Review: Seasons of an Amish Garden Four Stories By Amy Clipston

Book Description

Enjoy a year of beautiful seasons in this new story collection, as young Amish couples manage a community garden and harvest friendships and love along the way.

Spring Is in the Air

As the young people of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, plant a garden in memory of their friend, Katie Ann begins to worry that her older brother, Ephraim, is dating her best friend. What if she somehow loses them both? But Christian, a new boy in the community, also works in the garden—and falling for him may be exactly the distraction, and lesson, that Katie Ann needs.

Home by Summer

Clara Hertzler is surprised when Jerry Petersheim, her old friend, comes to the garden to drop off his younger sister—especially because Jerry has been gone for years, and now seems to be living as an Englisher. As the friends get to know each other again, Clara pushes Jerry to examine why he abandoned his Amish beliefs. Will Clara help Jerry renew his faith in God, and will they find love beneath the summer sun?

The Fruits of Fall

Tena Speicher has come to live in Bird-in-Hand after her fiancé left her for an English woman. When a homeless veteran comes to the fruit stand one day and asks for food, Tena is not sure how to respond—but Wayne intervenes and offers to let him stay in the barn. Afraid to trust Englishers, Tena must learn, with Wayne’s help, that everyone is a child of God and deserving of kindness.

Winter Blessings

Ephraim and Mandy have dated for some time and now have plans to marry. But after a series of unexpected events and misunderstandings, they wonder if they should go their separate ways. What will happen when their friends at the Amish garden conspire to bring them back together?

My Review: 

Seasons of an Amish Garden is a lovely collection of four short stories all involving the same set of characters that are helping out a lady from their community with a garden they started in honor of her husband who passed away. Each story focuses on a different couple while mentioning the others here and there as well. I liked that although each story is short we still get more glimpses of each couple in the others stories. I did feel like some things were a bit repetitive in the stories and I did not always like the characters. Mandy was indeed not a good friend in Spring is in the Air and when Katie Ann brings it up she refuses to even look at her own actions and lashes out at Katie Ann saying she is merely jealous. Although they make up later on, I was not sure if I would want such a thoughtless friend were it me in Katie Ann's place. Mandy did seem much more mature and reasonable in her own story Winter Blessings. Ephraim was the one being immature and stubborn in this one and I felt like he would not make a good husband with such a bad temper and unwillingness to listen. Ultimately there were things I both liked and disliked about each of the stories. Overall it was a fairly enjoyable collection and I would consider trying out more of this author's writing to see if I liked them a bit more than this one. 

** I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. **