A Dream of Home by Amy Clipston

Sometimes I enjoy a great Amish book.  I received the opportunity and copy of A Dream of Home by Amy Clipston by BooklookBloggers for my review.

I have to be honest, I haven't read any other books from this author before, and I didn't realize when I ordered this book for review that it was the 3rd book in The Hearts of the Lancaster Grand Hotel series.  However, I decided to just read it anyway and hope that their wasn't too much that didn't make sense from not reading the previous two books.

Madeleine's fiance's death changed everything for her.  Her life as a nurse, her life in the military no longer felt like the life she wanted, it didn't feel like home.
With her grandmother's passing, and then the inheritance of her home and property.  Madeleine felt she had nothing to lose by moving to Paradise, Pennsylvania and getting a job at the Lancaster Grand Hotel.

Respectful of her Amish neighbors Madeleine tried to keep her distance, and when in their presence respect their traditions and customs.  After all her grandparents were Amish and she visited them as a child, learned Dutch and while she visited she acted and dressed Amish so she was familiar in sorts with their lifestyle.
Having no desire to change too much of her grandparents home, she even decided to only make mild updates and keep the home electricity free.

Saul Beiler lost his wife years ago.  Not how most Amish loose a spouse, his wife fled the community and left her for another man.
He is lonely, but does the best he can to raise his only daughter.  He is also hard hearted and worries about influences that might disrupt his and his daughters life.  So he airs on the side of caution, which is why when his English neighbor moves in, he wants nothing to do with her.

But sometimes strange things can happen, and when you try to avoid someone sometimes that just invites you to run into them even more.  That is the case for Saul and Madeleine.
Their cultures are very different, so different that even a friendship seems out of the question for Saul.  However, his daughter feels otherwise and Saul finds his own heart softening.

I did enjoy the read, found it to be pretty fast and uplifting to spend a nice afternoon reading.  For the most part I enjoyed the story line and writing.  My only issue was sometimes I felt like the information given on the Amish was a bit of what I like to call"information dumping."  In other words at times (not often) but the author would add some Amish tradition into the story line and it was pretty obvious what was going on and why they were doing it, but sometimes the author would then go on to tell us (in the story) why that tradition or custom was done.
I personally just felt it wasn't really needed, I like to think that when a story is good enough there is no need to think the reader might not get it.
However, other than that little factor I really did enjoy this book.

A Dream of Home is a book of healing, love and understanding.  One that will invite you into the Amish culture and give you a peaceful uplifting read to enjoy!
Although it can be a stand alone, this really should be read with the rest of the series.  I absolutely never share an ending, but I will say the way this one is left, really makes it impossible not to want to read the next one A Simple Prayer which comes out in April 2015.
If you enjoy Christian Amish reads, then you will likely enjoy A Dream of Home.

You can read more about this book and others via Amy Clipston's website.  Or if you are looking to purchase, visit Amazon for details.