Hannah's Joy by Marta Perry

Unexpected tragedy has left Hannah without her soldier husband and a home for her baby son, Jamie. Seeking refuge, she comes to live with her aunt in Pleasant Valley, a place she hasn’t seen since childhood, when her parents left the Mennonite faith. Working in her aunt’s bakery is a way for Hannah to get back on her feet, but she isn’t sure if she can live by tradition—or if she and Jamie should stay for good. She finds an unexpected, sympathetic listener in furniture maker William Brand. His stutter makes him feel like a permanent outsider in his Amish community, and he understands her loneliness.

Hannah is irresistibly drawn to the shy, caring William, and her education in speech therapy makes it natural for her to want to help him speak more easily. But how can she encourage his attention when she might someday leave Pleasant Valley, and when her father-in-law, a military officer, is scheming to take Jamie away from her? As William seeks the courage to stand up for the woman who believes in him, Hannah must decide where her true home lies—in the free, ever-changing world she knows, or in the simpler, loving community she’s found…

I am so honored to announce that I got Marta Perry's  Book Number Six in the Pleasant Valley Series to review from the publisher.

Amish book lovers...you are ferhoodled if you don't go out and pick-up a copy of Hannah's Joy RIGHT NOW!

My Review:

This book starts with a tragedy which right away sets you up to wonder how Hannah is going to make it as a new widow with her small son, Jamie. Hannah was never baptized into the Amish community and now finds herself as a transplant from the English community. I really loved the fact that she was a fledgling speech therapist who had to move back to her family home in an Amish community. She meets William, a shy Amish man, who has a speech impediment and they grow close as she helps him overcome his stuttering.  The two of them connect quickly as a result of feeling lonely in the community. To complicate matters, her former father-in-law is making threats to take away her son; thinking the Amish are a bunch of crazy people. Throughout most of the book, Hannah struggles to figure out what she wants to do with her life.

I love Amish fiction and I have to tell you that I couldn't put this book down by Marta Perry until I finished the last word.

In fact, I loved this book so much that I'm sorry to tell all of you Amish reading fans out there that there will NOT be a giveaway because it is staying on my book shelf for me to keep and reread; that's how good it is!

5 out of 5 Stars!

Be sure to look for book number Seven Naomi's Christmas, later this year!!

Berkley kindly provided a review copy of her book for this review

Biography of Marta Perry

I realized I wanted to be a writer at age eight, when I read my first Nancy Drew novel, The Secret of the Old Clock.  Most little girls reach the end of that book wanting to be Nancy. I wanted to be the person who created the story!

The dream lay hidden for years while I became a teacher, married, had children...all the usual things. But eventually it re-surfaced, and I began to write, beginning with short children's stories for Sunday school take-home papers. It seemed a long time until that first acceptance, but eventually I began to sell. After some three hundred published short stories, I finally found the courage to work on the novel I'd always wanted to write.

Thirty-some published novels later I still feel the same excitement every time I begin a new book--a mix of not believing I can do it combined with an overwhelming urge to see the story on the page.

A lifetime spent in rural Pennsylvania and my own Pennsylvania Dutch roots eventually led me to the books I'm writing now about the Amish. The Pleasant Valley Amish series from Berkley Books are longer, more complex emotional stories with Amish main characters, while my forthcoming HQN suspense novels are more adventure-filled books set in Pennsylvania Dutch country.  I'm also writing a Love Inspired series, The Bodine Family, set in the South Carolina coast where we have a second home.

When I'm not writing, I'm busy with church activities, traveling, and spending time with my three children and six beautiful grandchildren.