Recently, I finished reading Sisters by the Sea, a collection of four novellas each by a different author. While there are Amish characters, they seem to come from a less strict Amish upbringing than is generally presented in books or other media.
The Seashell Cake (3.5 Stars)
This story was cute. I liked our two main characters, Leora and John. Since this is mentioned early in the story, it’s not ruining the story to say that Leora moved to Florida because of her SAD. One of my biggest issues with her story is that I feel like everything concerned with her SAD is so black and white. It’s presented like if she lives in Indiana, she can’t survive with her SAD, but if she lives in Florida, it will never bother her again. Yet, there’s no way she can find a husband if she lives in Florida because no Amish man would want to live there full-time. Unfortunately, her SAD makes it so she’s depressed in the Midwest, so no man there would want to marry her if she lived in the Midwest. I felt like things were presented as though there was no middle ground.
Another issue was that there were places where I felt like there were too many details. For example, when Leora’s shopping, the author tells us every item that Leora’s buying. Especially in a novella, this just slows down the momentum of the story. The dialogue could also use some work. In places, it felt really choppy and/or like the author was using the dialogue to explain something that should have been explained in other ways.
This is a sweet story, and I did enjoy reading it. There’s no bad language, sexual content, or violence. Our two main characters do kiss a few times, but that’s not even described in detail.
The Beach Ball (2.5 Stars)
This one is Violet’s story. She’s Leora’s youngest sister. Much like the first novella, there were a lot of conversations that felt off, as though the writer wanted us to know information about the characters or their community, but she wasn’t sure how else to give us this information.
Even with the odd dialogue, this could have been at least a 3-star book. The biggest issue was that I didn’t like either one of the guys that Violet was dating. The one was selfish, conceited, and pushy. He tried to force Violet into a relationship with him. The other was really childish. Yes, I realize that they are all in their late teens or early-20s, but even then, he seemed very childish. Instead of saving Violet from the guy who’s trying to force her into a relationship, he gets jealous of the guy. I feel like he really liked Violet, he would have stood up for her.
I felt like this could have been a cute story, but none of the characters were all that likable. While this was a clean story, I’d probably skip over it if I read the collection again.
Fragments of a Sand Dollar (4.5 Stars)
This was my favorite story in the collection. The characters felt more authentic than they did in the other stories. This story has more of a Christian element than the previous two stories, including elements about repentance, forgiveness, being a Christlike example, and realizing that you can care about someone even if that person isn’t living the way that you feel like they should live.
This story starts just after Francine’s boyfriend, Matthew has announced he’s leaving the Amish faith. He wants to preach Christianity full-time. Because he’s leaving the faith, they break up. Francine is devastated and decides to visit her sister, Leora in Florida.
This story has characters who are drinking alcohol and gambling. While the story was clean, these elements made it feel a bit rougher than the other stories in the collection. Still, it’s the one that I’d recommend.
A Sarasota Sunset (3.5 Stars)
This one is the final sister’s story. Alana comes down to Florida to visit Leora after a difficult break-up. Yes, that’s two sisters who break up with their boyfriends and then visit Leora. Alana’s boyfriend, though, is verbally abusive (and likely abusive in other ways), so as a reader, you’re happy that they broke up.
This was my second favorite story in the collection. It’s so close to being 4 stars, and on its own, I probably would have rounded up.
My biggest issue with this story was the dialogue. As was the case with the first two stories, the dialogue felt like it was being used to tell us information that we really should have gotten in other parts of the story.
James, the guy Alana meets in Florida, is a really authentic character. For a while, I wasn’t sure if I liked him. I think he’s a good guy in the end, but he does have some issues early on. Ultimately, he is really understanding toward Alana, so I’ll give him a pass on some of his earlier behavior.
This story, like the others, is clean. It does deal with some serious issues, such as romantic partner verbal abuse, anxiety, prejudices, and forgiveness.
Final Feelings on These Amish Novellas
As I said earlier, these are not your typical Amish stories. In most of the stories, many of the characters could have been from another highly religious community. If you like Christian romances, you’ll likely enjoy this collection if you can get past the odd dialogue. Overall, I’d recommend this collection.
