Lydia was just five years old when a tragic accident killed her parents and seriously injured her and her two younger sisters. Extenuating circumstances resulted in the three sisters being adopted and raised by three different families; two were Amish and one was English. Lydia is an married woman with two children of her own when she finally learns of the existence of her two younger sisters. Determined to meet them and reconcile with them, Lydia soon realizes that her plan is fraught with problems. How at least two of the sisters resolve their differences makes for an interesting and enjoyable read. Endearing characters bring this well-written and imaginative tale to life. ( )

I am a HUGE fan of Marta Perry already, so when I got the chance to review this book for the ladies @ Book Binge, I was delighted. I have read many books by this author and am always pleased with her writing style and the fact that her characters always seem to draw you in like part of the family. Her stories are always so heartwarming, and have just the right amount of suspense to keep you engrossed.

Lydia's Hope is the first book in The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley series. It is the story of how one Amish woman's life is turned upside down after a secret is exposed, and the effects that this secret brings to her relationship with her husband, her family and even her community. It is about overcoming the shock of betrayal and finding the path back to redemption and understanding.

Lydia Beachy was involved in a tragic car accident when she was only five years old. This accident claimed the life of both her parents and robbed her of any memory of her life prior to it. She has been adopted and raised by her Aunt and Uncle, and it currently married to Adam and is raising a family of her own. One day her aunt accidentally mentions two sisters that Lydia has no idea of their existence. She is stunned by this discovery, and hurt that the entire Amish community could keep this knowledge from her. This is the tale her struggle to accept the idea of having siblings that she cannot remember, and of her quest to find them.

I totally enjoyed this book. I read it very quickly and can't wait to read the rest of the series. For inspirational Amish fiction, Marta Perry is a definite top pick. ( )

Through a relative's slip of the tongue, Lydia discovers that she has living sisters. After her family's accident in which her parents were killed, the three young sisters were split up, Lydia and her sister Susanna to Amish couples and her youngest sister Chloe to her English, non-Amish grandmother. Since the girls were so young at the time, none of them remembers their parents or early life.

At first supportive of her efforts to find out who and where her sisters are, Lydia's husband Adam becomes more wary as his wife isn't content just to get the basic facts about them. Susanna, left with a limp after the accident, has worked with her mother in an Amish gift shop for years before the mother got cancer. Since the woman is dying and Susanna is her sole relative, Lydia decides the time isn't right to contact Susanna and tell her that she has sisters.

Contacting and speaking to Chloe, the youngest sister, however, becomes Lydia's priority. But since Lydia doesn't have contacts in the English world, she persuades Seth - who once left the Amish community and has since returned - to track her sister down, much to her husband Adam's chagrin. Adam is feeling jealous because Seth was once one of Lydia's suitors and also because Adam can't help her locate her sister while Seth can.

When Lydia contacts Chloe, many roadblocks stand in the way of a happy reunion, many of them put in place by their English grandmother's prejudice against the Amish. The older woman, a scion of Philadelphia society, has decided that the Amish tricked her daughter into joining them and her daughter would be alive if she hadn't succumbed to their antiquated mode of living.

Read the rest of my review at All About Romance: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=9719 ( )