This is definitely not your typical Amish fiction novel. However, you will definitely enjoy reading it and will enjoy the love the blossoms from it. It gives a great window into how people lived during this time. A good read.

This is a clean sweet read that holds your attention. It's well written and was a great read for a rainy day. I really enjoyed this book. Thank you Kensington Books--Zebra for the ARC copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

What the Heart Wants is a lovely story that takes place in the first Amish community in America. Johan and his brother Wilhelm have come to the community with Wilhelm's three boys.Wilhelm has been a widower for a few years and doesn't think any woman would be interested in him because his sons are very rowdy. Johan meets Cristina, and she has an older sister, Hilda. They become friends with the two brothers and they start having deeper feelings for each other. Johan asks Cristina to marry him, but in doing so, he botches it really bad, and doesn't know what to do about it. With a lot of confusion and misunderstandings things eventually work out. Great story that's clean and sweet.

A light hearted and fun to read historical Amish story. When sisters Hilda and Christina meet up with brothers Johan and Wilheim, sparks fly. Christina, the youngest, tries to pair up her sister with Wilheim, and Johan gets jealous thinking she likes his brother. A fun romp of misunderstandings, which reminded me of some of Shakespeare's comedies. Although I did tire a bit at the end, with the constantly trying to be something they were not, overall I did enjoy this one and would highly recommend it.

I was looking forward to reading a book about when the Amish came over from Germany and settled here in America. I was looking forward to reading about struggles and triumphs, what they went through, etc. This is not that book. There are vague references to what life was like in Germany compared to the Pennsylvania wild. References to missing certain things in their German village and missing family left behind. However, this is a romance novel. I was hoping it would be a combo, romance along with more historical fiction then what was in this book. I was disappointed. I also thought the book had some more modern ideas and language then what they had and spoke in the mid 1700's.
The book has some minor editing errors like using Maybe instead of Mayhap. Also, I was kind of confused as we didn't know the last names of the main characters but all of a sudden they appeared. In most Amish novels I've noticed the characters refer to each other by 1st and last name. The same is true for this book, however, sisters Hilda and Christina were introduced to fresh off the boat Johan and Wilhelm, no last names were spoken but they knew it automatically I guess? The only other thing I found was a couple of times where one person was talking about a person and the book said the person's name who was speaking instead of who they were speaking of. For example, when Christina is speaking of Hilda, it mentions Hilda's name in 1 sentence and a few sentences later when Christina is still speaking she says Christina instead of Hilda.
So for the most part there were a few editing errors.
But I did find the romance and need to find a husband a little much for this book. I disliked how they said Hilda was on the shelf, because she was over the normal marriageable age. I don't remember them mentioning being on the shelf before in other Amish novels I've read, but it seemed just odd to speak of it that way, however, I don't know for sure if they do say that.
Christina's schemes for getting a husband and for getting Hilda a husband went a little crazy at times. But we often do crazy things for the people we love! But it often seemed Christina's character was only about harebrained schemes to find true love. She did have a tender heart and it is shown throughout the book, but the schemes became a little much for me.
Johan's character was pretty arrogant, and did seem like he was God's gift to women at times, but I did like the transformation of his character from being a self proclaimed bachelor to someone who fell in love. I liked watching that progression. I also liked watching the progression of Hilda's character as she goes from being the hard to please sister, that seems to criticize and "be made of stone," to someone with a soft heart. It was nice to see her through Wilhelm's eyes.
Wilhelm's character we learn a little bit about but he's mainly at the end of one harebrained schemes after another! Poor guy!
I was also surprised by the lack of German words used, most Amish fiction has Pennsylvania Dutch phrases that are German or Dutch. Since this was an early settlement I expected more German throughout, with the translation usually being a sentence or 2 after the word. The only German used was Ja, some clothing references like prayer kappe, and der Herr which I had to look up, it means the Lord. The 1st context it was used it didn't make it clear that it would be referring to God.
To sum it up, this book was ok, it was kind of disappointing because I guess I expected more then an Amish romance novel with harebrained schemes to get 2 sisters married, and more of a historical fiction book of the 1st Amish settlement in America! It is a quick read and is an ok book to read on a rainy afternoon!
Thank you to NetGalley and Zebra Books for the advanced ecopy. I was not paid for my opinion, only to read the book and to give my honest opinion.