Pleasant Valley Series Books 1-3 -Review

This series is about to become a 6 book series(#6 releases in May), but so far I have only been able to read books 1-3 so those will be the three that I am reviewing and the three pictures here.  The books are all by Marta Perry and the titles are:

1: Leah's Choice

2:  Rachel's Garden

3:  Anna's Return

I enjoyed this series and would definitely recommend them.  I am now going to be searching for books 4 and 5 to read and waiting for book 6 to come out so I may finish reading the series.  I find the characters draw your attention and demand that you don't leave them.  Marta Perry has done an excellent job weaving their lives so that you want to continue reading more and the end of one book leaves you searching for the next!

Book Descriptions from CBD. 

Leah's Choice:  Amish schoolteacher Leah Beiler is content nurturing her young "scholars" and helping out on her large family's Pennsylvania farm in Pleasant Valley. She has long since recovered from the defection of her former fianci Johnny Kile, who left the Amish community several years ago. But now Johnny has returned. Working at a local medical clinic on research into inherited diseases common among the Amish, he asks for Leah's help in circumventing his "shunned" status and reuniting him with his family, in particular with his twin, Rachel, who is also Leah's best friend. Johnny also encourages Leah to help out at the clinic, working as a liaison with the Amish community. Is Johnny secretly hoping to convince Leah to leave the community and join him in an "English" life together?

Rachel's Garden:  It has been almost a year since the Amish community of Pleasant Valley lost Ezra Brand to a tragic accident. Since then, his wife Rachel has struggled to raise their three children and run their dairy farm. Rachel has always believed that nothing happens without God's will, but in these tough times, she's finding it a challenge to discern His plan for her life. Rachel's friends and family have come forward to help-Rachel's friend Leah, who is now married and expecting a child; Ezra's brothers, who work on the farm; and Rachel's parents, who are no strangers to griefafter their only son, Johnny, left the Amish community. But all of their well-intentioned constant advice puts undue pressure on Rachel. When Gideon Zook, Ezra's best friend who survived the accident, asks her permission to build the greenhouse that Ezra had always promised her, she finds his presence too painful a reminder of the past.

Anna's Return:  When Anna Beiler returns to the Pleasant Valley Amish after three years in the English world, she doesn't come alone-she comes with a baby daughter. Despite people's assumption, the child is not Anna's biological child but was adopted by her after the real mother, Anna's friend, tragically died. So Anna returns not seeking the redemption her family assumes. Instead, she's hoping to hide herself among the Plain People from the baby's violent father until she feels it's safe to go back into the world again. She tells herself she can do anything to protect her baby, even lie to the people who love her most. So she moves in with her brother Joseph and his wife Myra. She reconnects with her father, sister Leah, and Leah's new family. And she begins to spend time with Joseph's partner in his machine shop, Samuel, whose steady patience and thoughtful responses, which made him seem "slow" when they were children, now suggest to her a deeper understanding that sometimes infuriates her and more often makes her feel safe.

Returning isn't as easy as Anna had hoped, because it forces her to face the consequences of her own irresponsible behavior that led her to leave in the first place, and the pain she caused those she left behind. True redemption, she finds, is not a simple matter of pretend humility, but a deep change of the heart that means she will never be the same again. She learns, too, that redemption comes with a renewed love and appreciation for all the people in her life, the tightly bonded community that will always nuture and protect her.

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