Paradise Valley (The Daughters of Caleb Bender Book #1)

Dale Cramer

Jan 2011 · The Daughters of Caleb Bender Book 1 · Bethany House

About this ebook

An Amish settlement in Ohio has run afoul of a law requiring their children to attend public school. Caleb Bender and his neighbors are arrested for neglect, with the state ordering the children be placed in an institution. Among them are Caleb's teenage daughter, Rachel, and the boy she has her eye on, Jake Weaver. Romance blooms between the two when Rachel helps Jake escape the children's home.

Searching for a place to relocate his family where no such laws apply, Caleb learns there's inexpensive land for sale in Mexico, a place called Paradise Valley. Despite rumors of instability in the wake of the Mexican revolution, the Amish community decides this is their answer. And since it was Caleb's idea, he and his family will be the pioneers. They will send for the others once he's established a foothold and assessed the situation.

Caleb's daughters are thrown into turmoil. Rachel doesn't want to leave Jake. Her sister, Emma, who has been courting Levi Mullet, fears her dreams of marriage will be dashed. Miriam has never had a beau and is acutely aware there will be no prospects in Mexico.

Once there, they meet Domingo, a young man and guide who takes a liking to Miriam, something her father would never approve. While Paradise Valley is everything they'd hoped it would be, it isn't long before the bandits start giving them trouble, threatening to upset the fledgling Amish settlement, even putting their lives in danger. Thankfully no one has been harmed so far, anyway.

Ratings and reviews

An Amish family forced to make a decision they don't want, choose to start a new life in Mexico. Through many trials and with help from friends and their love for each other and God, they make a new life.

I loved the story line. It was very exciting reading about this family. I wished that the story went on to tell whether Miriam and Domingo got together and Jake and Rachel. Very exciting the things that they did to make a new homestead for their beliefs. God is so good, He is everywhere, even in Mexico where they moved to.

A family moves from Ohio to paradise valley in Mexico to follow their religous convictions. I am reminded of all the ways I fail in my walk to experience grace from our Lord and Savior

About the author

Dale Cramer, bestselling author of the critically acclaimed novel Levi's Will, was the second of four children born to a runaway Amishman and a sharecropper's daughter. True to his Amish ancestry, he skipped college and became an electrician, yet the thought was never far from his mind that someday he would like to write. Dale lives in McDonough, Georgia, with his family.