Dreams of Plain Daughters

Rachel Hershberger wants to get away from her Amish home in Fields Corner, Ohio. For a year, she's been trying to fill her mother's shoes by taking care of her father and siblings. She quit her job at the bakery so she would have more time to clean and cook at home. Before her mother died, Rachel was positive she wanted to marry Samuel Weaver, but now she can't think about wedding plans. She blames her father for her mother's death. If they had installed a phone in their barn or a shanty, her mother might have received medical help in time to save her life.

Judith Hershberger wonders what her life would have been like had she been born into an English family instead of an Amish one. Would she be happier with the freedom to obtain more schooling as an English young woman instead of being limited to only an eighth-grade Amish education? In Judith’s Place, the second book in the Dreams of Plain Daughters series, schoolteacher Judith Hershberger yearns to learn more despite the educational restriction imposed on her because of her Amish upbringing.

After her fiancé, Daniel Beachy, died in a buggy accident, schoolteacher Ruth Yoder decided to move out of her parents’ home and into the house he’d built for their married life together. Ruth has lived alone for the past 11 years. When David Hershberger, a widower, starts spending time with her, Ruth is surprised. David’s children are amazed, too, that their father is interested in their longtime neighbor. Ruth hopes that she and David will become more than friends.

Violet Robinson grew up straddling the world of her father, a U.S. Senator, and her mother, who was raised Amish. Then Violet gets the chance to live in an Amish house without modern amenities. Violet's father hopes this will make her realize how hard an Amish life is, but the opposite happens. Especially when Violet finds herself falling for Luke. Although buggy shop owner Luke King was raised Amish, he hasn’t yet been baptized into the church. He’s always felt something waited out there for him. When he meets Violet, he knows why God set him on this path.