An Amish Christmas: December in Lancaster County by Beth Wiseman

An Amish Christmas: December in Lancaster County Reviews

• 
  Shirley Chapel

  A beautiful collection of Amish Christmas novellas that will warm your heart. Each novella is written by a well known author of Christian Fiction. Beth Wiseman, Kathleen Fuller, Barbara Cameron and Kelly Long all have shared very special Christmas novellas that will bring tears to your eyes and joy to your heart. I'm not going to review each one but my most favorite of the four novellas was A Miracle For Miriam by Kathleen Fuller.
  I've had this book in my library for a quite a while and I'm just now reading it. After I finished it and enjoyed it so much I wonder why I waited so long to read it. I highly recommend it to all readers of Amish Fiction. I hope that you will consider adding it to your TBR Christmas books.
• 
  Laura

  3 Amish Christmas stories. The 3 stories link together. The first 2 may be read in either order as their timeframes overlap. The third story is the conclusion to the book--its story is mentioned in the other 2 a number of times.
  
  A Miracle for Miriam by Kathleen Fuller
  3 1/2 stars
  Miriam is plain and thinks of herself as an ugly duckling. She wants to get married and have a family, but she doesn't think anyone will ever find her attractive enough to marry.
  Seth was Miriam's school crush. He broke her heart by laughing at her and making fun of her when he found out. He was arrogant and selfish in his youth. Now he is older and after spending time in the Englisch world and getting into a car accident that leaves him scarred, he wants to change.
  
  Lesson: Inner beauty, Humility
  A nice story about inner beauty. A little too overdone on the "ugly duckling" part, though. A slight bit preachy on the humility side, too.
  
  A Choice to Forgive by Beth Wiseman
  3 stars
  Daniel left the Amish life 18 years ago. He devastated Lydia whom he had promised to marry. She went on to marry his brother and have 3 wonderful children. She is now a widow and Daniel has chosen to return to the Amish life. He not only want forgiveness, but needs it from Lydia.
  
  Lesson: Forgiveness
  This one was okay to me. Daniel seemed a little too forgiving to me while Lydia was very unforgiving when she thought she was forgiving. This one also seemed to be a bit more preachy than I expected.
  
  
  One Child by Barbara Cameron
  2 1/2 stars
  
  As Sarah and David celebrate Christmas they are also remembering her miscarriage one year earlier. They have yet to have any children and Sarah is saddened by the loss and anxious to be pregnant again.
  On Christmas night and Englischer couple arrives at their home stranded in the snowstorm. Sarah and David take them in and are surprised to find the woman, Kate, very pregnant. They are both concerned for the couple, but also about each other and their own feelings about the pregnant woman.
  
  Lessons: Acceptance, Faith
  My least favorite of the book. For personal reasons (I am very familiar with miscarriage, infant loss, and infertility), I felt the story was just too overdone. Grieving a miscarriage is one thing, but Sarah and David handled it terribly. The "holier than thou" attitude they had made it seem like they should have handled it much better.
  
  A lot of this story annoyed me. It just doesn't seem like it was written by someone who understands infertility or loss. The last paragraph was decent, but it didn't make up for the failings of the rest of the story. I admit I didn't like it for mostly personal reasons, but if you have dealt with issues like me, you probably won't like it either.
• 
  Mayda

  These four novellas will definitely give you a warm fuzzy Christmas feeling. Though there is some strife in the lives of these Amish women, it’s a pretty safe bet it will all work out in the end. The stories are somewhat connected, written by different authors, and contain some of the same characters but having a different focus. The stories are sweet, almost to the point of being trite, and message that one must trust in God is foremost. The audio narrator was a bit over the top, but if you like a narrator is really performing the parts, this is the book for you.
• 
  Elizabeth Meadows

  I had read three of these novellas previously in other bind-ups. I enjoyed them again, plus the one that was new to me. They are sweet and heartwarming.
  
  
• 
  Gaylina

  Loved all of these books!
• 
  Laura

  Title: AN AMISH CHRISTMAS: Expanded Edition
  Authors: Beth Wiseman, Kathleen Fuller, and Barbara Cameron and Kelly Long
  Publisher: Thomas Nelson
  August 2010
  ISBN: 978-1-59554-878-8
  Genre: Inspirational/Amish/Christmas
  
  It’s Christmas time in Paradise, Pennsylvania, and four Amish couples experience hope, redemption, and new life.
  
  A Miracle for Miriam – by Kathleen Fuller. Miriam has been in love with Seth since they were in school together, but when she was fourteen, Seth stomped all over her heart. When he grew up he left the Amish faith. But now Seth is back, and he seems to be interested in pursuing a relationship with Miriam. But Miriam is having nothing of it. After all, she’s still the same four-eyed, ugly beanpole he made fun of when they were kids. Can Seth convince Miriam that in his eyes she is beautiful?
  
  A Choice to Forgive – by Beth Wiseman. Lydia has built a life for herself when her fiancé Daniel vanished one Christmas eve. She married Daniel’s brother Elam, and they had three children. But now Elam is dead, and Daniel is back, and he’s asking Lydia for forgiveness and a second chance. Lydia doesn’t believe she’s capable of providing either. How can she go back to normal life with her long lost love as her neighbor?
  
  One Child – by Barbara Cameron. Sarah has wanted a baby for as long as she’s been married, but her pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Now a very pregnant woman and her husband are stranded at Sarah’s house during a blizzard, and the Englisch woman is in labor. Will Sarah be able to accept the responsibility of carrying for someone so very different who has the one thing Sarah wants?
  
  Christmas Cradles – by Kelly Long. Anna Stolis has gone to relieve her aunt of her midwifery duties for the night so she can get away. But there are three women expecting. Anna’s aunt arranges for Asa Mast to stay in the barn just in case there is need of Anna acting as midwife. Sure enough, the first call comes and Anna and Asa take off in a blizzard to deliver a first child. With God’s design three babies are born that night and Asa finds a new hope for his life. But is it enough to make her give up her own practice and stay to help her aunt?
  
  AN AMISH CHRISTMAS: Expanded Edition is a collection of four Amish stories, written by four very different women. I absolutely loved this collection, though my very favorite story is A Miracle for Miriam, and my second favorite was A Choice to Forgive. Really, it was tough to choose between the two. I enjoyed the third story too, but it didn’t read as smooth as the first two, and at times seemed a bit of an information dump. The fourth story I read later when this expanded edition came out, and it was a totally sweet story of new life and love.
  
  If you like Amish stories and or Christmas stories, you will not want to miss AN AMISH CHRISTMAS. Hardcover, with an absolutely beautiful cover, this book is also wonderful for gift giving. Plus discussion questions and a couple Amish recipes are included at the end of the book. $16.99. 522 pages.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Damla

  Actually, I didn't know much about the Amish people and their lifestyles until I read this book. They live without electricity, without technology, TV, internet, etc. unlike the modern city people. They are against using them, but they are happy with this.
  In "An Amish Christmas", which consists of four novellas written by different authors, you will find love of people as the main theme, but this love is told in a God-oriented and religious way through the light of Bible. The book tells how a good man should be: humble, grateful, faithful, nice, kind, patient, valuing inner beauty... Throughout the book, these virtues are emphasized.
  Although the first three novellas were written by different authors, they have a common feature; the characters of the stories. The characters know each other. For example, when you read any novella, you realize that the main character is a relative or friend of the main character of the other novella. I found this very interesting.
  When you read the book, you'll see that the core of the book is to believe in God to endure all the pains of life in any condition. Despite being not a very exciting and escapist book (except "One Child", where I was curious to know how the woman would survive the birth at home), and although it took a long time for me to read it, I generally like the characters inside.
  In the book, there are some "different" words that the Amish people use, and at the beginning, you'll find a glossary for them. Also, at the end of the book, there are some delicious Amish recipes you can cook after reading this nice book.
• 
  Leah

  I liked three out of four of the stories; the fourth story was okay. The stories that I liked were A Miracle for Miriam , A Choice to Forgive, and Christmas Cradles . These were interesting stories with characters that I liked. All of the stories involve First Christmas (Christmas Day), which I was expecting but still enjoyed. They don't celebrate it the same way I do, which was interesting. 4 stars for each of those stories. The other story, the one that I thought was okay, is One Child . I didn't like the characters, but it was a nice story. 3 stars for this story.
• 
  Martha

  An Amish Christmas is a very uplifting novella. The authors are brilliant at creating characters that readers are able to relate with and deliver messages that helps the reader to grow spiritually and to be entertained by the talented authors writings.
• 
  Rj

  This is a 3 story novella. I am only reading the first story. A Miracle For Miriam. I could not find it listed separately on this site. Well I did end up reading all three. They were sweet stories but I wasn't blown away by any of them.
• 
  John

  returned to the library unfinished (read one of four stories)........victim of holiday blues......
• 
  Tanya

  The stories in this book are sweet, but they aren't the best Amish fiction I've read. If you want to turn off your mind and be entertained, this is a great book!
• 
  Angieleigh

  I have to say that the Amish collections that I've read lately aren't exactly like other Amish fiction that I've read by other authors.
  
  Unlike other stories, the Amish are shown as being just as flawed as Englishers - including gossiping, judging, and partaking in behavior that isn't always innocent. I was a bit surprised that the men paid much attention to the curves of the women's bodies, kissed them passionately, and even were found in a bedroom with a single woman. There are no graphic scenes, just behavior that surprised me.
  
  I nearly added this to my DNF shelf as I was very annoyed that the focus of the first story seemed to be about how everyone found Miriam to be plain or very ugly. It was no wonder she was jaded and standoffish!
  
  The second story surprised me as I was expecting something completely different than what actually happened. I did find myself tuning out at times, but also invested in what had happened in the past and how they worked past it. There was even a time or two when I cried.
  
  The third story nearly broke my heart as it deals with miscarriage and trying to get past it even a year later. As the synopsis doesn't include what happens, I won't spoil the story, but it was my second favorite of them all. I also teared up a time or when reading this beautiful story about brokenness and healing.
  
  The fourth was my favorite as it was about a midwife. I am slightly obsessed with Call the Midwife and this was about a modern day albeit Amish midwife. I was surprised that the husbands in all three births that Anna attended were in the room, or close by, when their wives delivered their babies.
  
  Three of the four stories were interconnected with characters that were found in the previous story, with the exception of the first one. Two of the stories dealt with a horrible snowstorm that rocked Lancaster. As someone who lives close to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I can vouch for the fact that we could get a horrible snowstorm and there are times when within an hour or two after it stops that it warms up and the snow starts to melt.
  
  We have very interesting weather here in southern PA.
  
  All four stories deal with redemption, forgiveness, and second chances. While I wasn't always invested, I was entertained and don't regret forging ahead after Miriam's story.
  
  
• 
  Andrea

  I still can't figure out why I periodically crave these books. I guess it's something about the sweet, simple fantasy life where everything happens for a reason and no problem can't be solved with a little prayer and a whoopie pie. If books are brain food, these things are Wonder bread. But every so often, I like me some sugary refined carbs, so here we are.
  
  A Miracle for Miriam: The conflict here is pretty thin. Her entire sense of self-worth is shattered because a boy made fun of her once in middle school? Um. I liked the character arcs in principle -- Seth learning humility and compassion, and Miriam learning to have confidence, those are both solid stories -- the foundation just wasn't enough to support them.
  
  A Choice to Forgive: The conflict here was so contrived, just...wow. It's a second-chance romance, but the reason for the initial separation was simply ludicrous. And the constant wild assumptions leading to miscommunications when any reasonable adult would have just asked what was going on and it would have been a non-issue -- ugh.
  
  One Child: This one was solid plot-wise, and also had the most emotional depth by far. Sarah and David were realistic, sympathetic characters, and it was satisfying watching them support each other and grow closer. Unfortunately, it was also the most explicitly preachy, with several passages of dialogue and narration clearly shoehorned in to make make a spiritual point. I don't mind at all reading about religious people being religious, but as a non-religious person myself, it's a big turn-off when the author is transparently preaching at me through the text. Ironically, one of these passages explicitly addresses the fact that the Amish don't proselytize and instead simply live their faith and trust that to be sermon enough; would that more of the evangelical authors of Amish fiction would learn that lesson.
• 
  Annette

  Summary:
  An Amish Christmas holds 4 stories.
  1. A Choice to Forgive by Beth Wiseman is the story of a young widow named Lydia. She has 3 children. A man who she once loved re-enters her life.
  2. A Miracle for Miriam by Kathleen Fuller is the story of a young woman who doesn’t feel pretty. She actually has low self-worth. A young man who once meant a great deal to her when they were younger is now interested.
  3. One Child by Barbara Cameron is the story of a young couple struggling with infertility.
  4. Christmas Cradles by Kelly Long is the story of two women who are mid-wives in the Amish community.
  
  My Thoughts:
  I want to 1st begin by saying I am not an avid Amish fiction reader. This is not a genre I enjoy reading. I visited my sisters in the region west of Houston a few years ago. I was browsing in an old general type store in Fayetteville, TX. This signed copy book was for sale in an area marked out for the author Beth Wiseman who lives in this town. An Amish Christmas has been in my TBR stack a few years.
  
  My favorite story is A Choice to Forgive for several reasons.
  1. I feel this is the most well-developed story. It is longer.
  2. The main characters have a long history that has a “present” offering a reopening. But, in reopening, old wounds must be healed.
  3. Lydia is a cautious person. After all, she has 3 children who depend on her, plus she is dealing with past betrayals.
  4. I have empathy for her. I feel an investment in her story because I can relate. She is believable and real.
  5. Lydia is heroic because she is a single mom with 3 children. One of them is a teenage daughter with her own issues.
  
  One of the reasons I am not a fan of Amish fiction is the characters are often too squeaky clean. In An Amish Christmas, I feel the authors try to show a believable and imperfect side of the Amish people. Some more than others.
  Rating: Good for A Choice to Forgive. The other 3 stories are okay.
  Source: Self-purchase.
• 
  Brianna (Breathe, hope, books)

  2.75 so rounding up to 3
  
  My mother-in-law gave me this book for Christmas last year, and like the good book nerd and daughter-in-law i am i made myself read it, even though i was pretty sure Amish fiction was not my thing.
  
  And while i now know a lot more about Amish culture, and i thought these stories were fine, i can also say with absolute certainty that Amish fiction is NOT MY THING.
  
  There’s being formulaic, and then there’s being predictable. I knew exactly what was going to happen in all but the final story, and the final story was just super repetitive. Yes, these are technically novellas and therefore, there isn’t that much development. But i still found these stories TOO LONG. I’d learn about the characters and they’d get together or do their problem and then the story would KEEP GOING. I would get so bored! I enjoyed most of the stories, but i was also ready for each of them to be over.
  
  Slightly better than the last Christian book Barbara gave me though, so that’s something i guess.
• 
  Fizzy

  A Choice to Forgive by Beth Wiseman ****
  I’m going to just say it…this novella was the perfect opener to this collection. I’ve yet to read anything by this author that I haven’t absolutely fallen in love with. And with one small caveat, this novella is no exception. An unexpected, heart rending, 18 year old blast from the past walks through Lydia’s door one night just before Thanksgiving. Her first love, the man who left it all behind and broke her heart on Christmas Eve (no less) eighteen years prior is back. Back to reclaim his life in his Amish roots. Back to tear her heart into little pieces all over again. Back. She thought she had moved on, actually marrying his brother Elam and raising their three children alone after Elam’s passing two years prior. Back to remind her that her heart is not truly healed. I loved that this story occupied it’s time in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I loved that there was no need for time hops and epilogues. However, it crushed me a bit that there was the insta-love between Lydia and Daniel. I mean I get it, they had once loved each other enough to chose to be engaged. I get it, they had a deep history. But 18 years people! Eighteen years that was wrapped up in a big, ginormous, festering lie. A lie that Elam never corrected, mind you, though he’s not here to deal with the fallout. I can understand forgiving his lying cowardly self. I can understand choosing friendship and a we’ll see approach. I just couldn’t live with declarations of love so quickly. That’s my caveat. The one thing I couldn’t get behind in this otherwise amazing novella.
  
  A Miracle for Miriam by Kathleen Fuller *****
  This story, oh gravy this story is what all novellas should hope to become. Added bonus points because it picks right back up where ‘A Choice to Forgive’ with the same family, the same community and a side-by story line. It’s rare to find novellas with overarching stories. Let’s add in that a horse in this book garnered it own paragraph to explain why it was named Gravy. Technically Biscuits ‘n’ Gravy but still. It’s like Kathleen knew me personally and Gravy was just her way to include me in this story, I mean if of course we don’t look at the analogy of me as a horse or the fact that she doesn’t know me. But still, it’s what I want to think right now! The author tackles some tough subjects in this novella that are done so gracefully and perfectly without trying to be more than what it was intended to be and without leaving me feeling like I missed something. There was a lot of baby steps toward healing old hurts, there was a lot of let’s see where this could take us, there was a lot of forgiveness. There wasn’t a lot of neat tied up endings without the need for after thoughts. We don’t know where Miriam and Seth ended up, for sure. And that is perfectly OK. The depth of character building and back story was so perfect that I could have kept right on reading about their lives through their own series.
  
  One Child by Barbara Cameron ****
  I loved that story picked right up where ‘A Miracle for Miriam’ left off. This collection is so very different than other novellas which endears me to it more. Sarah and David have featured throughout the stories as a local couple who lost their baby to miscarriage the previous Christmas Eve. They are hosting First Christmas for family and friends at their home and as their guests leave before the storm blows in they prepare to settle in for the night. Until a pounding on the door takes David out into the snow to rescue a family whose car has slid off the road in the storm. A husband and his very pregnant wife. This novella was filled with so much love and healing (for Sarah especially) and truth. Englishers with preconceived ideas about the Amish. Misunderstood ideas about gender roles within the Amish family. This story begins and ends in less than 24 hours. That 24 hours provides healing for Sarah and David, growth for Kate and Jason, and new friendships for everyone. Here’s the situation, however, it was only 24 hours but it dragged on and on and on. Jason was all over the place. Sarah was bound in her own private world that she didn’t share outside her husband. Kate, oh yeah well I won’t spoiler it but it’s kinda a given ya know… However it took her getting up and down and going here and there and drinking a LOT of tea to get there.
  
  Christmas Cradles by Kelly Long ***
  This book is partially a continuation of the previous three novellas but not as intertwined. The same community, the same Christmas storm, and three new couples that were new. If there were mentioned in the previous stories I didn’t get a feel for them like I did in the previous novellas. Anna is in town for just a day or two to cover her Aunt’s patients while she goes to visit her family. Oh yeah, the are both midwives. The flu, which apparently is stealthing through the community through all the novellas, has changed a bit of plans when the man to stay with her and drive in the event she was called out is down with the flu so he son comes in his place. Long story short it was insta-love. I enjoyed the interweaving of the cradles (as featured in ‘One Child’) and quilts that draw the story together. However I felt like the characters weren’t developed with any depth, answers were given too easily, and insta-love. I feel like this novella was destined to be something amazing but due to a shortage of available pages got cut down and it lost a lot of somethings in the translation. It was still an amazing conclusion to ‘An Amish Christmas’ in the community at Paradise on a blizzarding Christmas night.
  
  I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by Kathleen Fuller. I was not compensated for this review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.
  
  Originally published at
  https://fizzypopcollection.com/an-ami....
• 
  Romantic Intentions Quarterly

  HAVE YOU READ? AMISH BOOK REC
  
  An "Amish Christmas: December in Lancaster County" gives us four tales of Plain Christmas in the community of Paradise, Penn. A favorite is Kathleen Fuller’s “A Miracle for Miriam,” in which the self-conscious, uncertain Miriam finds it in her heart to forgive former bad boy Seth, newly returned to the community after a fairly serious comeuppance—and newly appreciative of true inner beauty. However, the introduction of a bereft, expecting Englisher couple to the house of heartbroken Sarah and her husband David, nearing the anniversary of a tragic miscarriage, is very informative about Amish ways. Meanwhile, Kelly Long’s “Christmas Cradles” gives us a midwife heroine driven around on a snowy Christmas Eve, and falling in love amid all the new life...
  
  This rec appears in Romantic Intentions Quarterly #3 - October 2018
• 
  Jo-Ann Fitzgerald

  This is a set of short stories within a Amish group. The first two are about two couples who had a prior relationship - one while in school and the other who had a relationship which the hero walked away. The third book I found myself identifying with the couple who had a miscarriage and were having problems moving forward. The last story was about a midwife and a man helping her over Christmas deliver babies and end up finding each other.
  
  I've read these before but didn't recognize the title until I started to read the stories. All the hero's and heroine's are relatable and likable. Although the books have an Amish reference it doesn't go overboard with the descriptions. Each story was unique. There are short but sweet reads.
• 
  Melody

  I loved that all novellas in this collection are related. All four take place in Paradise, Pennsylvania, and the characters from the first three stories cross paths and are secondary characters in each others stories. It made this collection feel more like one book rather than four separate ones. The four authors each have their own writing style, but they blended beautifully together.
  
  I enjoyed the four stories very much; so much so I couldn't pick a favorite. They were all filled with faith, love and hope. I would recommend An Amish Christmas to all Amish fiction fans. It's a delightful holiday read.
• 
  aubrey

  first novella: 3/5 stars
  second novella: 3.8/5 stars
  third novella: 3.5/5 stars
  fourth novella: 4/5 stars
  
  Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars
  
  This is the first Amish book I've ever read, and it wasn't too bad. I truly and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know if I would read it again, but it was worth the read. I think Amish living is very interesting.
  
  To be honest, I could not be Amish due to the fact that being jealous is considered a sin in their community. They would immediately shun me. Also, having 1 kiss scene in a novella hurt terribly, lol.
  
  I now know to expand my Amish novel collection!
• 
  Melanna

  I just put a bunch of Christmas books on hold in october with no idea what they were.
  
  This is the kind of book you can recommend to the ladies at church. But totally not my cup of tea. It’s 4 novellas in one. And they are so over the top ridiculous in how quickly these “romances” come together (literally days and sometimes hours) with exactly zero depth. “Hey you’re Amish. Me too. Let’s get married.” There isn’t actual tension or predicaments that cause any sort of pull into the story. They are the neatest and most tidy stories one did ever read.
• 
  LaShunda

  ok so I have read so many of these novella compilations that I have actually read all of these at different times in other collections. Sigh. That was a bit disappointing however they were worth the reread. Solid and engaging stories filled with the hope and a goodness I was looking for when I picked up this compilation.
  
  And though I did reread all of these stories, I will not be counting them towards my 50 book reading goal.
• 
  Mary Ann

  The four novellas in this volume connect the community and its residents. The authors did a great job at keeping the story flowing, each story with a different focus and main character. They include sorrows and troubles, as well as joys and adventure. The winning combination makes it a cherished book to savor during the season or any time. I received a copy from one of the authors. All opinions are my own.
• 
  Diane

  My two favorite stories in this collection were One Child by Beth Wiseman and Christmas Cradles by Kelly Long because they both expound on the blessed miracle of childbirth. In One Child a stranded Englisch couple are taken in on Christmas Eve by a young Amish couple who lost a pregnancy a year ago and are haunted by their grief. I loved the interaction between the couples who are not so very different from each other and how the experience brings valuable lessons to them all. In Christmas Cradles a midwife and her driver race from one birthing mother to another during a raging winter storm that threatens them all. Best of all was the modern reenactment of Christ’s birth that reminds us of the true spirit of Christmas.