"An Amish Family Christmas" by Marta Perry & Patricia Davids

About the Book

Celebrate the holidays in Amish Country  

Heart of Christmas by Marta Perry 
Amish teacher Susannah Miller suddenly has two new students: the children of her former love. Widowed father Toby Unger broke Susannah's heart ten years ago, but now the handsome Amish man desperately needs help with his troubled little ones. Can the joy of the season reunite two lonely hearts in time for Christmas?

A Plain Holiday by Patricia Davids 
Outspoken nanny Sally Yoder left her Amish community for her rumspringa. Though her heart is back home, the Amish man she loves, Ben Lapp, will never love a bold woman like her. But when a snowstorm strands her, her young charges and Ben on a remote farm at Christmastime, they both might discover that love is the true holiday spirit.

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This book was released in November 2014
This was a well loved library book that was reviewed.

My Review

“An Amish Family Christmas” by Marta Perry and Patricia Davids is one book with two novella's which both have some pretty special Christmas messages.

The “Heart of Christmas” by Marta Perry is a lovely story of forgiveness and patience. Oh things get interesting right before Christmas when Toby comes back to town and enrolls his two little ones into Susannah's school, for this is the time where things get turn upside down for Susannah.  Things are turned upside down between Toby, his children and other issues popping up in a matter of days and there is not a whole lot that Susannah can do about it.

Things in this novella do move very quickly, however, with all the history that is explained throughout this novella between Toby and Susannah but it doesn't seem that completely unrealistic in all that happens in just a few short weeks if that long.  One of things that I always find frustrating with novellas that take place over a short time is that things seem to happen so unbelievably fast, but not with the novella for the set up was just perfect, and everything is explained to where it all makes it believable.  What helps with this is the history that is explained between Susannah and Toby.

Forgiveness is something that is not always easy to give even when one thinks they have given it, then once it is freely given things change for the better.  This novella is a great example how sometimes we think we have forgiven someone who hurt us without any warning or explanation , yet in reality we haven't, and how when we do finally forgive how much better things become then.

“A Plain Holiday” by Patricia Davids is another wonderful installment of her 'Brides of Amish Country' though it is a completely stand alone story. Sally's story has been told in another one of her books, though I can't remember exactly which one, but we learn so much more in this short story and really if anyone is reading this for the first time they don't feel as if they are missing something.

Sally is struggling and so for now she is working as a nanny for an English family. She has a lot of things to figure out before she makes any final decisions and then things get a bit out of her control. Sally has learned a few things over the course of her time as a nanny, though her Amish roots are still a big part of her.  The things she learned though are things that frankly she has to finally make up her mind as to what she is going to do for the rest of her life.

During the Christmas holidays, things go from bad to worse but even more lessons are learned as well.  The truth also comes out during this story over a few different things from the past, and that truth is freeing in some cases that is for sure. Ben even has some things to learn as well. It was amazing to see how everything happened in this short time period but at the same time it doesn't seem like it was all that unbelievable or all that short.

These short novellas are perfect for those who only a little bit of time to read if they don't want to get involved in a too deep of a book in that limited time frame they might have. I found that these novella's were the perfect length to read when it was too late to read any other book before bed, and yet I didn't feel as if I was missing something. There was just enough detail to make the stories to make them feel as if they were full of detail without feeling as if anything was being left out.

I so enjoyed how both of the stories stayed true to Christmas and the values that are so important to Christmas. That this is indeed a very important holiday where it is the birth of Christ, the light of the world and Prince of Peace. Things that so many times those meanings get lost in the world of toy commercials, latest electronic device and so on, which is one of the reason's I love reading Christmas stories set either in the past or with the Amish for those values are important to the stories.

I wish all who read this book find the Christmas spirit with the reading of these novellas and enjoy the book as I did.