The Captive Heart

The latest novel, The Captive Heart is the second book in the Daughters of Caleb Bender series by Dale Cramer and could easily be read as a stand alone book as well. The first chapter is dedicated to an overview of just how the Bender family arrived in Mexico after leaving Ohio. They were facing a lot of persecution from the local government and school board for being Amish and adopting the Amish ways of life in regards to the education and raising of their children. Faced with jail time unless they were willing to change, the Bender family opted to move to Mexico for a new chance at living the life they have come to love without any interference from outsiders. The land was also cheap to purchase and ripe for a new start.

Now in the midst of the Mexican Revolution, the Bender family is having to deal with renegade bandits who will rob the family, kill their livestock and take the women because no one has stopped them up to this point. With the exception of Domingo, a Mexican farm hand her father has hired, the Amish community is at a loss for how to deal with this situation since the family does not believe in violence or even carrying weapons except for hunting.

However when the renegade group of bandit lead by El Pantera insist on provoking the Amish community to the point of kidnapping one of the women, they wonder if God will really be the answer to their prayers and protect them. Will Miriam find a way to fall in love with Domingo despite the fact he isn't an Amish man or will God have other plans for her?

I received the book, The Captive Heart by Dale Cramer compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review and was so excited to discover that this was the next book following Paradise Valley! This was a bonus for me and the excitement that is unfolding in each chapter keeps the reader flipping pages as fast as they can read just to see what will happen next. I could not put it down until I finished the final page in under four hours, and for me, that makes this an exceptional novel well worth 5 out of 5 stars.

Here's even more information regarding the author, the book and even a first chapter sneak peek below:

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Captive Heart Bethany House (January 1, 2012) by Dale Cramer

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dale Cramer spent his formative years traveling the world as an Army brat, then settled in Georgia at the age of fifteen when his father retired.

After high school he became an electrician, a job that took him to places as diverse as power plants, stadia, airports, high-rise office buildings and a hard-rock mining operation.

Twenty-five years of experiences in the trades provided him with the wealth of characters, stories and insights that populate his novels.

When he married his childhood friend, Pam, in 1975 he had no way of knowing they would not have children until fifteen years later.

In his early forties, when Dale left his job to become a stay-at-home dad, he suddenly found himself with time on his hands, so he pursued a lifelong dream and taught himself to write.

Using an online writer’s forum as a training ground, he wrote his first short stories in 1996. As his writing skills improved he turned to novels, publishing his first book, Sutter’s Cross, in 2003.

Since then, Dale has published four more novels and garnered a measure of critical acclaim with two Christy Awards, a listing among Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2004 and numerous other Best lists. Dale and his wife Pam live in Georgia with their two sons.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Bandit troubles intensify as Caleb Bender's family tries to settle into their new life in 1920s Paradise Valley. When El Pantera kidnaps Rachel and leaves her brother, Aaron, for dead, Jake Weaver and the Mexican native Domingo pursue the bandit leader to his mountain stronghold in a hopeless rescue attempt. Jake and Domingo manage to escape with Rachel, with the bandits hot on their trail. In a desperate attempt to avoid recapture, Domingo puts himself squarely in harm's way, giving Jake and Rachel time to get away. This is not the quiet life Caleb Bender envisioned when he led his family out of Ohio. What is a father to make of his daughter's obvious affection for a man outside the fold? And how will a pacifist Amishman like Caleb respond to the events that threaten his family and their way of life?

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Captive Heart, go HERE

Paradise Valley

Just what the name implies, lush, green, fertile lands just waiting to be farmed, and the answer to Caleb Bender's prayers. Paradise Valley is a place to start over, begin again, before their way of life has ceased to exist.

Caleb Bender makes the most difficult choice a man can make for his family. As an Amish farmer who has held the same piece of land for generations, he finds he can no longer just let things be. When the local school board has him and other farmers arrested and brought before the court for having their children work the farms rather than attend school, Caleb stands his ground. Their fine, 60 days in jail and paying a 20 dollar find for every child in their home that should be attending school. If after jail time, they do not send their children to the public school, things will get more difficult.

During their jail time, the sheriff's and the courts have the children removed from their homes and placed in a state home. They are forced to attend school and have their hair cut and clothing changed to conform to the English ways. When Jake Weaver decides to make a run for it, Rachel Bender lures the administrator away to go to the restroom. Once she has locked their door, the children make a run for it. The only ones who escape without being caught are Jake and his younger brother.

Deep down inside her heart, Rachel, has known that she likes Jake. When he confesses the same intention to her at a Sunday singing, her heart is filled with joy. When Caleb Bender finds a note selling land in Mexico at $10 per acre and learns that they don't care what people do there, he believes God is telling him, to move his family to Paradise Valley, Mexico.

The adventure just begins at the conclusion of the Mexican Revolution and Caleb decides his family will be the first of the Amish town to head to Mexico. Hopefully once he has arrived, he will send word for the other Amish families to join him, so they will not be forced by the government to abandon their way of life.

I received the book, Paradise Valley by Dale Cramer, compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review and loved the unique twist on your typical Amish romance stories. Wondering if Jake and Rachel will be able to endure a long separation that will unite them or drive them apart forever and will Paradise Valley become a new Amish town south of the border. This book rates a 5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about the book, the author and where to get a first chapter peek, then read on:

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Paradise Valley Bethany House (January 1, 2011) by Dale Cramer





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dale Cramer was the second of four children born to a runaway Amishman turned soldier and a south Georgia sharecropper's daughter. His formative years were divided between far-flung military bases, but he inherited his mother's sense of place—



He took on small construction projects at night to help make ends meet— "and to preserve the remainder of my sanity," he says. While building an office in the basement of a communications consultant, a debate over labor/management relations turned into an article on mutualism which found its way into an international business magazine. It was Dale's first published article, and he liked the feel of it. He bought books, studied technique, and began participating in an online writers' forum, writing during the boys' naps and after they went to bed at night. Before long he was publishing short stories in literary magazines and thinking about writing a book.



Three storylines vied for Dale's attention when he finally decided to write a novel. His first two choices were commercially viable secular stories, and a distant third appeared to be some kind of Christian saga about a broken-down biker. The process of determining which novel to write was settled by a remarkable encounter with his youngest son, a lost set of keys, and God. His sense of direction was suddenly clarified. In 1997, Dale began work on Sutter's Cross, which was eventually published in 2003.



His second novel, Bad Ground (July 2004), while it is not autobiographical, contains a great deal of material drawn from his own experience as a construction electrician.



He and his wife and two sons make their home in northern Georgia.





ABOUT THE BOOK

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 childrens 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.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Paradise Valley, go HERE.