Customer Reviews

A Gift of Grace: A Novel (Kauffman Amish Bakery Series)

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Rebecca is an Amish wife who's been told she cannot have children. When her sister Grace dies, she leaves Rebecca her two teenage girls giving her the chance to finally be a mother. It sounded intriguing to me and rightfully so. The book had a lot of potential, a great plot and characters, just poor execution in my opinion. The entire first half was great, Clipston developed not only each character fully but also developed the relationships between the characters. She posed realistic conflicts between the "English" girls and the Amish community and made you sympethic to both sides.

One of the biggest conflicts throughout the book is between Jessica (the oldest daughter) and Rebecca's husband Daniel. Jessica is set on not conforming to Amish culture, and Daniel is trying to following the rules of his religion and expects anyone living under his own roof to do the same. Try telling a 16-year old girl that she can't use her IPOD and that instead of shorts and a tank stop she has to wear a full length frock. Anyone can see a conflict, but the conflict that had me the most intrigued was actually the one between husband and wife. Rebecca finally stood up to Daniel when he told her the girls should leave, and it almost tore her marriage apart. And the book goes on with each side holding their own views and not budging.

So up until there the book was exciting and enjoyable. My problem with the book came in the final few chapters Clipston resolved, or didn't resolve the conflict. You think the author is going to work out some type of compromise between characters as a resolution, but she doesn't. Rebecca has to give in and Jessica and Daniel both get their ways. I feel like the author takes the easy way out alongside her characters by not developing a better resolution. I felt like she built up this great conflict and then got tired of it so she just decided to let everyone have their own way. So a book with a lot of promise never reached its potential only because of the ending. I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book and would still recommend it to anyone that enjoys fiction dealing with family relationships, Amish, and/or motherhood.

I think that Amy Clipston has captured the struggles of the Amish verses the English lifestyle perfectly. How do you go from having all the luxuries of the modern world and go to living in the past? You get to see the struggles from both sides as Rebecca tries to welcome her nieces, who don't even know her, into her life and treat them as if they were her own. I only hope that the next book continues where this one left off. There are many things that I wish to have answered and can hardly wait for the next book. I just wish authors could write as fast as I can read.

I live in Wichita, Kansas and our state fair is held each year in Hutchinson, Kansas. To visit the fair we travel through the town of Yoder, Kansas. I've looked at the Amish houses, bought their bread and wondered about their lives. What interests me in their lives is how the reconcile themselves with the modern world. This book is an insightful and very easy to read look at their lives. I truly enjoyed the look into their lives and find that I have a new appreciation for their desire for simplicity in life. As the mother of a 17 year old girl, I found myself relating to the dilemma that Grace's daughters found themselves in. The author did a fantastic job describing the characters reactions and emotions.

I eagerly await the publication of your next book. The book is making it's way around my family and I know my 95 year old grandmother will even enjoy reading it. In reading the book you learn about some Amish recipes. It is wonderful that the author has included some of them. I haven't tried the recipes yet but I certainly plan too!
Outstanding book!

I was interested in the premise: adding two teenage girls, raised Christian but had never been to an Amish community, to an Amish household. The results were disappointing in every way. Both girls were suffering from the death of their parents and the shock of moving to an Amish farm to live with their aunt. The younger girl fell into the many rules and traditions so easily that it couldn't be believed. The older girl, understandably upset and confused, made some awfully stupid errors, so that I felt like yelling at her at times. Still, she was in shock, in grief, and mostly confusion: the rules were poorly and incompletely explained to her, although she was repremanded repeatedly for not following them. How could she be expected to follow rules she didn't know exsisted? No one told her that it wasn't acceptable for her to go off with a young man even in an innocent situation, so why was she in trouble for going to lunch with her new Mennonite co-worker, or going with her male cousin to see the new kittens? And why didn't these young men explain that everything was innocent? In fact, since they must have known it was innappropriate, why did they invite her to go? It is bizarre to me that the boys weren't reprimanded, when they knew the rules, and should have shown her the correct way to behave, yet the story never even mentioned that idea. Why was she condemned for wearing inappropriate clothes when no one explained to her exactly what appropriate clothing was? What upset me the most was the judging and criticism by the Amish community. She wasn't there very long when they'd decided she was a bad influence that would corrupt their community and should leave! Frankly, I was shocked at the pettiness and lack of compassion in the Amish community depicted here. I got very tired of the Amish characters repeating that the girls needed to show respect for the Amish ways, without 1)explaining clearly what their ways were, and 2) without showing any respect for the ways the girls had been brought up. If I have a mistaken impression of the pettiness and eagerness to assume the worst about someone that runs rampant through this Amish community, then the author is at fault. She portrayed most of the Amish as being critical and quick to assume the worst.

I haven't even addressed the hyprocisy of the use of kerosene and batteries and generators for the furniture making, all okay, but no electricity. The result was a barn burned, and a man killed. Seriously, if the author wants Englishers to look upon the Amish with any respect, she needs to write her story differently.

Couldn't force myself to finish it. Got maybe 25% thru and had to quit. The language is boring and stilted and I just couldn't take the word "snatched" one more time! I was trying to edit it in my head. Also, the husband is passive-agressive and the aunt is just wishy-washy. Maybe it got better, but I don't have time to wait.

I am split on how I feel about Amish books. On one hand, I feel like they are comfort reading. I enjoy reading about the Amish lifestyle and how they live their life in simplicity. I also adore reading about their food, I get stuffed just by reading one book. On the other hand, sometimes I disagree with their spiritual beliefs and also that the author seems to be very one sided in presenting the lifestyle. I have heard that some books have totally fabricated or over exaggerated events to make the books appeal more to readers. With this book, I honestly wanted to really enjoy it. The beginning of the book totally captivated me. There's a bakery (food!), an interesting situation (normal teen girls forced to live in Amish house), and then the fact that the girls were from Virginia Beach (my hometown area). The writing is very engaging and it moves really fast. You get sucked into the story as you want to find out what happens to the girls and their new lifestyle.

However there were many problems though I had while reading it. Enough, that I almost gave up reading the book in frustration. The main one was the fact that Rebecca would not let Jessica and Lindsay go to school because they are too old according to the Amish. What bugs me about this is why she didn't' tell them this BEFORE they got back to Pennsylvania? It was said she spent a month with them before traveling back and even then she was hoping it wouldn't come up until later. Also her husband and her had agreed that the girls did not have to become Amish so I don't' understand why they couldn't have let them just go to school. This is especially because Jessica wants to go, and her mother had emphasized that going to college was always important. This really annoyed me because people should NOT be denied an education when they want it. How would they have felt if the situation had been reversed and Amish kids were forced to live in modern world and do things they didn't want just because they now lived in a new household? Also, Daniel really got on my nerves with his flip-floppy behavior. On one hand he's annoyed with Jessica because she won't adapt to the Amish lifestyle and stop being worldly and corrupting his family thus making him look bad. However he won't talk to her and won't tell her exactly what he wants. I cannot see how he can blame her for doing something wrong when she didn't know she wasn't supposed to! Then he's irritated with Lindsay because she DOES want to fit in with the Amish and learn their way of life. He thinks it's just a phase and refuses to encourage her in anything she does. Personally he just seems like he's not ready to be a father to teenagers because he doesn't have a clue of how to handle them at all. There were also issues I had with the Amish community itself. However the author did add a note in the beginning saying that she had changed some of the traditions to fit the storyline.

I know it sounds as if I really had problems with this book. I'm not bashing it all. I just had problems with the way some issues were handled because I felt they were handled wrongly. Sometimes I feel that certain books seem to be pushing a certain lifestyle and try to make the reader feel guilty for not living that way. I sort of got that feeling with this book. This probably was because it seemed that everyone was against Jessica for wanting to not change to the Amish lifestyle and I totally agreed with her. I did enjoy reading about the bakery so I'm looking forward to reading more about it in the future. Also I LOVED the recipes sprinkled throughout as some of them seemed very easy to make. I just hope for the next book that these issues have been resolved. While this book may not have been for me, if you are a fan of the Amish lifestyle you will enjoy this book.

I'm not a big fan of light-weight Christian novels, but when my sister gave this book to me for Christmas this year, I decided to give it a fair chance. I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised, but unfortunately it was worse than I could have expected. I'm halfway through the book now, and I've had to force myself to keep reading. The style of writing is that of an inexperienced novice. The writing is stilted, and the plot is very contrived. I don't think I can bear to read the following words and phrases one more time: came schlepping in, looped his arm around her shoulder, sidled up next to her, gasped, padded across the room, wrenched, snatched. Those words and phrases are used over and over again throughout this book. Often their use is inappropriate to the circumstance being described. And then there are the phrases: his orbs searched hers, and his eyebrows careened to his hairline (a phrase used at least twice in the first half of the book). Who uses descriptions like that in real life or in good writing?? I can't understand how a book of this caliber ends up being published. I may force myself to finish it so that I can tell my sister that I read it, but I'm torn about doing that when I could be using that time to read something truly worth taking the time to read.

I applaud the author's efforts to try using different verbs in place of the usual, but she completely missed the mark (and repeated it over and over and over). People walk; they do not pad. People pick things up; they do not snatch (unless they're a toddler). People walk up next to others; they do not sidle (unless they're a cowboy). The use of those words evoked images I don't think the author truly intended. By the time I got to the end of the book, my eyes rolled every time I saw one of those three words. I mentally edited the book throughout.

The premise for the book was interesting and I really wanted to like it. It simply was not believable and the writing was not polished enough.

I give the 2 stars for perhaps being quick moving. Actually it's too quick. I didn't think the characters were developed enough for me to care about them. I don't know why I read a whole book about the clash of cultures, and that is exactly what this book is about....snore!!
A smattering of some interesting recipes may be the only plus I can find. The use of dutch/German words and phrases were used without and I found it annoying...yeah we get it they are Amish. If I see the words "prayer Kapp" used ever again it'll be too soon.
I don't think I'll be continuing with this series at all. Borrow the book before you plunk down your cash or plastic.

I was so disappointed in this book that I deleted it from my Kindle. I generally stay away from series, but I like Diana Gabaldon (except for the latest) and thought the subjet matter was inteesting. Big mistake. It is simplistic in the extreme. The writing style is that of a not-too-talented 12-year-old. Dialogue is forced and stilted (not stilted in the way of Amish colloquialisms--stilted in the way of a very poor writer). The characters are stereotypes and every page is predictable. The book did one good thing for me. I know never to read anything else by this author and to stay far away from series novels in the future.