"An Amish Christmas" by Cynthia Keller - Book Review

An Amish Christmas
Author: Cynthia Keller
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 9780345523785
Genre: Fiction, Christmas

About the Book: (from the back cover)

"Meg Hobart has everything: a happy marriage to a handsome, successful husband, a beautiful home in Charlotte, North Carolina, and three wonderful children. But it all comes crashing down around her the day she learns that her husband, James, has been living a lie—and has brought the family to financial ruin. Penniless and homeless, the Hobarts pack up what little they still possess and leave behind their golden life for good. But it’s not the material things Meg finds herself mourning. Instead, she misses the certainty that she should remain married to James, who has betrayed her trust so thoughtlessly. Worse, she is suddenly very aware of just how spoiled her children have become. Meg wonders what her family has really sacrificed in their pursuit of the American dream.


A frightening twist of fate forces the Hobarts to take refuge with a kind Amish family in Pennsylvania, where they find themselves in a home with no computers, no cell phones, nothing the children consider fashionable or fun. Her uncooperative brood confined to the Amish world of hard work and tradition, their futures entirely uncertain, Meg fears she can never make her family whole again.


Celebrating life’s simplest but most essential values, packed with laughter and tears, this is a story of forgiveness and the power of love. You will never forget the special moment in time that is An Amish Christmas."

My Thoughts:

I was excited to have the chance to read this book. I'm a sucker for Christmas stories as I love that warm and cozy feeling I get from reading them.

This book had great potential. The storyline was quite good:  a materialistic family loses everything and learns the value of family, community and forgiveness. Sadly, the story itself didn't appear to be well researched, but something just pulled out of the author's imagination.

The time line just didn't work. One cannot lose things as quickly as stated. The husband is out of work 3 months and all is gone, yet his wife knows what is paid up and what is not, and there's never been an issue that the mortgage wasn't paid. There were many discrepancies like this one throughout the book.

The Amish were another issue for me. The author crossed different orders and different Amish groups. The use of yellow curtains and yellow on a bed wouldn't happen with any of the PA Amish that I know. Stated later in the book, there is a comment that they only use the dark colors for the quilts. Again, there were many more discrepancies like this one.

Although this was created to be a feel good Christmas story, the lack of attention to details made me more annoyed than anything else.

This book was supplied by the publisher through the Early Readers program for me to honestly review.