Book Review and Giveaway: Amish White Christmas Pie by Wanda E. Brunstetter

This is a very easy read and nice story.
Amish White Christmas Pie
by Wanda E. Brunstetter

• File Size: 459 KB
• Print Length: 306 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1616268662
• Publisher: Barbour Books (September 1, 2012)
• ASIN: B008MFOIQW

Genre: Christian Fiction, Amish
My Rating: 3.75 of 5.0

Book Description
Publication Date: September 1, 2012
Step into Amish country for this bittersweet holiday romance. Here you’ll meet Will Henderson, a young man tortured by his past, and Karen Yoder, a young woman looking for answers. Add a desperate father searching for his son, and you have all the ingredients for a first-class romance that will inspire and enthrall.

Review:
Will Henderson was not born Amish but was raised by a good Amish couple after being left, ‘temporarily’, with them as a five year old. Will is now 22 and has chosen to live the “plain” life. He is soon to be married to a lovely young Amish woman, Karen. However, Will is tortured with abandonment issues and insecurities that threaten the serenity of his marriage, if his jealousy doesn’t forestall the marriage altogether. Even Karen begins to feel that Will is not ready for marriage if he cannot face this issues of his past and grow beyond them.

While Will struggles with his anger and bitterness, his natural father wonders where his boy might be and how he is fairing. He has a new wife and children but he has never forgotten the son he left behind when he went looking for a stable job. Is there any possible way he can find his son and if he does, could Will forgive him?

This is a nice story of forgiveness, acceptance and the importance of communication. The writing style is simple and this reads very easily and quickly. However I was a bit bored at a third in. I did like the ending but feel the beginning and middle of the book could have had less mundane dialogue (and running to the telephone) and more rich Amish setting and life-descriptions. These characters were almost too much like normal “Englishers”. Plus I found it hard to believe there would be so many horse and buggy accidents in such a short time.

I read this with my Ladies’ book club. Several of the ladies loved the easy read and fully enjoyed the story. A couple others were like me - we liked the ending but felt the book lacked the rich details we like in Amish stories. We did enjoy that there was more depth to the story than a simple romance but on the other hand, we were not fully pulled in by the characters or story. (Maybe we are action junkies.) The pie recipe was in the print copy but not the Kindle version. One of our ladies made it and said it was wonderful!

This is the second book I have read by this author and I think her writing is just not my cup of tea although her books are popular. This book has good ratings and is an example that confirms that not every author or every style of writing suits every reader the same. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy an easy style read with life issues facing Amish characters.

This was our Ladies' Book Club book for discussion 1/10/15.

Giveaway:

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