81. Christmas in Wisconsin. Linda Byler. 2025. 240 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, Christmas, Christian romance, Christian fiction]
First sentence: The onset of winter in Wisconsin came suddenly.
Amish fiction is not my typical read although I have read Amish stories here and there. This one has a modern-day Wisconsin setting, and it's a Christmas-ish setting as well. It tells a few (disjointed at least to me) stories. Lydia Beiler is a 'spinster' schoolteacher--Amish, of course--who has spent decades teaching and never had a romance of her own. Laura Slotzfus is a young Amish woman--a teenager--who is being courted. Lydia's suitor is the father of Laura's suitor. Neither romance is fleshed out. And I don't mean in a fleshy-worldly way. I mean in a fictional-literary-basics way. Characters need to actually be developed and stories need to be developed as well. Romance stories should feature romance. I'm not talking steamy romance. I'm talking scenes where the characters are together be that talking about the past, the present, the future OR talking about hopes and dreams and such OR just talking about the day, the weather, anything.
I wanted LYDIA to have a story beyond the guy that she had a crush on as a teenager coming back to the community with his grown son and him showing up with a basket of fruit and them becoming essentially engaged within thirty seconds. Her: I had a big crush on you as a teenager but you never noticed me. Him: I noticed you and wished I'd picked you instead of the woman I married. I ended up not liking her at all. Do you want me to marry me in three months?
The other romance was about the same except I'm not sure we actually spent much time with them. It was mostly HIM talking to his dad and others about how much he thought of Laura but she was barely eighteen and he didn't think she'd be interested in marrying him. And with Laura, well, we didn't even get to know Laura that much. I mean we read that she was confused why after sitting together at a wedding why he didn't show up ready to court her within a few days. But essentially no characterization there.
More time is spent on Laura's parents--Amos and Mary--than on Lydia OR Laura.
I felt the first half had potential. I felt it was going somewhere probably. The second half was just ALL telling and no showing. There was no relationship development, no character development, no plot. And the last chapter was the worst type of ending to a book where the author dumped forty-million bows onto the story. In other words, it wasn't just one story wrapped up with a pretty little bow. It was let's give happy endings to every character for several generations and all the side characters that were mentioned too.
All this being said, I think for readers who LOVE and adore Amish fiction, this one might work. I mean the author has a LOT of Amish novels fiction published and they obviously have an audience. I am positive that there are readers out there who do enjoy this type of read. I'm just not the target audience.
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