The Rescued: Keepers of the Promise, Book Two (Keepers of the Promise #2)

As an Amish wife and mother struggles to hold her family together, a story from the past teaches her how to face her daily challenges with strength and love . . .

In modern day central Pennsylvania, Judith Wegler tries to heal the growing rift between her husband, Isaac, and his teenage brother Joseph—whom Judith and Isaac have raised as their own ever since both brothers lost their parents and siblings in a horrific fire. Meanwhile, Isaac’s hurtful silence about this tragic past has robbed Judith of any certainty of her husband’s love.

But when Judith’s grandmother gifts her with an antique study table, she discovers a hidden packet of letters that changes her life . . .

In 1953, widow Mattie Lapp fights against the county’s attempts to force Amish children to attend a consolidated public school, even if it means arrest and imprisonment. Mattie knows she can’t face this challenge alone, and turns to her late husband’s cousin Adam for help, but she’s terrified at the prospect of relying on someone else.

Now, as the two women’s stories converge, both must learn to stand up for their beliefs and to love again, even when it means risking their hearts .


About The Author

Marta Perry realized she wanted to be a writer at age eight, when she read her first Nancy Drew novel. Most girls reached the end of that book wanting to be Nancy. Marta wanted to be the person who created the story.

The dream lay hidden for years while she pursued other career goals, but eventually it re-surfaced, and she began to write, beginning with short children’s stories for Sunday school take-home papers. After seeing hundreds of her short stories published in a variety of magazines, Marta finally started work on the novel she’d always wanted to write. Fifty-some published novels later, she still feels the same excitement when she begins a new book.

A lifetime spent in rural Pennsylvania and her own Pennsylvania Dutch roots led Marta to the books she writes now about the Amish. The Pleasant Valley Amish series from Berkley Books are longer, more complex emotional stories with Amish main characters, while the Amish Suspense series from HQN Books are more adventure-filled books set in Pennsylvania Amish country. She also continues to write for Love Inspired Books.

Marta lives with her husband in a century-old farmhouse in the Pennsylvania countryside, but spends winters at their vacation home in South Carolina. When she’s not writing, she’s active in the life of her church and enjoys traveling and spending time with her three children and six beautiful grandchildren.

http://www.martaperry.com/


My Review

This is the second book in the Keepers of the Promise series, and yes I loved the first book, but you can read this one by itself. We span decades while read this story, Amish in present day Lancaster Pennsylvania and the same place in 1953.
Life as usual does not run smoothly, but change is in the air in both time frames, and problems abound. The 1950’s were a time before Amish had their own schools, and are being threated when they have their children leave school after the eighth grade. We have people being put in jail for their beliefs; you get the feeling that it becomes a war of wills. Both stories deal with family life, and after tragedy moving on with their lives.
We see people holding on to forgiving themselves; we find melding of the past lives with the present in the form of letters found in a much loved and used table.
We find our present day family trying to find peace between two brothers and the rest of the family, mostly the wife/mother of the older one. Struggles to bend the will of the other and find peace in decisions made on the spur of the moment.
I loved the comparisons of the lives, so different and yet so similar, I got lost in this book, and when it ended I wanted to keep on reading.
I received this book from the Author and was not required to give a positive review.