New Beginnings (Mary Ellis) Books in Order

The New Beginnings series follows Amish young women who leave familiar Pennsylvania communities to start over in far-flung districts. Each book explores what it means to build a new life while carrying grief, questions about faith, and complicated family ties.

In Living in Harmony, Amy King loses both of her parents in a house fire just as she is preparing to marry John Detweiler. Grief and practical need push Amy and her sister Nora to accept John’s plan: move from Lancaster County to Harmony, a small Amish settlement in Maine where his brother’s family can help them get back on their feet. Life in Harmony is quieter and stricter than they expected. John’s brother, a minister, delays the wedding and insists on counseling, while Amy discovers she has a shunned aunt whose story raises uncomfortable questions about obedience and compassion.(target.com)

The second book shifts the focus to Nora King. Restless and eager to define herself, she follows Elam Detweiler from Maine to Paradise, Missouri. Elam represents freedom from the tight restrictions of her old district, but he also drifts toward the Englisch world in ways that put Nora’s reputation at risk. When Lewis Miller, a steady young man from Harmony, arrives and offers a quieter but deeper kind of love, Nora must decide whether she is in love with Elam or with the idea of independence he seems to promise.(evergreen.lib.in.us)

In A Little Bit of Charm, the spotlight turns to Rachel King, younger cousin to Amy and Nora. After watching both sisters marry and settle down, Rachel longs for something different. She moves to Kentucky to live near a cousin and lands a job at a thoroughbred farm, reveling in the chance to work with horses. There she meets Jake, an engaging Englisch man who draws her into a world of races, late-night conversations, and temptations far from her Amish upbringing. When strange mishaps begin to plague the Amish men who would court her, Rachel has to question whom she can trust and where her heart truly belongs.(books.apple.com)

Taken together, the New Beginnings books show the diversity within Amish life itself: small New England settlements, Midwestern towns named Paradise, and horse farms in Kentucky all shape how these characters live out their beliefs. The series asks what happens when long-standing rules collide with grief, adventure, and the ache to choose one’s own path.

Readers who appreciate stories about leaving home, wrestling with tradition, and finding love in unexpected places will find this trilogy a thoughtful look at fresh starts that still honor deep roots.