This Christmas, experience learning to trust alongside the Plain folk of Apple Ridge, Pennsylvania in this heart-warming tale of second chances.
Sadie enjoys her freedom away from home and her mission trips to Peru, but after four years, her Old Order Amish family insists it’s time to come home and settle down. Levi, a bachelor who distrusts women after a family heartbreak, also has no desire for romance. To keep their families from meddling in their lives, Sadie and Levi devise a plan—but soon discover that the walls around their hearts are breaking down. Can they let go of their prejudices, learn to trust each other, and embrace a future together?
The Dawn of Christmas by Cindy Woodsmall is a sweet and enjoyable holiday read that really spoke to the importance of family and trust, especially during the Christmas season. This novel follows in the wake of the author's first two Christmas novels, The Sound of Sleighbells and The Christmas Singing, and includes many of the characters first seen in these books. The plot of The Dawn of Christmas was interesting and believable and contained important themes such as trusting one another, letting go of prejudices, and discerning if you are following God's will or your own plans. The storyline was smooth and well written and included entertaining and witty dialogue between the characters. The narration of the novel was third person, but the perspective of the chapters alternated between Sadie, Levi, and Beth (the main character from The Sound of Sleighbells).
The characters of The Dawn of Christmas were realistic and well-developed. Sadie and Levi both had flaws, such as a reluctance to trust God and one another and stubborn pride. Sadie is strong willed and stubborn and convinced that God's will is for her to forgo a relationship and to pursue mission work abroad. Levi has been hurt through seeing the relationships of those close to him fall apart. However despite these trials and flaws, they begin to trust God and one another as they learn more about one another and to understand what God has for them. Jonah and Beth, the characters of The Sound of Sleighbells, also had a prominent spot in this novel, and it was neat to see how they had grown and changed over the course of the different novels.
Overall, I found this novel to be a sweet and enjoyable read, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a short novel to read for this holiday season.
I received this novel for free from Waterbrook Multnomah Press in exchange for an honest review.
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