Blog Tour: Rachel's Deception by Karen Ann Hopkins Guest Post + Giveaway

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Rachel’s Deception
The Temptation Series
Author: Karen Ann Hopkins
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Amish Fiction
Released: May 8, 2015

Growing up Amish is difficult…but leaving it behind is even harder. Noah was Amish...Rose wasn't. Being together should have been impossible. But somehow they found a way to make it work. They are finally a family, but their happily-ever-after is still a long off. Will Rose and her friends be able to force real change? Karen Ann Hopkins returns with a gripping new book in the YA Temptation series. The powerful family saga continues with Rachel's Deception, as events spiral out of control in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview. And Rachel Miller has her own secrets to hide. Noah’s younger sister has been living a double life. That is, until Justin Cameron, Rose's little brother, catches her in the act. Rachel is not the obedient Amish girl that her sister was, and her rebelliousness takes her to a very dangerous world. A world that only her true friends can help her escape from. As Rachel questions all she has been taught about love, family, and commitment, Rose discovers what it really means to be shunned. And an evil shadow looms on the horizon, threatening not only Rose, but everyone she holds dear.

The Dangers of Being Amish

When I moved to the Mays Lick Amish community seven years ago, I was both excited about making friends with my new neighbors, and intimidated.  I was somewhat prepared for the cultural differences, having done prior research, but I was mostly going on a lot of the same pre-conceived notions that many people have about the Plain people.
I’ve done several guest posts lately, where I talked about the Amish young people, their lifestyle, and my experiences with them, but today, I’d like to discuss another aspect of being Amish that most outsiders rarely consider—the inherent dangers of being Amish.
One of the first times I drove down my road, I came upon several buggies in front of me.  The terrain here in northern Kentucky is gently rolling, and if you’re driving in a car, you hardly notice the small hills, but as I slowed behind the buggies, it soon became apparent to me how hard the horses were working to pull their charges up the roadway.
Being a horse-person myself, I was in no hurry, and settled into a snail crawl behind the line of buggies, whose horses were now walking up the incline, unable to continue at the trot.  The driver of the car behind me wasn’t as patient.  The white minivan stayed right on my backside until we crested the hill and then passed me and the buggies in a burst of speed.  The van was able to pull ahead of the first buggy in line just before another blind curve in the road.
We were lucky.  There wasn’t any oncoming traffic on that day, but the people in my community have experienced many accidents, some with tragic results, due to the juxtaposition of buggies and motorized vehicles sharing the roadway.
Even though there are several bright green neon signs posted on the surrounding roads in my neighborhood, there have been accidents involving buggies since I moved in.  An Amish man was taken by ambulance to the local hospital after his buggy was hit by a car.  He refused to leave the scene of the accident until he shot his horse himself, putting the poor animal out of its misery.  That particular man, broke several bones, including his pelvis.  In another accident, three young girls were ejected from their buggy, one suffering a broken wrist, when a small car rammed their buggy.  The horse was lucky in that case, running home without injury.  Then there was the episode in front of my own home when a young, newly trained horse, pitched a fit in the roadway causing the woman and her small children to scramble out of the buggy to safety in the ditch before the horse’s hooves struck them.
Each of the above incidents were frightening, but the one buggy wreck that sends shivers down my spine each time I think about it took place in Indiana about a year before I moved to Kentucky.  An Amish family living up the road from me was in the process of moving their family from Indiana to Kentucky at the time.  Some of their older children had remained in Indiana to finish up the move while the parents were settling the new household here in Kentucky, when a terrible tragedy occurred.
Three teenagers were in a buggy on their way home from an Amish youth event when their buggy was hit by a semi-truck going at a fast rate of speed.  The girl and her boyfriend were killed and the girl’s brother was paralyzed from the waist down in the accident.  The sister and brother were my neighbor’s children.  The parents rushed to Indiana to be with their son and daughter, not making it in time to say goodbye to their daughter.  The truly shocking part of this sad story is that several other buggies filled with teenagers came upon the wreckage before the emergency personnel arrived.  The images will always be in their minds of that fateful day.
I personally have ridden in open buggies several times and as long as the roadway is clear, it’s exhilarating, but the second I hear the rumble of an engine, my body tightens with tension.  The Amish accept the dangers of sharing the road with cars, believing that whatever happens to them is God’s divine purpose.  Most of them certainly don’t worry as much about it as I do, but I’ve noticed that the family that lost their daughter, hire drivers to take them to town and events more often than the other Amish families do.
The dangerous roads are just one more hurdle that the Amish cross each and every day in their lives.  I don’t even have to ask them if the lifestyle choice is worth the risk.  It’s apparent in their smiling faces as they wave at me when I meet them on the roads.  They’re perfectly content with the risk.
               Thank you so much for your interest in Rachel’s Deception, the Temptation series, and my other books: Embers (YA paranormal), Lamb to the Slaughter and Whispers from the Dead (adult Amish mysteries)!  I love to connect with readers and I’d be happy to answer questions about the Amish way of life.  Please contact me at my website: www.karenannhopkins.com or you can message me on FB, Twitter, and Instagram.
Happy Reading,
Karen Ann Hopkins

  

Temptation Series

Temptation (Book 1) Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound

Belonging (Book 2) Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound

Forever (Book 3) Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound

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The Temptation Series is now available on Audible. Listen to a sample on audible now.

Karen Ann Hopkins resides in northern Kentucky with her family on a farm that boasts a menagerie of horses, goats, peacocks, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs and cats. Karen's main job is home schooling the kids, but she finds time to give riding lessons, coach a youth equestrian drill team, and of course, write. She was inspired to create her first book, Temptation, by the Amish community she lived in. The experiential knowledge she gained through her interactions with her neighbors drove her to create the story of the star-crossed lovers, Rose and Noah.


Karen grew up about a mile from Lake Ontario in Upstate New York. She was bitten by the horse bug at the age of five, and after diligently taking riding lessons for several years, was rewarded with her first horse at the age of eleven. The feisty horse's name was Lady, a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred cross, who became Karen's steadfast companion. Through the years, the constant force in her life was horses. Eventually, she found her place as a riding instructor herself. Before accepting her fate in the barnyard, she worked a short stint as a paralegal, traveled abroad, and guided tourists on horseback riding tours in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Karen is currently working on her Amish mystery series, Serenity's Plain Secrets, along with the YA paranormal/fantasy series, The Wings of War. Karen is also excited to announce the Temptation series has been optioned for TV by Pilgrim Studios and is available on Audible.

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