Random Things About Amish Romance Novels (12 items)

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  (#1) They're Called "Bonnet Rippers"

  While more mainstream romance novels have labored under the moniker of "bodice rippers" since the 1970s, Amish romance novels have acquired the nickname of "bonnet rippers." But, to be clear, bonnets are not literally ripped in Amish romances—at least not out of passion. Out of frustration, sexual or otherwise, perhaps, but never for reasons more base. Or, maybe a bonnet gets ripped during a buggy crash, which is, come to think of it, much likelier.
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  (#2) They Aren't Really Written For Amish Readers

  That's right: the vast majority of Amish romances are not romance novels for Amish people. They are romance novels about Amish people, written for non-Amish people. Specifically, they're written for Christian Evangelical women over the age of 50. Nearly every mainstream Amish romance is published by a Christian publisher and marketed primarily to the Evangelical book-buying public.
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  (#3) They Aren't Really Written By Amish Authors

  Most Amish romances are written by non-Amish authors who have tenuous, if any, ties to Amish culture or community. The authors, like their readers, are largely Evangelical Christians. Given the famously insular societies the Amish build for themselves, it can be difficult for Englishers (the Amish term for the non-Amish) to attain a truly accurate working knowledge of what goes on in daily Amish life. Authors need to rely on their creativity to create their sorta-maybe-Amish settings. Artistic license is most certainly taken, but that hardly matters to the legions of devoted Amish romance readers out there.
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  (#4) Amish Romances Are A Multimillion-Dollar Industry

  Think Amish romances are some tiny little splinter group of mainstream Christian publishing? Think again. Amish romance novels are a stunningly lucrative industry in the United States. Christian (or "Inspirational") publishing generates some $720 million every year, and that astounding figure is due in no small part to the Amish romance. Beverly Lewis and Wanda Brunstetter, the rockstars of the Amish romance genre, have sold some 30 million books combined, and that number continues to grow.
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  (#5) It All Started With A "Shunning"...

  Lewis's novel The Shunning, published in 1997, is the book widely credited with popularizing the modern Amish romance novel. Though Amish literature has been around since the early 1900s, fiction focusing squarely on Amish love stories only came to the forefront with The Shunning. Lewis's tale revolves around Katie and Daniel, both raised Amish; a scandalous secret concerning adoption; and a relocation from a cloistered Amish life to the oh-so-liberal conservative Mennonite life. The Shunning has sold more than a million copies.
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  (#6) There's No Skin In This Game

  Readers looking for steamy erotica that involves actual rolls in the hay of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country will be sorely disappointed in Amish romance novels. There is no sex of any kind to be found. In fact, there is rarely kissing or even handholding. You will have to be content with longing gazes on the front porch; protagonists standing obscenely close to one another at a barn-raising; or the rebellious wisp of hair escaping from a prayer headcover. Nothing so scandalous as even an inadvertent reveal of the ankle to whet one's carnal appetites.
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  (#7) The "Amishness" In Amish Romances Is Usually Minimized

  Remember: Amish romances are usually not written by Amish people or for Amish people. With the books' target demographic being Christian Evangelical women of a certain age, most authors typically cater to the beliefs and tenets of their readers and not the beliefs and tenets of real-life Amish folks. Though the Ordnung, or Order—which prescribes how a certain Amish group will live—varies between different communities, there are some traditional Amish principles that are consistently downplayed in Amish romances simply because they do not fit into an Evangelical worldview. Fundamental Amish ideals of nonviolence and forgiveness (Gasp! Pacifism!), and a more egalitarian lifestyle and emphasis on community (Gasp! Socialism! Communism!) are not usually main plot points in Amish romances; conversely, also omitted is the epidemic of abuse against women, children, and animals that plagues the Amish community as a whole.
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  (#8) Buggy Crashes Are A Common Plot Device

  Without any sex scenes to heat up an Amish romance, authors have to get creative with ways to ensure their protagonists get thrown together or have a wrench tossed into their plans. As it turns out, buggy crashes are an ideal way to accomplish this. The buggy accident has long been a staple of Amish romance novels. They provide a convenient avenue for two chaste lovers to be jostled into making bodily contact, or they can create some drama that causes daunting-but-not-totally-insurmountable problems for the heroine and her hero.
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  (#9) Amish Romances Are Fantasies Of A Different Sort

  We can hem and haw all we want that Amish romances are not authentic in their Amishness, and we can crack jokes about their lack of sexual spark and surplus of overturned buggies. But Amish romances are still fantasies for millions of readers. Sure, target-demographic readers are escaping into a fantasy where women are more repressed than they, and that doesn't seem to many of us like much of a fantasy at all, but who are we to debate the merits of fantasy? Or what makes for socially acceptable fantasy and what doesn't? Fantasy is important, plain and simple.
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  (#10) Subgenres Of Amish Romance Are An Emerging Market

  With the popularity of Amish romances becoming more and more entrenched in the book-buying public, there have been several subgenres of Amish romance that have popped up. There are now Amish mystery novels that are slowly gaining an audience. Young adult Amish romances are also a burgeoning market, especially with Christian publishers. Amish vampire novels are also a thing, though they are most definitely not with Christian publishers.
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  (#11) These Aren't The Kids From "Breaking Amish"

  If your only image of the Amish is what you've seen on Breaking Amish, you will be surprised by the characters you find in Amish romance novels. You will be hard-pressed to come across a partying Amish person pulled over for a DUI, buying English clothes in a department store, or getting a tattoo in New York City. Most of the characters in Amish romances are "good," virtuous types who are extremely devoted to their lives, families, communities, and faith. Perhaps this is even part of the fantasy for so many readers: a gentle reminder that yes, there is still plenty of good out there.
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  (#12) They Guarantee A Happily-Ever-After In An Anguished Modern World

  The world today is as it has always been: big and confusing and difficult and messy. Finding a happy ending can seem, at times, like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. But when you read an Amish romance, you are guaranteed a happily-ever-after that will efficiently and tidily resolve all the loose ends and bring the hero and heroine together. Almost always, the birth of children figures into these HEAs, and for a few moments, you may feel like all is right and just and makes perfect sense. An Amish romance could be the balm you need in an often-troubling world.

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