“Christmas Cradles” by Kelly Long — When Anna Stolis takes over for her aunt, the local Amish midwife in Paradise, Christmas night heats up with multiple deliveries, three strangers’ quilts, and the help from resourceful and strong Asa Lapp, whose job it is to get Anna through a dangerous blizzard to complete her midwifery rounds.

“A Miracle for Miriam” by Kathleen Fuller: This Christmas, Miriam must decide whether to guard herself or accept the love of a man who once broke her heart.

“A Choice to Forgive” by Beth Wiseman: Lydia, a widow who has given up on love, is shocked when Daniel– a past love– returns to the Order, and her life.

“One Child” by Barbara Cameron: This snowy Lancaster Christmas Eve will see two couples’ lives changed by the birth of one child.

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After years of putting it off, I finally picked up some Amish fiction. I decided to start with this book – a collection of Amish romance writers that would expose me to a variety of authors in one location.

I understand that romance novels are formulaic – meet the heroine, meet the hero, keep them apart, bring them together. That makes the ending very predictable, but lots of things can happen in the middle. I expected these stories to end with the happily-ever-after, but found the rest of the story to also be very predictable. There was also a lot of detail, which I enjoy to some degree, but I ended up skimming a lot through “A Miracle for Miriam” and “A Choice to Forgive”.

I’m not sure how these compare to other Amish novels, but compared to my usual (contemporary humorous romance) they’re a little lackluster. If you enjoy a sweet romance with very little tension, these are the books for you.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through the Tom Nelson Booksneeze program.