Though Mountains Fall by Dale Cramer - Review of the third book in The Daughters of Caleb Bender series

There is much turmoil as time progresses for the Bender family and other Amish families that are living in Mexico. The bandits have chosen a time to attack the Amish and just as the last of them are entering the safety of Hacienda El Prado the federales finally show up to protect them also. Once the bandits are captured and/or killed everyone returns home. A Bishop finally arrives so people can be baptized  and married, things are looking up.

After some time they find that the federales are just as bad, if not worse, than having bandits in the area. Now there is nothing they can do but give up their horses, food, hay, etc for little or no money or it will be taken from them anyway. Men get drunk, women are raped and men are beat up, all of this is after the fedearales arrive, things aren't going as well as they should be with the Bishop among them and officers of the law to protect them.

What will they do? They have lost family members in this land and if they return to America they'll never be able to visit their graves again. No one is buying land in Mexico, so the will all return broke if they decide to go. If you had to choose to leave loved ones behind and a beautiful land that has produced well for you or stay and feel like you were getting robbed by the government what would you do?

I felt that this book held my attention even more than the first two in the series and since I read before going to sleep, I found myself dreaming about things that were happening in this chapter of the Bender family's life. I definitely recommend this series, it's not your run of the mill Amish storyline.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the NetGalley book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Thank you to Bethany House for providing this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

The Captive Heart by Dale Cramer - Review of the second book in The Daughters of Caleb Bender series

The second year in Mexico isn't going so good for the Bender family or the other Amish that have moved to Paradise Valley. El Pantera and his bandits are more of a threat since Pancho Villa is no longer alive. Even with the newest Amish arriving there is still no Bishop, no leader for them to make necessary decisions.

Miriam is getting older and finds herself falling in love with Domingo, which gives her no future since he is Mexican not Amish. Because of her age she agrees to marry Micah Shrock. When diptheria hits their community, Aaron Bender takes his sisters to the nearest doctor seeking treatment. Another doctor is sent for to treat the community to save as many lives as possible. On their way home they are attacked by El Pantera and his bandits. Two of them get away, one is kidnapped and one is killed.

This is a pretty fast paced storyline for an Amish story and keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you find your family and friends dying from disease and being kidnapped and killed do you think you would stay or return to your home country? You'll have to read the book to see what the Benders and other Amish decide to do. Myself, I don't think I would want to stay there.

I found this book better than the first and am looking forward to the third one, which I'm already over half done with. So don't cheat and wait for my review to see what they decide to do, read these first two books before you read that last review, PLEASE!

JELLYBEANS MORNING, NOON & NIGHT by Maggie Pajak - Review

A story about 2 little boys who loved jellybeans more than anything and wanted to eat them morning, noon and night, but of course Mom always said no. They come up with a plan to get their way, you'll have to read to see if the plan worked.

This is a cute book with bright colors and at the same time, as you are reading the story, you get to hunt for the "good eggs" throughout the book. A great way to read your child or grandchild to sleep, they will be dreaming about what else, jellybeans of course!

After seeing the cover and reading about the book on a blog, I knew I had to try to win it for my grandson, I was not disappointed and he will be so tickled with it when he gets it in the mail from Grandma!

Paradise Valley by Dale Cramer - Review of the first book in The Daughters of Caleb Bender series

Five Amish fathers arrested and thrown in jail, brought before a judge and charged with neglecting the welfare of their children and contributing to the delinquency of a minor all because they kept their children home from the consolidated school. The men tried to convince the judge that they were giving the children an education by teaching them the ways of the farm and the ways of Gott, to read, write and figure so what more do they need since they grow up to be farmers and farmers' wives. The men refused to budge and were sentenced to sixty days in the county jail unless and until they each paid a fine of twenty dollars per child, plus expenses, AND submitted a signed statement agreeing to comply with the conditions of the Bing Act by seeing to it that their minor children attend public school five days a week from then on.

Three days later the sheriff made the rounds to the five homes again, this time to pick up all of the school age children and take them to the county children's home, because they had been neglected. They told the children they were going to clean them up, like they were dirty or something. The boys got haircuts and all of the children were given new clothes, now they looked like Englisch children instead of Amish.

When the father's heard about this, they paid their fines and agreed to send the children to public school, they didn't want their children to suffer. Father's and children were all returned to their homes. The children didn't like attending school any more than their Dad's wanted them to go there. No one was happy with the situation.

Caleb Bender found an advertisement for land in Mexico, Paradise Valley. After some research and talking among themselves it was decided that he and his family would move to Paradise Valley so they could raise their children the way they wanted. Once the Bender's were there they would keep in touch and other Amish would follow them.

There were problems and fears in Mexico, rattlesnakes, scorpions and the biggest fear, bandits. After hearing about some of the difficulties, some of the families backed out, but there were also some families from other Amish communities that decided to move to Paradise Valley.

If you think the Amish are hard workers in America, wait until you read about the work they did in Paradise Valley. Not only that, the obstacles and fears they now have, was it worth the move? You will read about the bandits and everything they do to the Benders, but Caleb still sticks to the Amish way, no violence, no guns to deal with them. How does that work out for them?

The Bing Act, the Ohio law that got the men in trouble, stipulates that all children shall attend public school five days a week from the age of six until eighteen with a possible exemption at sixteen, providing they obtain a valid work permit.

From the author's notes in the back of the book:
The author's great-grandfather was the elder statesman of the colony, his grandparents lived in Paradise Valley, and his father was born there. However written records are scant and few firsthand accounts have survived, so the author used the known history and geography of the colony to create a backdrop. But this is a work of fiction. While the historical context of the novel is fairly accurate, the characters and their stories are entirely the author's creation.

This is a very interesting story, one that I think other readers of Amish books will enjoy. I am on to the second book in the series, The Captive Heart and after that I've already got the third one, Though Mountains Fall.

Over the Edge by Mary Connealy - Review of the third book in The Kincaid Brides series

Since receiving the letter from Callie, his wife that he didn't remember having, Seth Kincaid or one of his brothers had been riding to meet every stagecoach coming to town because she hadn't put in the letter when she would arrive.

Little did he know that the 'man' fighting off robbers in an overturned stagecoach was his wife. When Callie saw Seth she wanted to kill him as much as she wanted to kill the robbers. After all he took off and left her without a word. Luckily some help came and they managed to fight off the thieves then Seth took Callie to the doctor as she had many wounds from fragments of the stagecoach. She was a fighter this one!

Once back in town Seth meets up with some of the other passengers and discovers Cassie has a baby boy, his baby boy, another thing he didn't remember. After Callie was treated by the doctor and rested overnight, Seth gets another surprise for himself, he discovers that he has a half-brother, and he is none to pleased about that. Cassie steps in and insists Heath go 'home' with them. Needless to say this is not a pleasant ride, a winter storm is about to hit, an injured wife who seems to despise him and an unwanted brother.

Things don't go any smoother once they reach the Kincaid property, they soon find that they are being watched and followed you might say by the thief that is looking for the diamonds that Julia's father, Audra's first husband, had stolen from him.

Why did Cassie look him up if she hated him so and why did Heath look the Kincaid brothers up if he wanted nothing to do with them? Was it just to cause turmoil for the Kincaids? What will happen when Jasper actually catches up with them?

Mary continues to keep the reader interested enough that it's almost impossible to put the book down. This was a very intriguing series and when she talks about the caves you almost feel like you are right down in there with the characters. If you are claustrophobic I would think you'd be having a hard time breathing, sometimes I was just about there.

A great series that I would highly recommend.

The Wings of Morning by Murray Pura - Review of the first book in the Snapshots of History series

The Whetstone and Kurtz families both joined the Amish about 10 years ago and during that time Jude Whetstone and and Lyyndaya Kurtz started falling in love. Jude also fell in love with aeroplanes and since they were new the church had not decided whether to ban the use of them so they allowed Jude to take flying lessons. He even gave every Amish member a ride that wanted one but when he took Lyyndaya up she asked him to do barrell rolls, dives and fly as fast as he could, she fell in love with flying too.

Lyyndaya's father forbid her to see Jude because he didn't approve of the flying and since they were new to the Amish he didn't want any problems if it was decided flying was not allowed. The young couple followed her father's rule and Jude casually saw Lyyndaya's best friend, but still truly loved his Lyyndy Lyyndy Lou from afar, and she loved him, but the words were never spoken to each other.

The Amish were exempt from serving in the Military but since some officers had seen how good Jude could fly they wanted him desperately. One day the army showed up and took several of the young men, including Jude, and told them they were being drafted because they had not been Amish long enough so the exemption didn't include them.

These young men were treated worse than the German prisoners of war, the longer they refused to enlist in the service the worse the treatment was. Jude couldn't take it any longer so he enlisted and the other boys were sent home barely alive. Lyyndaya was forbidden to write to him or to receive any letters from him. Any letters he sent had to be held at the post office and any sent to him were held there also. When he returned home they would each be given their rightful mail only if Jude would recant his enlistment.

While Jude was serving his time Lyyndaya turned to helping people with the Spanish Flu in Philadelphia on the weekends. When the flu hits her community she helps to nurse them including her own family. Once they were better she returned to Philadelphia to help, soon there were servicemen coming home and needed nursing and to her surprise Jude was one of them. She had thought he had died when his plane was shot down over France.

 Jude returned home accompanied by Lyyndaya. He was given two weeks to recant his enlistment or he would be placed under the ban. During that time things went back to the way they were before the war, all the while waiting for the dreadful day Jude would have to tell the church if he recanted his enlistment or not.

What will Jude do? Will he and Lyyndaya spend the rest of their lives together? Will the community ever forgive him?

This is the first book I've read by Murray and I will tell you that I really enjoyed this book, even though I did need a lot of tissues to get through it. I feel that anyone who can get this book in their hands will find it hard to put down, but be sure and have a lot of tissues handy. If you don't shed some tears I just don't know what to say. Wonderful job Murray!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the NetGalley <http://www.netgalley.com/> book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Courting Cate by Leslie Gould - Review of the first book in The Courtships of Lancaster County series

Cate Miller has raised her sister Betsy since she was very young, after the death of their mother and grandmother.Through the years Cate has become known for her sharp tongue and fiery temper. After all she was picked on all through her school years by Seth Martin and his twin brothers Martin and Mervin, or as she calls them M & M. When Cate and Seth got older he convinced Cate that he liked her and she agreed to court him, even accepted his proposal of marriage. That is until she found out he only wanted to marry her for her father's money, a well to do man in their community. After that she seemed to be even more bitter and had no desire to date, marry or have a family, she was resigned to become an old maid and start her own business.

Betsy on the other hand, was well liked, had lots of friends and considered by everyone as very pretty. There were a lot of boys wanting to court her, and she went through many. Betsy finally finds one, Levi, from a neighboring community that she wants to marry. There is one problem though, their father wants Cate to find someone to love and marry so she can have a family of her own first.

When Cate's father puts an edict into effect that Betsy can't court if Cate doesn't, and Cate must marry before Betsy can. This causes a lot of problems for the two girls. Pete Tregor, from New York, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania and happens to be a cousin of Nan, the lady who brings the bookmobile to town and knows Cate well, you see Cate spends any spare second she has reading. Pete becomes friends with Cate, Betsy, Levi and M & M. Soon Cate finds herself being more attracted to Pete and goes on some outings with him. The attraction ends when she overhears M & M talking about paying Pete to date her, so now she realizes that Pete only likes her for her father's money also

Knowing Cate will do anything for her, Betsy tells her that she may be pregnant and needs to marry quickly. Cate will not only do anything for Betsy she will do anything to protect her family, even protect them from shame, so she talks to Pete and he agrees to marry her. They get married within two weeks. Pete was late getting to the ceremony and as soon as the service was over he tells her that they have to leave for his home in New York immediately, they couldn't even stay for the usual wedding supper, and as she's coming downstairs with her bag to leave she sees M & M hand Pete an envelope, his pay off.

After hitch hiking in the rain and getting soaked they arrive at his parents house, if you can call it that, in the middle of the night. They go to his old room and when she hears someone pounding on the door she finds Pete gone and hears her new mother-in-law, who she's never met, yelling at her to get up it's getting late. After she eats her breakfast she's instructed what her chores are to be for the day.

Cate goes from what is one of the best Amish homes there are with running water, an indoor bathroom and plenty of room to a home that is no more than a cabin with no indoor plumbing and being treated like a slave. She knows she can never divorce but when she finds out that Pete's brother is married to the woman Pete loved and is the reason he left, what will she do? Will Cate give up and go back to Pennsylvania by herself, how long can she live like this? Why isn't she hearing anything about Betsy's wedding and when it is, why does it seem everything is against her when all she tried to do her whole life is help her dad by raising Betsy and helping him in his business?

Leslie does a wonderful job of telling Cate's story, I found myself feeling her pain and wanting to tell some people off, especially Betsy, being the ungrateful person she is, after the edict is put in effect. You have to get this book so you can read everything that was done to Cate and how strong a person she is. Such a giving person, she deserves more than what she's getting and needs someone to stand up for her instead of against her, which is how she feels.

Thank you to Bethany House for providing me this book to review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255