A review by delaneybull
Murder Freshly Baked by Vannetta Chapman

3.0

OK, full disclosure. I read this for a class, and I had no prior interest in Amish fiction. In fact, I had a whole lot of assumptions about how this book was going to represent women, and generally how the writing was going to be. So I had to eat my words a little bit after finishing this one. The plot and writing were generally good, the characterizations were a little too pure and unbelievable, but not so much that I didn't see them as believable people. I enjoyed the story, but it was interesting that the murders were more like a secondary plot, with the relationships between characters taking precedence instead. I didn't love some of the stereotypes surrounding the one black character and the one veteran, but generally the treatment of characters was good. The language toward women also ran a little more toward being traditionally feminine and "proper," and it really bugged me that whenever a woman was contemplating continuing work after marriage or not, the end-all-be-all was when pregnancy and child-bearing happened, as I personally believe women can raise children and work outside the home if they so choose. So I probably will not be reading more Christian/Amish fiction, but this was an enlightening experience.