The Believer: A Novel

by Ann H. Gabhart

Overview

Elizabeth Duncan has nowhere to turn. In charge of her younger brother and sister after their parents die, her options are limited. When she hears that the Shaker community in the next county takes in orphans, she presents herself and her siblings at Harmony Hill. Despite the hard work and strange new beliefs around her, Elizabeth is relieved to have a roof overhead and food to eat. But when she feels a strong attachment to a handsome young Believer named Ethan, life gets complicated. Ethan has never looked on the opposite sex as anything but sisters, but he can't shake the new feelings that Elizabeth has awakened in him. Will Elizabeth be forced to leave the village to keep Ethan from stumbling? Or will Ethan's love for her change their lives forever?

Following on the heels of the successful book The Outsider, The Believer is Ann H. Gabhart's newest exploration of love and devotion in this quiet Shaker community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800733629
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2009
Series:	Shaker Series
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	639,408
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Ann H. Gabhart is the bestselling author of several Shaker novels—The Refuge, The Outsider, The Believer, The Seeker, The Blessed, and The Gifted—as well as other historical novels, including Angel Sister, These Healing Hills, River to Redemption, and An Appalachian Summer. She and her husband live on a farm a mile from where she was born in rural Kentucky. Ann enjoys discovering the everyday wonders of nature while hiking in her farm's fields and woods with her grandchildren and her dogs, Frankie and Marley. Learn more at www.annhgabhart.com.

Editorial Reviews

A Shaker romance sounds like a nonstarter idea for a novel, since the Shakers, a socially revolutionary religious sect, practiced celibacy. But therein lies the tension in this historical romance, Gabhart's second Shaker outing (after The Outsider). Raised by Shakers since the age of six, when he ran away from his river rat father, Ethan Boyd is a Believer-someone who has signed a covenant to join the Shakers. But he's thrown into emotional turmoil when Elizabeth Duncan and her two younger siblings, following the sudden death of their father, seek refuge in 1833 at Harmony Hill, the Shaker community in Kentucky where Ethan lives. Elizabeth is also escaping from a predatory landlord with designs on her. A number of supporting characters are well drawn, including Elizabeth's siblings Payton and Hannah and the kind Shaker, Issachar, Ethan's benefactor. Other characters are more like caricatures-Elizabeth's landlord is an Oilcan Harry, mustache-twirling kind of villain. On balance, the book rings with researched authenticity and will appeal to Amish romance fans. (Aug.)

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