In a desperate move to evade her match-making mother setting her up with her childhood tormenter, Emily Shwartz announces that she’s already seeing someone: Reuban Coblentz. The trouble is, Reuban is barely even a friend. But seeing how desperate she is, Reuban plays along. But when the past sneaks up on them, will this temporary arrangement turn into everlasting love?
An excellent book! Four stories all by Kathleen Fuller. I had read several of her previous novels and some of the same characters showed up in a couple of these novellas. It was like getting to see old friends again. All of these stories centered around family and couples finding love or adding to their family. It seems that mothers and fathers can’t let go of their adult children. They want to control them even when they are grown. There are underlying reasons when the truth be told but it takes a while and some heartbreak to get at the reasons.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through the Fiction Guild but was not required to write a review.
An Amish Family is a wonderful collection of four novellas by Kathleen Fuller. Stories of love, faith, hope, heartache, pain and forgiveness. If you love Amish fiction than this is a great collection of novellas for you. Be sure to get your copy of An Amish Family today.
Building Trust
This is a story with themes of forgiveness and compassion. When Grace realizes that her father is holding a secret grudge, she expects quick forgiveness so she can marry Joel, but it takes compassion on both sides to heal the hurt from long ago. I liked Joel’s contrition and patience with Grace’s father as he seeks to prove himself worthy of Grace.
A Heart Full of Love
Ellie is a fascinating character, blind and pregnant with twins with a husband who has to work long hours. She has adjusted to her lost eyesight and enjoys her independence and marriage, so accepting help with her new babies is a struggle. Compounding the difficulty is her overprotective and controlling mother. As frustrating as Edna was, I appreciated that the author delved deeper into the mother/daughter relationship and we learned why Edna had her own struggles with trust and letting go.
Surprised by Love
This was my favorite of the collection. Emily is clumsy, wears thick glasses, and is more interested in astronomy than dating. What I loved about her is that she accepts herself and is cheerful and friendly. Rueben is also a friendly guy, and the circumstances they find themselves in give him the chance to get to know Emily better and their friendship quickly deepens even though they both try to ignore the attraction that flares between them. A sweet and lovely romance!
A Gift for Anne Marie
I loved this sweet story of friends who become more when they realize they will be separated. There are other conflicts besides the impending move, including a friend of Anne Marie’s who decides to pursue Nathaniel. The friendship they share is lovely, but when new feelings begin to develop confusion and hesitation enters in and disrupts the harmony they had enjoyed. I love when friends fall in love since they have a great foundation and know each other so well. It was funny to see just how well Nathaniel knew Anne Marie and her moods 😉
(I received a complimentary copy of the book; all opinions in this review are my own)
An Amish Family is a very nice collection of four novellas by Kathleen Fuller. I enjoyed all four stories. These were sweet, easy stories to sit down and enjoy, yet I felt engaged in every one of the tales.
In Building Trust, I really felt for Grace and Joel. Their hearts were broken when Grace’s father refused to allow them to get married. I loved watching how things progressed through this tension filled story!
In A Heart Full of Love, I had so much fun getting to read about Ellie and Chris starting a family. They are the main characters in a previous novella, so it was really nice to visit them again. Poor Ellie had a lot of extra stress in her life when her mother came to “help out”! You can easily read this novella without having ever met Ellie and Chris before.
Surprised by Love was a sweet story. I enjoyed seeing how these two main characters really did get surprised by the feelings that grew between them. It was a story of love happening when you least expect it.
I had already read A Gift for Anne Marie in a different novella collection. I did enjoy reading it again and watching as two friends suddenly realized that their feelings were much more than just friendship.
(4.5 stars)
I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.