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Home Valley #3
Finding Mercy
Quiet, cautious Ella Lantz has spent her entire life in the close-knit Amish community of the Home Valley. Tending her lavender fields, she finds calm and serenity in purple blooms, heavenly scents and a simple life. But the sudden arrival of a strange visitor to her parents' home heralds a host of new complications.
Alex Caldwell is unlike any man Ella has ever met-clearly, he's no 'Pennsylvania cousin,' whatever the elders may say. In fact, Alex is a Wall Street whistle-blower under witness protection…and he's brought a world of trouble to the Lantz doorstep.
As Ella comes to trust-even love-a man so utterly worldly, she realises her life has already changed forever. When it becomes violently clear that even the Home Valley is no refuge, Ella and Alex are driven into the wider world to hide. And with such a high price placed on their silence, they may not survive to share their love….
Alex Caldwell is unlike any man Ella has ever met-clearly, he's no 'Pennsylvania cousin,' whatever the elders may say. In fact, Alex is a Wall Street whistle-blower under witness protection…and he's brought a world of trouble to the Lantz doorstep.
As Ella comes to trust-even love-a man so utterly worldly, she realises her life has already changed forever. When it becomes violently clear that even the Home Valley is no refuge, Ella and Alex are driven into the wider world to hide. And with such a high price placed on their silence, they may not survive to share their love….
364 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
133 people are currently reading
682 people want to read
About the author
Karen Harper
105 books1,499 followersA New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Karen Harper is a former college English instructor (The Ohio State University) and high school literature and writing teacher. A lifelong Ohioan, Karen and her husband Don divide their time between the midwest and the southeast, both locations she has used in her books. Besides her American settings, Karen loves the British Isles, where her Scottish and English roots run deep, and where she has set many of her historical Tudor-era mysteries and her historical novels about real and dynamic British women. Karen's books have been published in many foreign languages and she won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for 2005. Karen has given numerous talks to readers and writers across the county. Her most recent books include THE SOUTH SHORES TRILOGY (CHASING SHADOWS, DROWNING TIDES and FALLING DARKNESS.) Her latest historical is THE ROYAL NANNY. Please visit her website at www.KarenHarperAuthor and her fb page at www.facebook.com/KarenHarperAuthor
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
August 30, 2021
3+ stars--liked this one the best of this series so far
Ella, the third of the three friends featured, who is generally quiet and cautious really shows her mettle in this book and has some good character growth to boot. She starts to find herself in danger after Andrew/Alex--a man in Witness protection--arrives and someone is out to kill him before he can testify. As the blurb says, they are driven into the wider world in order to try to survive.
Meanwhile, Ray-Lynn and the Sheriff have been rekindling their romance after she lost 2 years of her memory after an accident in the previous book.
Ella, the third of the three friends featured, who is generally quiet and cautious really shows her mettle in this book and has some good character growth to boot. She starts to find herself in danger after Andrew/Alex--a man in Witness protection--arrives and someone is out to kill him before he can testify. As the blurb says, they are driven into the wider world in order to try to survive.
Meanwhile, Ray-Lynn and the Sheriff have been rekindling their romance after she lost 2 years of her memory after an accident in the previous book.
January 17, 2019
I enjoyed the ending to this trilogy. Ella's a gentle soul who falls for Alex Caldwell. Alex is hiding out for his own protection and poses as a Amish cousin. Plenty of twists for mystery lovers.
October 12, 2013
Amish born Ella grows lavender and dreams of marriage and children. Alex Caldwell dreams of living another day. When WITSEC hides Alex in Amish country, he stays with Ella's family as a their cousin from Pennsylvania. But the bad guys keep finding Alex, and take Ella to force him to come to them. She escapes and goes on the run with Alex and her grandmother.
The best thing about this book is ****Spoiler**** Ella does not leave the Amish to get her man. He converts. Excellent way to end the book.
The few things I did not like we're: the very short time period. I had a hard time believing Ella would fall for Alex in less than a week. And that her family would let her run all over the country with him. She seemed a very private person so I did not really get her motivation for anything.
I have loved all the other books by this author. And her next one will probably be a 5/5.
The best thing about this book is ****Spoiler**** Ella does not leave the Amish to get her man. He converts. Excellent way to end the book.
The few things I did not like we're: the very short time period. I had a hard time believing Ella would fall for Alex in less than a week. And that her family would let her run all over the country with him. She seemed a very private person so I did not really get her motivation for anything.
I have loved all the other books by this author. And her next one will probably be a 5/5.
May 20, 2022
Finding Mercy is an extremely riveting mystery written by Karen Harper. The characters amazing and very likeable. This story never dies out with all the attacks made on Alex and Ella's lives. Just when they escape one heart stopping attack another starts which will keep the readers interest. Alex is under witness protection hiding in Amish country and that is where he meets Ella Lance. Ella had a near drowning experience in her younger life and takes being Amish to the strictest measures. But now Ella finds herself attracted to the mysterious Alex with all her misgivings of the English world. When the person responsible for trying to kill Alex and Ella is revealed it may shock you. I did figure it out ahead of time thru the details the author gives. This is a mystery full of family, love, drama, and happily ever Afters for so many characters
I was not given a complimentary copy of this book to read and review. I was not approached to post a favorable response and all opinions are my own. I have rated this mystery with five stars for meeting my expectations of a wonderful story that I can highly recommend to others.
I was not given a complimentary copy of this book to read and review. I was not approached to post a favorable response and all opinions are my own. I have rated this mystery with five stars for meeting my expectations of a wonderful story that I can highly recommend to others.
February 20, 2018
At first I was really enjoying this book but when they hit the Big Apple everything started to fall apart for me. But once Ella left the Big Apple everything went back to normal for me. I think the story had a lot of really great potential and the characters in it were wonderful. I knew who the villain was the whole time which did not downplay the story at all to me and I'm still very pleased with it. It was just interesting to see how this story was so different than the other two in the series.
September 26, 2017
A fun, light thriller. Mostly accurate, lacking in only a few spots.
September 20, 2018
This was good. I love reading books about the Amish life and country.
Read
July 16, 2019Good read
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2019
This novel involves a man who is being hidden among the Amish until he can testify at the trial of a dangerous man. The story involves close calls, dangerous characters, and frightening moments.
Want to read
January 25, 2021Good
May 22, 2021
This is a series of books of crimes that happen in or around the Amish country in Ohio. I really like the characters, but some of the antics were quite unbelievable.
Read
May 27, 2021Good mystery
July 26, 2022
New Author to me. This story started off fast-paced but, about half-way it started to become predictable.
March 13, 2024
Just too full of action that is not believable. Almost cartoonish.
August 19, 2025
Very cute story with some mystery and crime.
December 30, 2020
This was an excellent clean thriller. Keeps you interested until the end.
March 12, 2017
Too many characters, too short of a time period ( sheltered, awkward, quiet Amish woman falls for outsider in less than a week????) too many things going on. The gentle thing about reading about the Amish is learning about their simpler lives, and the way the author chose to describe New York City through the eyes of a wanted fugitive and an Amish girl trying to pretend to be big-city hardened is cumbersome, at best, and slows the plot.
October 17, 2012
Finding Mercy by Karen Harper
4 STARS
This is the third book in A Home Valley Amish Novel. It is the second one that I have read. I was not to impressed with the little I knew of Ella from Returning to Grace.
It is so easy to judge characters and real people with a little knowledge wrongly, like I did. I really grew to care more for Ella the more I got to know her and understand her better.
This novel was full of action and caring about others, and honesty on one side. Bad guys,traiters and murders on other side. Who do you trust when someone tries to kill you many times.
Alex Caldwell was making good money and then he found out his boss was selling secrets to China. He became a whistle blower, and agreed to testify. He did not want to go into the witness protection program so his lawyer hired a private security for him. When they tried to kill him he decided to go to the Feds.
They decided to put him in with the Amish as a cousin coming to visit.
Ella Lantz good friend Hannah was marring her brother Seth in a few days. So Ella was moving into Seth old home and going expand her business in the old house. While her new cousin Andrew was moved into her old room.
Andrew was really liking the simple life with the Lantz family, especially Ella.
Someone was stalking Ella footprints where all around her house and her' family house.
Then she was in a hit and run accident. Then a threat on her door.
After a failed kidnapped attempt Andrew, Ella and her grandmother run off and don't tell anyone in authority where they were going.
I really liked the grandmother. How the Amish did take Andrew in and welcomed him.
I liked how the three friends had problems and for awhile lost contact but even though they each made different choices they cared for each other still.
I was given this ebook to read in exchange for honest review from Netgalley.
10/30/2012 PUB Harlequin Imprint HarlequinMIRA 336 pages
4 STARS
This is the third book in A Home Valley Amish Novel. It is the second one that I have read. I was not to impressed with the little I knew of Ella from Returning to Grace.
It is so easy to judge characters and real people with a little knowledge wrongly, like I did. I really grew to care more for Ella the more I got to know her and understand her better.
This novel was full of action and caring about others, and honesty on one side. Bad guys,traiters and murders on other side. Who do you trust when someone tries to kill you many times.
Alex Caldwell was making good money and then he found out his boss was selling secrets to China. He became a whistle blower, and agreed to testify. He did not want to go into the witness protection program so his lawyer hired a private security for him. When they tried to kill him he decided to go to the Feds.
They decided to put him in with the Amish as a cousin coming to visit.
Ella Lantz good friend Hannah was marring her brother Seth in a few days. So Ella was moving into Seth old home and going expand her business in the old house. While her new cousin Andrew was moved into her old room.
Andrew was really liking the simple life with the Lantz family, especially Ella.
Someone was stalking Ella footprints where all around her house and her' family house.
Then she was in a hit and run accident. Then a threat on her door.
After a failed kidnapped attempt Andrew, Ella and her grandmother run off and don't tell anyone in authority where they were going.
I really liked the grandmother. How the Amish did take Andrew in and welcomed him.
I liked how the three friends had problems and for awhile lost contact but even though they each made different choices they cared for each other still.
I was given this ebook to read in exchange for honest review from Netgalley.
10/30/2012 PUB Harlequin Imprint HarlequinMIRA 336 pages
August 13, 2016
FINDING MERCY is the third (and final?) book in the "Home Valley Amish" series of mysteries set in the Northeastern Ohio Amish countryside. In some ways, I think it is the best of the three books, but I would prefer that the author had introduced the "bad guy" somehow near the end of the second book where he would really have fit the circumstances -- it would have made his presence less obvious and he would have appeared to be more a needed character than an obvious suspect.
Ella Lantz is a mid-20s lavender grower and she makes and sells many "plain" lavender products, mostly to small businesses in the town near her Amish settlement. Alex Caldwell is a thirty-something outsider who is placed in this extended Amish family, which serves as a kind of witness protection program until he can testify against his former mentor and boss, who sold classified technical information to the Chinese.
Lives are threatened, someone is kidnapped, others die, and Ella and Alex need to decide whether they have a future together in the midst of chaos.
===
Since I read all the P. L. Gaus Amish mysteries (also set in Holmes County, Ohio) before I started to read these Karen Harper books, I find myself still preferring the writing and the style of the former author's works. To be fair, the Gaus books focus on mystery and there is very little, if any, romance in his series. Rather, his reoccuring characters are non-Amish male friends from school years ago, and they have contacts with the Amish. Their interactions vary from book to book, but the crime solving along with Amish "otherness" are the major components of the stories.
Some of the same locations and types of difficulties arise in both series, however, so I want to investigate other Amish mystery series, perhaps to give a more fair rating to the "Home Valley Amish" novels. Who knows? My impressions of Karen Harper's series might change in the process.
Ella Lantz is a mid-20s lavender grower and she makes and sells many "plain" lavender products, mostly to small businesses in the town near her Amish settlement. Alex Caldwell is a thirty-something outsider who is placed in this extended Amish family, which serves as a kind of witness protection program until he can testify against his former mentor and boss, who sold classified technical information to the Chinese.
Lives are threatened, someone is kidnapped, others die, and Ella and Alex need to decide whether they have a future together in the midst of chaos.
===
Since I read all the P. L. Gaus Amish mysteries (also set in Holmes County, Ohio) before I started to read these Karen Harper books, I find myself still preferring the writing and the style of the former author's works. To be fair, the Gaus books focus on mystery and there is very little, if any, romance in his series. Rather, his reoccuring characters are non-Amish male friends from school years ago, and they have contacts with the Amish. Their interactions vary from book to book, but the crime solving along with Amish "otherness" are the major components of the stories.
Some of the same locations and types of difficulties arise in both series, however, so I want to investigate other Amish mystery series, perhaps to give a more fair rating to the "Home Valley Amish" novels. Who knows? My impressions of Karen Harper's series might change in the process.
October 14, 2013
This final addition to the Home Valley Amish trilogy takes a look at the final childhood friend of Sarah and Hannah, Ella Lantz. There is continuation of storylines previously introduced, particularly in regards to Ray-Lynn and the other friends, but Ella's story puts a new spin on the young Amish woman meeting an outside man that the trilogy has set up. A section of the book, as mentioned in the description, takes the couple outside of the Home Valley Amish community, and the way in which this is done is very neat. The final mystery is drawn out a little bit - it's pretty clear who is up to no good - but there are plenty of other fun events, like Hannah's wedding, to make this an enjoyable read.
October 26, 2012
I enjoyed this book. Karen Harper's books are always exciting. I am glad to hear that there will be another book in this series. According to the "Author's Note," this book will be entitled, "A Winter's Night," and will be released in the autumn of 2013. It will be a Home Valley Christmas romantic suspense novel.
August 11, 2013
Alex Caldwell comes to the Amish in Ohio because his the lone voice to testify on espionage and selling corporate secrets. Under the witness program, they try to disguise him as Amish. Here the Wall Street whistle blower meets Amish girl, Ella Lantz. Alex's former boss has an insider on the job. Very soon Alex and Ella are forced to flee for their lives falling in love on the way.
January 31, 2014
This book was really good. I would recommend it. If you like Amish mystery and little bit of romantic thrown in. Lots of twist and turns and you really don't have a clue who was the one doing all those crimes till the end. I have read quite a few Amish mysteries and this is by far one of the best I have read. I will continue reading Karen Harpers books for sure.
December 28, 2012
The plot of this book was great - what I didn't appreciate was the coarse language and the suggestive sexual content. It was not necessary and the previous books didn't have as much of this and were better for it.
February 11, 2013
Although I really did enjoy this book, I found there were several loose ends that should have been taken care of.....was there a Chinese connection? What about the disgruntled FBI agent? Was one person behind ALL of the attempts on Alex and Ella? Nice love story.
August 13, 2016
I think this was my favorite of the Home Valley series books. I enjoyed the unique story line of the Englisher and the Amish maidel... and, of course, "Grandma". Don't want to reveal any spoilers, but a good romantic suspense.
April 27, 2015
I am not into Amish books much, but this one was pretty good. It got off to a slow start, but once I got into the story line it was good. I did find out it was third in a three part series, but I didn't feel like I needed to read the others to get the story.
June 9, 2015
Aside from a gross overuse of the phrase ding-dang throughout, I liked the story line and the plot twist of this novel. Readers are led down one path then quickly taken down another. I admire that in a writer.
Read
December 27, 2014Home Valley Amish trilogy conclusion
June 27, 2013
2.5 star read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews