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Books are often touted as telescopes for bringing the distant and exotic into view. For many local readers, Wanda E. Brunstetter’s books hold a magnifying glass to things near and familiar, such as personal faith and family relationships.

The Christian romance writer has set many of her novels among the Amish in Lancaster County.

Her latest, “The Bishop’s Daughter,” is due out Aug., 1. It concludes her Daughters of Lancaster County series, which began with the snatching of an Amish baby by an “English” man desperate to give his wife a child. That baby, now a man, finally learns the truth, goes in search of his roots and finds forbidden love with a young Amish woman.

The book can be understood perfectly well when read alone. But its sympathetic characters may induce the reader to seek out its predecessors, “The Storekeeper’s Daughter” and “The Quilter’s Daughter,” to get the full back-story.

Though Brunstetter writes about Lancaster County Amish, she is neither Amish nor has she ever lived in Lancaster County.

The Wapapo, Wash., resident first became aware of eastern Pennsylvania’s Plain people when she met her husband, a Nazarene minister who grew up in a Mennonite church in Easton. Anabaptist culture intrigued her, and she visited Lancaster County many times.

She now has “a lot of friends who are Amish or used to be Amish,” who lend her insight into that way of life, she said in a recent telephone interview.

Brunstetter said she started writing about the Amish to “promote understanding, not just as a curiosity.”

She subscribes to the Amish newspaper The Budget, and she’s been gratified to see positive mention of her books there. An “English” friend who lives near an Amish settlement in Tennessee told her Amish women there have a weekly book club in which they’ve discussed how their community might respond to situations that crop in her books.

“To me, that’s the ultimate success Amish are reading my books,” Brunstetter said.

The author’s first four short novels were set in Lancaster County and will be reissued in expanded for in the Lancaster Brides series, beginning with “A Merry Heart” in September. That novel was originally published in 1997. It will be followed by “Looking for a Miracle,” “Plain & Fancy” and “The Hope Chest” this fall.

Over the years, Brunstetter has come to know other Amish communities. Another series features Webster County, Mo., Amish is also being expanded for re-release next spring. That group “is a little more closed (when it comes) to getting close to “English” than Lancaster County Amish are, she noted. She’s picked up details from a bed-and breakfast owner she stays with when visiting the area.

She also has set books in Holmes, County, Ohio, and Rexford, Mont., Amish communities. “A lot of my readers are curious about the other communities,” she said.

Related Authors

• Wanda E. Brunstetter

Related Books

• Bishop's Daughter, The (Trade Paper)

• Quilter's Daughter, The (Trade Paper)

• Storekeeper's Daughter, The (Trade Paper)