The Rose Trilogy by Beverly Lewis - Review of The Thorn, The Judgment and The Mercy

The Rose Trilogy

series by

Beverly Lewis

                                      The Thorn The JudgmentThe Mercy

I thought I'd do this review a little different, I was given The Mercy by Bethany House to give an honest review. Since it was that last book in the series, I didn't think I could do it justice unless I read the whole series so I purchased The Thorn for my Kindle and borrowed The Judgment from the public library for my Kindle. I read all three books in order and was really glad I did. Beverly has tied these three books together so well that you would miss out on so much if you don't read them all, in order. That is my opinion anyway.

Rose joined the church at a very early age even for an Amish girl, but her sister Hen (Hannah) or her best friend Nick did not. Nick is a foster son of their Bishop who is also a close family friend and neighbor. Hen married an Englischer and has one child Mattie Sue by the time she starts wanting her Plain life back, so she returns to her parents home with Mattie Sue and lives in the dawdi house. This is very upsetting to her parents because, even though her husband isn't Amish, they don't believe in divorce. Nick has never fit in with the Amish so they are all leery of him except Rose, she knows a different, much kinder Nick than the rest of the community knows.

Rose's mother Emma paralyzed from the waste down and in extreme pain most of the time due to an accident when Rose was very young and she blames herself because she didn't go with her. Pain medication disagrees with Emma, it makes her extremely ill so she goes without and suffers dearly for it. When Rose starts working for a neighbor, an Englischer, one morning a week, she discovers his secret, he has a daughter, Beth. Beth's grandfather gets ill so her father takes her to Rose's home to see if her family will care for her until he can return. Beth is the best thing to happen to Emma in a long time.

Nick and his foster brother Christian have never gotten along, it appears to me that he is jealous of Nick for some reason. The two guys go riding one day and Nick brings Christian back laying in front of him on his horse leading Christian's horse. No one believes his story about how Christian got hurt, and since he is dead, Nick leaves, going back to Philly to see if he can find his alcoholic Mother.

Rose misses Nick terribly and doesn't know what to believe, right around the time he left she becomes engaged to Silas, who is in love with someone else. Rose's dad later tells her about the talk he had with Silas's Dad, now she really thinks Silas is only marrying her to gain the family farm. She releases him from the engagement and moves on with her life. She later meets Isaac through her brother. Isaac doesn't follow the old Ordnung the way Rose does, but she continues seeing him anyway.

There is a lot more I could say, but I'm always afraid I'll give too much away. I recommend this series to anyone that likes Amish novels. Bethany House did not require that I give a positive review, just an honest review of the book.