We don't fight, we all play nice - living in an Amish paradise...
An Amish romance/Christian Fiction series by Beverly Lewis, following young Leah Ebersol and her teenage sisters as they grow up, fall in love, get married (or not), and all the complications thereof.
In Gobbler's Knob, Pennsylvania, sisters Leah and Sadie Ebersol are enjoying their "rumschpringe" – a period when Amish teenagers court and explore the non-Amish world before becoming adult members of their church. Leah hopes to marry one of her second cousins, but her neighbor Gid Peachey carries an unrequited torch for her. Meanwhile Sadie has an affair with an Englischer – the son of a local doctor. All will run into obstacles before they find their happy endings…
In order, the books in the Abram’s Daughters series are:
- The Covenant
- The Betrayal
- The Sacrifice
- The Prodigal
- The Revelation
Provides examples of:
- As the Good Book Says...: Characters quote the Bible more and more as the series goes on.
- Babies Ever After: The desired end for all the characters.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Leah Ebersol and Jonas Mast make this to each other.
- December–December Romance: In The Prodigal, after his wife dies, Abram Ebersol marries his wife’s sister when both are in their fifties.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Some of novels' twists feature this. For instance, Leah Ebersol eventually finds out her biological mother is her "Aunt" Lizzie, while her biological father is Dr. Schwartz. Likewise, Jake Mast isn't told until The Revelation that his girlfriend is actually his biological aunt.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Sadie (foolish) and Leah (responsible).
- Fourth-Date Marriage: In The Prodigal, Jake Mast asks Lydiann Ebersol to marry him a month after meeting her.
- Happily Adopted: Several – Carl Nolt, Leah Ebersol, and Jake Mast (though the latter two don’t learn they’re adopted until they’re teenagers).
- It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Dr. Schwartz’s excuse for 1) not telling Sadie her supposedly stillborn baby survived, 2) not telling the Masts their son died, and 3) giving Sadie’s son to Masts, unbeknownst to all parties, so that no one but Dr. Schwartz knows that the Masts are raising Sadie’s biological son.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: According to Amish custom, all the courtships are conducted in secrecy. Even close family members can only guess who is seeing whom.
- Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: Gid Peachey spends years in love with the girl next door.
- Maiden Aunt: Both Aunt Lizzie and Leah herself. Of course, this being a romance series, they don't stay that way forever.
- Mistaken for Cheating: A series of mistakes and meddling leads to this at the end of The Betrayal.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Sadie’s pregnancy in The Covenant kicks off the conflict for that novel, as well as the plot for the rest of the series.
- Nature Lover: Aunt Lizzie. Said to be a good gardener, enjoys long walks in the woods, and encourages her relatives to see God in nature.
- Old Maid:
- There is a tacit understanding that if the Ebersol sisters don’t marry by a certain age, they’ll likely become old maids for life.
- Oddly, the series also contains a male version – in The Sacrifice even though in fiction, men rarely worry about getting old at that age. 22-year-old Gid Peachey worries that if he doesn’t tie the knot with Leah soon, he’ll be too old to court another girl: “Seemed to him every young man his age had already married and was expecting a baby come next summer.”
- Parental Marriage Veto: In The Covenant, Leah Ebersol and Jonas Mast agree to marry. Leah’s father disapproves, and arranges for Jonas to be sent to Ohio. In The Prodigal, Lydiann Ebersol and Jake Mast agree to marry. Lydiann’s sister/adopted mother disapproves, and arranges for Jake to be sent to Ohio. (The latter is more justified, however, as the lovers are also blood relatives.)
- Promotion to Parent: Happens to Leah. After their mother dies, Leah vows to raise her two youngest siblings as if they were her own.
- Proper Lady: What Leah becomes, and what all her sisters aspire to be.
- Second Love: A handful of examples throughout the series. Mary Ruth’s first boyfriend dies in a car accident. Later, she falls for the car’s driver. Gid Peachey loves Leah, but ultimately marries (and is content with) her sister Hannah. Widowed Abram marries again years after his wife’s death. In The Revelation Sadie also finds a new husband after her first one dies.
- Settle for Sibling: When Gid Peachey can’t have Leah, he marries her sister Hannah instead. For eight years the Ebersols also assume Leah’s old flame Jonas Mast married Leah’s sister Sadie, after he moved to Ohio.
- Surprise Incest: Lydiann Ebersol and Jake Mast fall in love with each other. Unbeknownst to them, Jake is Lydiann’s blood nephew – being the biological son of Lydiann’s (unwed) sister Sadie, who was then adopted by the Masts.
- Tangled Family Tree: Good luck keeping track of how everyone’s related to each other. (And everyone is related to each other.)
