judith Miller

Johanna Ilg, a young woman living in the Christian colony of Main Amana has always lived a simple life devoted to servicing God. When the elders of her colony appoint her to take on the task of assisting Bert Schumacher, a rambunctious teenage girl from Chicago, with learning the ways and rules of Amana she feels overwhelmed. The girls are complete opposites in almost all aspects but with the unexpected entangling of the lives of both girls learn from each other. Soon after getting acquainted, family secrets are exposed in Main Amana and each girl find themselves asking the same question, " Is this where I belong?"
I love the kind of books that you start in the morning and can't peel your nose out of until late at night, way past your bedtime because you just can't bare putting it down without finding out what happen; you just have to finish it! Well, "Somewhere To Belong" was NOT one of those books. I had to force myself to turn the pages of the first few chapters. I guess I was as bored and astounded as Berta was by the way Johanna lived. Once I passed the first ten chapters, I kept a rather steady pace. And the book wasn't a complete failure, it actually had a cute little story that came with a little drama but keeping my attention on it was a struggle. Johanna's lifestyle seemed to plain for me, I had more of a connection to Berta but as the people of Main Amana tried to force her to conform to their ways I lost interest.
I was given a free copy of this book to review by Bethany House Publisher.

Jessie D