Noah is Amish. Rose is English. (Not like tea and footy English; just not Amish.) They are not meant to be together, but when they lay eyes on each other, they immediately fall in love and know that they must find a way to spend the rest of their lives together–even if it means one of them must give up everything they have ever known.
Karen Ann Hopkins’ Temptation is a story of forbidden love between a boy and a girl from two drastically worlds. I was excited for the culture clash! And the swoon! And the buggy rides! Alas, this was a gigantic letdown. There are horses and puppies in Temptation, and even they were not enough to save it. Temptation was quite possibly the worst book I have ever read all the way through. (Though we’ll forget about the V.C. Andrew phase of my life.)
I generally have very little tolerance for books I dislike and put them down quickly–and thus do not write about them–but Temptation was like a reality tv show or soap opera so mystifyingly bad that you just can’t bring yourself to change the channel or turn it off.
Glutton for punishment that I was, I made it through all 400 pages. I figured I would at least find out what happens. And do you know what happened? I discovered that this book was not in fact a standalone, but the first book in a series. 400 pages was apparently not sufficient to resolve all of the bad decisions that lay within. But I am not masochistic enough to read another book in this series, I’m afraid.
Temptation attempts to delve into a gray area of love, but it does so using purely black and white terms. The book is packed with all the usual Amish stereotypes, never bringing anything new to the table. Further, it was poorly written and had very little plot development. Rose and Noah fall in love immediately. I was almost willing to forgive their insta-love, even though it is something I generally abhor, accepting that perhaps the “otherness” factor was at least reasonable justification for instant-attraction, if not all out love.
However, the relationship never moved on from that point. They continued to be in L-O-V-E for no real reason that I could figure out aside from their good looks and mutual appreciation of horsies and kissing. There are admittedly some pretty hot kissing scenes, but not enough to save this sinking ship, and certainly not hot enough for either of them to play something like Trading Spouses for the rest of their lives.
One might hope that Noah and Rose would at least be characters that you could root for along their painful journey. Sadly, that was not the case, either. Noah is basically a selfish, controlling douchebag, and Rose a girl with so little self-respect that at a couple points she nearly considers getting pregnant (Noah’s idea) so that they can convince the adults in their lives they should be together. I was so appalled that I nearly threw my Nook across the room, and then wanted to send my ovaries flowers, chocolates, and a card to let them know that I have more respect for them than that.
If you cannot resist the allure of Amish smut and must pick Temptation up anyway, I understand and will forgive you. In general, though, I would strongly encourage you to save yourself some time and just go watch For Richer or Poorer instead. It’s not particularly good either, but at least you can get it over with in 115 minutes and not have to wait for a sequel.
