Kimberly T. (HeartsongChica) reviewed on 6/5/2012

Helpful Score: 2

The Christmas Quilt is the 5th story in Patricia's Brides of Amish Country series. I've been blind all my life, so books with blind characters are always interesting reading. They're either done well and it's obvious the author has spoken with a real blind person(s), or not so well. This book falls somewhere in the middle. There were things concerning Rebecca's blindness that were spot on, and some things that just made me cringe. Unfortunately, the attitudes of pity or blind-people-are-ruined BS expressed by many Hope Springs residents are all too true to life. Blindness itself isn't so much a handicap once adjustments have been made; it's dealing with others' attitudes toward blindness that is the thing that holds us back.

I couldn't really get myself to like or care for Rebecca or Gideon/Booker. Rebecca thought her blindness was a punishment from God, when it was an accident. She defined herself by her blindness, when really she was so much more as a person, a lovely woman, a talented quilter, etc. She was one-dimensional to me. I wanted to smack Booker/Gideon for not revealing that he was the same person to Rebecca as soon as he returned to the Amish. That was just using her disability against her, totally unfair, and not something a person who claims to love another ought to do.

If you like Amish stories and don't get hung up on the blindness aspects like I do, this was a quick story to read.

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