Book Review--Dark Angel, by Karen Harper

This was a rather unique romantic suspense novel in that one of the main characters is Amish. Actually, I guess it's part of a series, but I haven't read the others in the series yet.

Leah Kurtz is a single Amish woman in her 20s who teaches school in the Amish community where she lives. She was engaged to be married when she was younger (Amish women usually marry very young), but her fiance ran off during their rumspringa, the traditional teenage running-around time. (Amish teens are supposed to come to their own decision in deciding whether or not to stay with the Amish faith as adults, so they are allowed freedom to experience more of the world during this time). Leah longs for her own family. Her best friend is terminally ill, and she and her husband (who travels around helping to build churches) decide that they want Leah to raise their baby, Rebecca (Becca) as her own.

Leah is thrilled to raise Becca, even as she grieves the loss of her friend. She is also happy with her new job with Dr. Mark Morelli. Dr. Morelli studies genetic illnesses that are common in Amish communities due to intermarrying and a small gene pool. One of these hereditary illnesses killed her best friend. Another causes accelerated aging, an illness from which three children in her community suffer. Leah is to serve as Mark's liaison to the Amish community. However, the competition to find a "cure" for aging, which Mark's work could lead to, might make this a very dangerous job. Someone is trying to scare them off.

Then one morning when Leah goes to wake up Becca, she discovers she has been switched with another baby! She doesn't trust the sheriff, partly since in general, people in the Amish community don't trust authority figures in the outside world. She also distrusts this sheriff due to personal experience with the man. So she investigates on her own and enlists Mark's help. They aren't sure whether Becca was stolen because a rival of Mark's wants to study her or to scare Leah so that she will quit working with Mark. But Leah will stop at nothing to get her daughter back, and in their search, she and Mark uncover a deadly conspiracy.

To further complicate matters, Leah is starting to fall for Mark, though he is off-limits to her since he isn't Amish.

I always like to read fiction books in which I learn something new. I learned a lot about the Amish faith in reading this book, though I think Leah was somewhat atypical in being older (at least for her community) and single. I also enjoyed the medical-thriller angle. And of course, forbidden romance is always good. I'm going to read more books in this series.