Rachel's Secret by BJ Hoff

The Riverhaven area is home to an Amish community set in Ohio of 1855. Rachel Brenneman is a young widow living in the home her late husband built and she refuses to leave it. One night in November two strangers almost beat down her door. Rachel is afraid to answer the door, being a young woman with only her sister there that night, but the men are persistant until she opens the door. "We are a friend of friends, ma'am. My captain is hurt. We need help" Rachel opens the door to find a large black man holding up a white man who looks to be dead. Behind them is a large dog. The rules of the Plain People don't allow Rachel to welcome these strangers into her home because she is a woman alone and because the Plain are supposed to stay away from worldy outsiders. Rachel cannot bring herself to allow the man to die on her doorstep in the cold so she tells Asa, the colored man, to bring the captain into her spare bedroom and sends her little sister, Fannie, for their mother and brother and then to fetch the doctor. Little does Rachel know that not only has she opened her door to two potentially dangerous strangers, but she has opened her door to the outside world and her heart to forgiveness.

This was a wonderful book. It was quite a challenge for me to read for a couple of reasons: 1. I don't believe in organized religion..it's not for me. And we all know that the Amish people are VERY much for organized religion. 2. I grew up in a small town and there were quite a few Amish people around, while I knew of their ways.. I'd never had their life explained to me in the way this book does. BJ Hoff does a wonderful job of putting you into their world without forcing ideas or being prejudiced. Amazingly I was able to relate to Rachel in many ways.. she has been through a lot, including the terrible, violent death of her beloved husband, and she struggles with the ways of her world and life.

The book has a lot of Amish culture and it even lets us inside a little bit on the Undergroud Railroad. I would have never guess that Amish were involved just because of thier way of life, but this book proved me wrong. I also loved the relationships between the people in this book, my favorite relationship being the one between Doctor Sebastion and Captain Gant. Their relationship is a lot like the one I often saw onscreen between Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, especially in the Grumpy Old Men movies. Rachel's struggle to forgive the death of her husband was very real, and in the end very rewarding. This is a new series by BJ Hoff, although I've never read her Mountain Song Legacy, but I'm looking forward to finding book two of The Riverhaven Years and reading it soon!!

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