A Simple Change to a Simple Life

A Simple Change by Judith Miller

Book Description Courtesy of Goodreads:

Judith Miller's Novels Offer a Fascinating Look inside the Amana Colonies
Joining the communal society of the Amana Colonies isn't what Jancey Rhoder planned for her future, but when unforeseen circumstances force her family  to make some difficult decisions, she chooses to give up her teaching position in a Kansas City orphanage and move with her parents to Iowa. 
Her besotted suitor, Nathan Woodward, isn't at all happy about the move and is determined to get Jancey to change her mind. And Jancey herself isn't sure what she's gotten herself into when the simple life of the Amana Colonies means she'll be assigned a job and may have to give up teaching for good. Will Nathan woo her back to the city, or will she be forever changed by the mysterious events and new relationships that await her in the quiet villages of the Amana Colonies--and decide to make this unique place her forever home?


This was the first book that I have read by Judith Miller. With this being the second book in the series I was a little worried that I was going to be lost with not knowing what happened in the first book. However, that didn't happen because this book could stand alone in the series because even though the first books characters were in this one you would not need to know it The main character Jancey has always lived in the modern time in Kansas City splitting her time between the orphanage and spending time with her family and suitor Nathan Woodward. However, that all changes when her parents tell her that they are going back to the simple life in the Amana Colonies to live out their rest of their lives. Jancey is shocked and doesn't want to leave her children at the Orphanage but she doesn't want to miss the last couple months/year with her mother. So she leaves everything behind to move there with her parents.

As you continue to read the book you will find that Judith Miller does a fantastic job of describing how the people in the Amana Colonies live and how it is different from what the modern people in Kansas City lived. I really liked in addition how she showed the struggles that Jancey faced well trying to fit in to the colonies.  Lastly I really liked to the romance story she had included between Jancey and Ritt who is one of the colonies citizens and her relationship between Nathan and her. I felt like I was in the 1880's and experiencing what Jancey and her family were going through.

Having been my first read by Judith's I really liked it and I am very interesting to read other books in this series and by this author. I would not only recommend this book to Christian readers but also by readers who love history and romance as it has all three of those genres in them.

I received this ARC from Bethany House Publishers and Netgalley.