With Christmas on the way, I am all about Christmas stories. I had read "The Sound of Sleigh Bells: A Romance from the Heart of Amish Country" by Cindy Woodsmall several years ago and absolutely adored it. I loved it so much, I shared it with everyone who was interested.
Because of the love of that book, I had to pick up "The Christmas Singing: A Romance from the Heart of Amish Country" also by Cindy Woodsmall when I saw it available via my library and the Overdrive app. Because I have a lot of housework to do, I chose to listen to the book rather than read it. Because I listened rather than read, I have a second part of this review that is simply based on production.
The Christmas Singing: A Romance from the Heart of Amish Country by Cindy Woodsmall
About the book (from Goodreads):
After Gideon coldly broke her heart, can the warmth of the season revive Mattie’s hopes?
Mattie thought her childhood sweetheart adored her until he abruptly ended their engagement on Christmas Eve.
Three
years later, will learning the truth behind his rejection restore her
Christmas joy – or open the door to even deeper heartbreak?
Spend Christmas with the Amish in this story of love, romance, heartache, and restoration.
Experience
the holidays with the Plain folk and discover the power of second
chances in this touching story from the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Bridge of Peace.
Gideon
Beiler has loved Mattie Eash since they were children. But when faced
with unexpected circumstances, he makes up an excuse to end their
engagement. He doesn’t want to lie to her, but he believes that telling
Mattie the truth will be more hurtful.
Brokenhearted, Mattie
moves from Apple Ridge, Pennsylvania to Ohio, where she pursues her
longtime dream of becoming a cake decorator. She finds a new beau—a man
offering the secure relationship Gideon has denied her.
When
Mattie is forced to return to Apple Ridge, she and Gideon must confront
the suffering created by his dishonesty – and address the powerful
emotions that continue to bind the two childhood friends.
My Review (Separated into Story and Production as I really feel that reading and listening can be quite different):
The Story: There are few reads that delight me more than a look into the lives of the Amish. I have embraced this genre, and I have continually been transported by each book I have read. The Christmas Singing has many of the elements that I enjoy from Cindy Woodsmall. The view into Amish life is painted so clearly I feel like I can see each detail. I was delighted with the descriptions as usual and wished I could drop into Mattie Cakes myself. I wish the shop and the village that Mattie lived in was explored more deeply before she went back to Ridge. I really enjoyed the descriptions and friends there. I hope to see more in a future work. I was also pleased to get the
opportunity to catch up with other characters from Cindy's previous book in this series. It was like revisiting old friends.
The tone of the story itself was a bit somber which I would as with it dealt with some negative events. It would have worked better for me if it actually had not been a Christmas novella. I don't expect everything to be happy, but in a Christmas themed story, I expect it more than I would with other themes. Still the story itself was well written and I hope that my distraction with the tone doesn't lead you to think it was not.
As for the characters, I would love to see what happens
to Saul. He seems to have some deep levels there, and I hope the
author will continue to explore them. Mattie herself kind of bugged me. She
was hot and cold when it came to Gideon. I couldn't even grasp the momentary joviality that would be followed by resentment. I understood the reasoning, but to be honest, if I
had been involved with someone who I truly believed betrayed me, I
probably wouldn't be anything more than lukewarm around him. Polite out
of necessity. Mattie's reactions often seemed very self centered and
off kilter. Gideon and all he had been through simply broke my heart.
All in all, I enjoyed the story and the look back at old friends. The ending for the main characters was satisfying, and I hope that it opens doors for others that I am also falling in like with. It was the perfect little getaway into Amish Country and I hope to go there again soon.
Oh! As a bonus, there are some great recipes at the end of the book. They are also listed in the audio version.
Production Review: I "read" The Christmas Singing in audio format. The reader has a very nice pleasant and soothing tone to her voice, but she was very soft spoken. Because of this I had to pump my volume all the way up on both my kindle and my computer (I listened though both). I do not know how one addresses that, but there has to be a way to bring her volume up more without hitting the top spot on my computer (I have not had to do that with other audiobooks).
There was one thing that just did not work for me, and that was the constant repeating of Mattie's nickname "Mattie Lane" from Gideon
literally drove me batty. Now mind you, this could be because I was
listening rather than reading, and I actually do believe that is the
case. I have the feeling if I read it, the nickname would not have bugged me.
I love books, and honestly have not been reading enough lately. When it comes to genres, I like cozy mysteries, thrillers, Amish fiction, suspense, and even horror. For the most part, I tend to stick with some pretty uplifting fiction just as I do with the films I watch. I was sent an invitation a while back from Open Road Media to read and review a book by Linda Byler titled "Fire in the Night." They invited me to review it because I have reviewed and enjoyed Amish fiction in the past. They supplied this book via NetGalley to facilitate my review. Receiving this opportunity for free does not impact the review. These opinions are my own.
Title: Fire in the Night (Lancaster Burning)
Author: Linda Byler
About the book (from NetGalley):
Bestselling Amish writer Linda Byler introduces a new Amish novel, the first in her new series about Sarah Beiler in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
The Amish community of Lancaster is being terrorized by barn fires. David and Malinda Beiler’s barn was the first to go. The clues are sparse, but Levi, the Beilers’ oldest son, happened to be awake in the middle of the night and spotted a white vehicle driving past the house with its lights off. Sarah, David and Malinda’s daughter, is in her late teens and old enough to observe her parents’ agony. Not only is she afraid, too, and wishing she could protect her parents, she’s entranced by the flirtatious Matthew Stoltzfus. He’s dating her friend, Rose, but when he tenderly bandages Sarah’s hand after she burned it at the barn raising, she wonders who he’s really interested in.?When a second Amish barn burns for suspicious reasons, the Amish grow more restless. “We’re too quiet too much of the time,” a group of Amish men tell David Beiler, their minister. Seriously considering police protection, the increasingly tense community questions their traditional nonresistant approach to violence. Sarah now finds herself at odds with her mother over her choice of boyfriends and uncertain about how to respond to the attention of Lee, a newcomer to Lancaster. Not only that, she wonders if her dad is a wise enough leader as her community reels from within and without. Everyone is on edge as the losses mount and suspicions undo the usual steadiness of these people.
My Review: This is the first book I have read by the author. I really did not know anything about her, and found out after I was about halfway through that she is actually Amish. Some have said that it is much better reading Amish fiction from an Amish author. In the long run, I just want to read good fiction, and whether or not the author is of the faith they are writing about or not is of no concern to me if the book is well written. If a book is well written with an engaging story, I will recommend to a friend. I would recommend Fire in the Night to a friend.
The story immediately grabbed my attention by bringing conflict into the pages fairly quickly along with giving me an opportunity to immediately start to learn about one of the characters. I am quite fond of mysteries so I found myself hoping as I read through the book to find a clue here and there. There were brief glimpses, but the focus really seemed to be more on Sarah and her love woes. I would have liked both the mystery and the romance to progress equally.
I enjoyed the characters and thought they were drawn out well. Levi, Sarah's older brother, was especially delightful. My heart went out to Sarah's family as well as the community as the fires and loss continued to devastate them. The author pulled some very real tears out of me which is not something easily done.
The descriptions in the story were occasionally long, but I never felt like they were heavy handed. There were moments though that I felt it would have been nice to trade off more information on tradition and the Amish ways with less description of Sarah trying to flatten her hair with fructis. I wanted to know why certain things were done the way they were, because they are so different from my own way of living.
The long and the short of it is this, Fire in the Night was a very well told story. I found myself caring about the characters and the community. The action moved along well enough to keep me engaged. It did not always swiftly move, but it didn't need to. My main concern as I came near the end of the book was a curiosity of how things were going to be resolved in the small amount of time left. The answer to that concern was a very abrupt ending with no resolution in sight. I kind of felt like I had turned a corner and walked directly into a wall. It would have been nice to see one thing resolved. If I had purchased the book, that might have ticked me off a bit, but then again, maybe it would inspire me to run out and get the next book. I definitely would like to read the next book in the series to see what happens next.
Again, I received this book for a review via the publisher through NetGalley.
