Author: Annette Blair
A Winter Heart is an Amish romance set against a tragic background. The novella is short and free on Amazon which is why I decided to pick it up. I do not typically read Amish romances but I thought the story sounded interesting.
Both Caleb Skylar and Hannah Peachy have lost loved ones. Caleb's wife passed away leaving just him and his six year old daughter Susie. Hannah lost her husband, sister and baby in a tragic buggy accident. The two meet up when Caleb, in an attempt to get away and start over, buys Hannah's farm. They then slowly start to heal with the help of each other and soon find themselves falling in love.
From the description of the book, I was expecting a simple but nice story. Two people overcome tragedy and heartbreak only to find new love and hope. Well, the book was exactly like I thought it would be for a while. My problem with A Winter Heart comes when Caleb hatches a plan to marry Hannah.
The rest of this review contains spoilers.
After Caleb realizes he has feelings for Hannah, he learns that she is already engaged to a much older man. Her father, a religious leader in the Amish community, just wants to get her married off. Caleb cannot just step in and take her though because she has already been promised to another man and they are Amish, after all.
And then it seems like the author completely forgot that the characters are Amish. All this time she had been setting up the community and throwing in random German words to show us how Amish everything is. That was not so bad but Caleb's plan to marry Hannah is what I have a problem with.
Caleb decides to lie to Hannah's father and tell him that Hannah is pregnant with his child. The Amish are very strict about not having sex before marriage. These characters are already baptized so a pregnancy out of wedlock is a serious sin. No way would Caleb really come up with this plan and no way would Hannah follow along with he lie. They both risked being shunned from the church and community. This plan is just completely unrealistic. Not only that but the plan works!
Caleb and Hannah are not even punished for this sin. Their "punishment" is to confess their sin in church and get married right there. That's it. Not being allowed to have a wedding is their punishment.
The two then laugh this all off, get a little touchy-feely in the buggy (where Susie is sleeping in the back), and ride home where they make love for the first time.
This ending to the novella completely threw me off because it just ignores an obvious part about the Amish. They would not take a pregnancy out of wedlock so lightly.
I'm giving this book two stars because I did enjoy the writing for the most part. I also liked the characters at the beginning. I would pick up another book by this author and give her another shot but I probably wouldn't pick up another Amish romance by her.
2 Out of 5 Hearts
❤❤
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