Amish guys meet mean girls in AMISH GUYS DON'T CALL, a new young adult book by Debby Dodds. Dodds' novel is fast-paced and rings so true to real-life. .Teens will love the contemporary characters, modern situations, and unexpected laughs in this quick read.

Debby Dodds is one heck of a storyteller. Any book that has me welling with tears in a Starbucks gets placed forever on a special shelf in my heart.

I loved the sassy, unflinching voice of Sam, and appreciated the details on a culture of which I'd been unfamiliar. Dodds really nails teen-age language and the emotional roller coaster high school can sometimes be.

I hope she writes another one soon!

I was pretty excited to read this book and to understand more about how Amish people might engage in an act like dating, but I was disappointed with the execution and I found the style of this book to feel quite stilted.

Sam was so judgemental. I couldn’t get over it. She talked about how she wasn't judging her friend Madison all the while judging every single other person. She misportrayed weed completely--weed doesn't actually screw you up completely and while sure, maybe the author didn’t want to encourage it use, but I think there could have been much more research done to aptly portray its effects.

Her relationship with Zach seems so juvenile. I read a lot of YA and I love hearing about the experience of falling in love with the first time. However, liking someone because they're the first person to ask you out is dumb, and yes, Sam says that at some point.

I felt like this book could be aptly renamed "High School Girls Don't Call" because I experienced more about high school drama than I did the Amish community. I enjoyed the few tidbits I did get of what it's like to be Amish, but overall I felt like I didn't get a true sense of it or an understanding, and instead just read about things I could have googled. The drama was really quite superficial and I was expecting more.

While the end did have a strong message, it came across as quite preachy and was hard to buy. I ended up rolling my eyes and skimming. I think this had a great concept but was executed rather poorly and I'd like to see another book about an Amish romance. However, this was not the one I hoped for.

Really fun read about an unusual subject. I loved all the characters and found out a lot about the Amish along the way!

I really liked the premise of this book. I really liked Sam, despite her character flaws. Sam and Zach seem perfect together.

It was a little bit unclear at first how old they were. I kept thinking they were freshman, but then she said she was 17. Also, I thought that the large amount of alcohol and drugs didn't add anything to the story. I would love to see more written about Zach and Sam.

I stopped reading it a little after 51%. There's so much stereotyping and i hate it. I hate Sam's stupid jokes. The book has soo may new words in it, trying to look cool and fitting in with other YA novels. I tried finding the meaning from the Kindle in-built dictionary and it came up with zilch. I'm not sharing this review in any sites or even my blog because I've never rated a 2 star for a book. I just dont want to affect other people's opion on this book. Sorry, this book wasn't for me!

I very much enjoyed Amish Guys Don't Call. I grew up in an area where many Amish folks lived, so I admit I was both a little scared and excited to read this. I'm happy that the author made the story believable, silly and relatable. I recommend to those that enjoy YA in general, but also to those that want something a little different. Will read again.

After being caught shoplifting Sam Stonesong moved from Philadelphia to Lancaster. She’s struggling to stay part of the popular crowd and hoping to find a boyfriend. When she meets a mysterious guy in a pizza parlor things start looking up. As Sam works to build a relationship her issues with her mom and her popular friends start to get worse, and Zach is definitely keeping secrets.

Zach is Amish. Which is painfully obvious from the first time he’s introduced because of the title. Amish Guys Don’t Call makes it clear there’s going to be an Amish guy somewhere in this book. If, for half a novel, the protagonist is going to struggle to work something out, then the reader shouldn’t know. It makes the protagonist look dumb and makes the story feel slow because HE’S AMISH OF COURSE HE IS.

The plot is all over the place with several subplots that are never really properly resolved. There are scenes that feel oddly out of place and sort of pointless (Hell House wasn’t really necessary for Zach to reveal he was religious, the Sunday work thing got that across). The book ramps up VERY slowly, climaxes...and then peters out without proper conclusions to any of the plots aside from the weird romance.

Every character is keeping secrets and aside from Zach they’re all pretty awful people. Their secrets are used to explain their actions but it’s still hard to sympathize with awful parents, catty teens and worst of all Sam. Sam is awkward. A phrase which here means has the emotional intelligence of a rock.

She makes “jokes” that are far and beyond cruel and is surprised when they fall flat. She’s the irritating character archtype who’s smart, unique and different (ugh people who enjoy twilight are dumb etc, people who party are lesser.). Her love interest immediately knows she’s “special”. It’s a character that’s been done to death and it’s not interesting.

Zach is the gem of this book. Despite his secret being not so much a secret he’s mildly interesting, a good human being and very likeable. His relationship with Sam is a bit boring, there’s no real reason for them to be attracted to each other at first and the chemistry is weak at best.

The teens also feel very fake. There is some knowledge of slang present but it reads more like “cool-mom trying to slang” than real teens. The “cyber-bullying” was an absolute joke where the worst insults were maybe at a 2nd grade level of savage.

It was a book that tried to do too much. Deal with divorce, drug addition, leaving an oppressive community, dealing with shoplifting addiction, dealing with bullying, dealing with first love, dealing with religion etc. As a consequence it didn’t do anything particularly well. The characters are two-dimensional and the plot is a bit of a mess. It wasn’t a terrible read and had some funny/relatable moments but it definitely doesn’t elicit high praise from me.

It's been a long time since I read a book that is hilariously funny and highly educating at the same time. 'Amish Guys Don't Call' has it all - Sam is shoplifting whenever she feels stressed and unloved, she has some daddy issues since her father didn't bother to contact her since the divorce, she is also mocked by her so-called 'friends' or rather frenemies, but there's also swoon-worthy Zac (definitely my new fictional boyfriend) who has just left Amish community and is very serious about moral standards. Unexpectedly they seem to fit together perfectly.

Interesting YA read and journey with Sam as she faces her issues. Also an interesting, non-romanticized look at Amish life from the outside through Sam's eyes.