I believe this is the second novel I've read by Patricia Davids. Both happen to be Christmas books in her Brides of Amish Country series. I enjoyed it very much.
Gabriel "Booker" Troyer grew up Amish, but, he was almost always a little restless. So when the love of his life, Rebecca Beachy, turns down his marriage proposal, off he goes. Because he was baptized into the faith, or, into the community, he is to be shunned now. This bothers him more than he'd like to admit, I believe. When readers meet him, we learn he's a pilot with a small business. In the opening scenes, readers witness a sick (and probably contagious) Booker watch television. He just happens to see a clip on the local news about the Amish community, about a fund raiser, an auction with quilts. They are raising funds for a blind woman, Rebecca Beachy. She's contributing at least one of the quilts that are being auctioned, I believe. Booker is shocked and determined. Shocked because he had no clue that his former lover had turned blind. Determined to go there, to buy her quilt no matter what, to contribute what money he can to pay for the surgery that could restore her sight. Equally determined it turns out to NOT reveal his identity.
Rebecca Beachy has accepted her blindness. It was an accident pure and simple that caused the blindness. A snowball with the needle of a pine tree hidden inside. No one knew it was there, of course, no one thought an innocent snowball fight would end up with her getting hit in the eye, and her eye being cut. She learned soon after that an infection-leading-to-disease would take away her sight completely in a few years. She did NOT tell the man she was courting the news. That man, of course, was Gabriel. She's graceful and grateful. Perhaps a tiny bit too good to be true, but, then there are occasions where she's fiery and fierce.
So. The two reconnect. As Booker and Rebecca at the auction. He gets snowed in by bad weather and the two see each other a few times over the course of a few days. The connection is there or still there. Their time together as awkward and as forbidden as it is special to them both.
Will Gideon decide to return to the Amish in repentance? Will he be reunited with his family? Will he reconnect with Rebecca as Gideon? Do they have a future together? And will enough money be raised to pay for Rebecca's eye surgery? Will she regain her sight?
I liked this one very much. There was so much to enjoy!
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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