3.5 stars.

Jacob Yoder is a young Amish man on "rumspringa" (running around time, an Amish tradition) in New York City. There he runs, quite literally, into Fahd ibn Azar, son of a powerful Saudi Sheikh.

Fahd is smitten with Jacob, and brings the all-too-trusting Amish man to his penthouse hotel suite, where he introduces a confused but willing Jacob to the pleasures of the flesh.
Jacob feels guilty by indulging in his most secret (and forbidden) fantasies with Fahd, but Fahd's situation is much more dire. Fahd's brother, Munif, wants to be their father's heir and successor, and has decided to kill Fahd in order to assure his place in the family hierarchy.

Forced to flee Manhattan without a penny to his name, Fahd accompanies Jacob back to the family farm in Pennsylvania, where he hopes to hide out and avoid Munif long enough to get political asylum. What Fahd doesn't count on is falling hopelessly in love with his blue-eyed, blond, cornfed Amish savior, or on Munif finding him in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch country.

Coming from two vastly different cultures, Jacob and Fahd must struggle with both dangerous outside forces and serious internal doubts to find happiness in each other's arms, and neither is certain love will be enough to overcome their adversities in the end.
I really enjoy stories about 2 people of different cultures finding love and trying to find a way to make it all work.
This was very enjoyable and recommended. ( )

Hands up: this story by Kiernan Kelly was born by a specific request I did in a chat almost two years ago. Sheikhs romances are my kink, dating back when I was still reading Harlequin Presents, and I so wanted to read a story with a young and handsome sheikh in it; the obvious counterpart in this type of romance is the innocent virgin, but giving the modern time, where you can find a completely innocent boy to fit the dress? Of course in an Amish community! And so here was the very high level plot bunny, a romance between an Amish boy and a sheikh. That night, during the chat, I think we agreed the only obvious place where these two completely different men could meet was in front of the United Nations in New York City, and so from there Kiernan Kelly developed Cornfed.

Jacob is a 18 years old Amish boy leaving Intercourse, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for the first time in his life for his rumspringa; his secret dream has always been to visit New York City, and so he is realizing it, even if the reality is not so shining, and by the way it’s even more expensive than expected. While touring in front of the UN, he literally bumps into Fahd, second son of a Saudi Arab sheikh, visiting NYC in a diplomatic mission.

In a way, even if from completely different roots, Jacob and Fahd are not so different after all: both of them have to hide their secret desires for men, even if Fahd has already consciously realized it, and experimented his sexuality, while instead Jacob, has not even yet internalized his sexual urges. Jacob is completely innocent; he has never had any sexual experience and he has neither once questioned that he will go back to Intercourse, enter the church, marry a woman and bear children, many of them. Both Jacob than Fahd are from families where there are multiple brothers and sisters, so it’s not like they have to continue the family line, it’s simply that they have to “adapt” to the common way.

The main difference between Jacob and Fahd is that Fahd is a “rebel”, he doesn’t want to follow his father’s rules, and in a way, he is not as bonded to his family as Jacob is. Fahd can renounce to his family, I see really unlikely that Jacob can do the same.

In comparison to similar romances set among the Amish people, I think that Kiernan Kelly did a fair job, simply since she didn’t exaggerated the whole, and it was not an easy task, not only for Jacob and the Amish, but also for Fahd and his background. True, some “easy” escapes Fahd had were maybe a little too quick and lucky, but indeed he is the son of a sheikh, so it’s not like he is an ordinary man.

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1244213.html