What the Heart Sees - Kathleen Fuller

Fans of Kathleen Fuller will be delighted to discover that three of her novellas have been repackaged into one volume. The stories, which previously appeared in An Amish Christmas, An Amish Gathering and An Amish Love respectively, are romantic tales of young Amish men and women discovering and rekindling love and healing past hurts.

In A Miracle for Miriam, Miriam must reconcile her memories of Seth, the boy who teased her as a teenager, with the young man he has become. Seth is in for a culture shock, returning to his Amish family after he was seriously injured in a car accident. But his near-death experience has made him to rethink his life, causing him see everything in a different light – including Miriam. In order to pursue a relationship with her reformed would-be-suitor, Miriam has to learn to forgive and let go of past grudges, or miss out on the chance of falling in love.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, especially as it was the first time I’d read about an Amish woman who was insecure about her appearance. It made me rethink my expectation that all Amish are able to focus purely on inner beauty. After all, everyone strives not to be vain and to focus on what cannot be seen, but our human flaws cause us to be concerned with the physical. Miriam’s self-consciousness combined with the hurt she had experienced as an impressionable teen made her a very relatable heroine. Seth also had his own difficulties, regarding the injuries he suffered in a car accident, but he’s such a gentleman that it’s impossible not to fall for him. While I did struggle to believe that one isolated incident – Seth had only teased her about her looks on one occasion, so it wasn’t as if she experienced repeated bullying – would cause Miriam to be so self-conscious about her appearance, I did find it refreshing to read about an Amish woman who struggled with insecurity and low self-confidence. Those who think that the Amish are romanticised will be pleased to find such a realistic and character-driven story.

Amanda is surprised to discover that her childhood best friend, Josiah, has returned from Indiana to fix up his old family home in A Place of His Own. But she’s shocked that Josiah doesn’t want her company, and is keen to sell his old house and leave Paradise as soon as possible. Slowly, Amanda begins to draw Josiah out of his shell and make him face the long-buried wounds that are still causing him pain. Can this healing process rekindle their friendship, and maybe even spark embers of love?

While I found Amanda and Josiah’s story to be the weakest in the collection, I did end up enjoying it once it really got started. Unfortunately, I felt that the plot didn’t really begin until several chapters in, which can be annoying in such a short novella. Other reviewers have commented that they think A Place of His Own would be stronger as a full-length novel, and I’m inclined to agree with them. There was so much potential and a lot of unexplored areas in this novella, so I think Kathleen was just restricted by her word count. And while I warmed up to Josiah after a while, I really struggled with the character of Amanda, who no matter what she said or did, still seemed very two-dimensional and shallow. I hope that readers don’t judge Kathleen based on this story, as it’s still a good effort and is sandwiched by two other excellent stories.

The last novella also shares its name with the collection, What the Heart Sees. This story is my favourite out of the three, and tells the tale of a prodigal son who returns to the Amish for his sister’s wedding and ends up befriending a blind girl. I was fortunate enough to read this story earlier in the year, so please check out my review of An Amish Love to read my thoughts on it.

I’ve yet to read any of Kathleen Fuller’s full-length novels, but if her novellas are any clue, I’m sure they’re an excellent addition to the Amish genre. Although I enjoyed each of the stories in this collection, I think their weakness is that they share very common themes. Seth, Josiah and Chris are all returning from the English world, and all three of the women are late into their courting years and worried that they’ll never find love. I’m sure these novellas worked very well in their original collections, but bound together I felt that they were rather repetitive with their tortured heroes and insecure heroines. This is a storyline that Kathleen does very well, but after reading it three times I couldn’t help but wondering if I should have left a larger gap between reading each of the novellas. I do recommend this collection, especially if you’re a fan of Kathleen Fuller, but I’d suggest spacing your reading of these stories. 8/10

Review title sent courtesy of Thomas Nelson.

An Amish Love - Kelly Long, Kathleen Fuller & Beth Wiseman

Best-selling authors Kathleen Fuller and Beth Wiseman are joined by Kelly Long, who entered the Amish genre last year with her debut Sarah’s Garden, in this romantic novella collection. An Amish Love features three interlocking stories of love, starting with an accidental marriage in Kelly Long’s A Marriage of the Heart and moving on to broken hearts embarking on a new relationship in What the Heart Sees by Kathleen Fuller. The anthology finishes on an optimistic note for the future with a late in life couple falling in love all over again in Beth Wiseman’s Healing Hearts.

From a glance at the front cover and the synopsis of this collection, one can be forgiven for assuming that this is a light, predictable selection of stories about the Amish. Even I expected this, and I’ve been an avid reader of Amish romances for almost two years now. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that each author was bringing something new and original to the genre.

Kelly Long, whose debut novel I absolutely adored, places her protagonist, Abby Kauffman, in an unusual situation and shows us how love can blossom in the most unexpected places. After a newcomer to the community, Joseph Lambert, fails to give Abby the attention she believes she deserves, she accuses him of misbehaving with her. But the joke is on her when her father forces them into a marriage of convenience in order to protect her honour – and much to her shock, Joseph agrees to this arrangement! While I’ll freely admit that the premise of this novella is a bit unbelievable, I loved watching Abby and Joseph’s relationship develop. Kelly brings something unexpected but most welcome to the Amish genre with the undeniable attraction and chemistry between her characters. As much as I’m a fan of “sweet” romance, I’m often disappointed by inspirational authors who fail to acknowledge this important aspect of relationships – bravo to Kelly for doing the opposite! 9/10

Kathleen Fuller’s story is definitely my favourite in this collection, especially as she shows us the flawed side of the Amish. While we uphold the Amish as being people of forgiveness, Kathleen dares to admit the obvious – that forgiveness doesn’t come easily or painlessly. Christopher Miller left the Amish after his fiancée was killed in a car accident, and he still holds a grudge against the driver of the car when he finally returns five years later. So it doesn’t sit well that his younger sister is engaged to be married to this man. Through the help of Ellie Chupp, who lost her eyesight in the same accident, he slowly learns to let go of his deceased fiancée – and to forgive and ask for forgiveness himself. While this story focused more on the developing relationship between Chris and Ellie, rather than romance, there was something simple and beautiful about the flawed nature of all of the characters that really appealed to me. Kathleen is a new author to me and I will definitely be looking out for more of her work. 10/10

I wasn’t quite so fond of Beth Wiseman’s addition to the collection. I found that it became a bit over-the-top and cheesy towards the end, but I truly appreciated the fact that Beth decided to focus on an older couple. Too many romance novels focus on young couples in their prime, and it often makes us forget how important it is to keep romance alive within marriage. Levina and Naaman Lapp have been married for over thirty years, but once all their children have left home they realise that they’ve drifted apart. Naaman takes a trip to visit family in Ohio and doesn’t return for almost a year – and when he does, their relationship needs even more work. Slowly, they learn to fall in love again, and Naaman is able to regain his wife’s trust. As someone who is currently reading a pile of marriage-preparation books, it was encouraging to see someone acknowledging the strain that raising a family can put on marriage and how important it is to set aside some time just for the two of you. However, there was a subplot about the possibility of Naaman being in trouble with the law that just didn’t seem to fit with the feel of the novella and spoiled this story a bit for me. 8/10

This collection is perfect for anyone who is already a fan of Amish fiction, but would also suit those who want to experiment with this genre but don’t know where to start. An Amish Love features three of the best authors of this popular genre, and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to discover new stories about our beloved Plain folk. Overall rating: 9/10

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”