The Believer by Ann H. Gabhart
Paperback: 394 pages
Publisher: Revell (August 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0800733622
ISBN-13: 978-0800733629

From the Back Cover
Will a forbidden love destroy all they know? Elizabeth Duncan has nowhere to turn. In charge of her younger brother and sister after their parents die, her options are limited: she can give in to the unwanted advances of an odious landowner–or she can flee. When Elizabeth 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 life gets complicated when she finds herself attracted to a handsome young Believer named Ethan. 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 could Ethan’s love for her change their lives forever? Living just thirty miles from a restored Shaker village in Kentucky, Ann H. Gabhart has walked the same paths that her characters might have walked in generations past. Gabhart is the author of several books, including the bestselling The Outsider.

Just a reminder, I’m giving this book away here.

This was a good book! You should buy it…really!

This book was very intriguing. It’s emotional and the characters are extremely well-developed. When Elizabeth and her sister Hannah and brother Peyton decide to reside in the Shaker community after the sudden death of her father, their lives change drastically. They take refuge with the Shakers because Elizabeth feels they have no other choice. Hannah has a hard time accepting the Shaker life while Peyton accepts their new life freely – almost like a duck to water. However, problems arise when Ethan, a brother within the Shaker community, finds himself smitten with Elizabeth. Ethan has a background full of questions and he shows up near the Shaker community as a young boy, with no place to go.

This book is very different than most that I’ve read because it focused on the Shakers. I didn’t really know much about this religious sect until I read this novel. The Shakers kind of reminded me of a cult. However, I’m unsure if they were categorized that way. I guess the Shakers left me feeling very unsettled because I write romances, and I love to see people falling in love! However, The Shakers believe that matrimony and procreation are sins. Everybody in their community are brothers and sisters and they keep contact between the sexes to a minimum – even having separate entrances to most of the buildings! The author did a great job in carrying me off to another place, another community, another time. I’d like to know how much research she had to do in order to create such a vivid, realistic novel!

I could really relate to Ethan because….(SPOILER BELOW)!!…

I could really relate to Ethan because I was raised in a religion where I was taught some off-the-wall “Christian” beliefs. These beliefs seemed “right” at the time because it was all that I knew. However, as I got older and started questioning things, I saw this religion for what it really was. Also, the “church” in which I was raised, if you leave after baptism, you are shunned, much like what happens to Ethan at the end. (I was never baptized within the church mentioned in the previus sentence, so I was never shunned. But I’d seen it happen to others.) I could also relate to his struggle because he was accepting “truth” that had been taught to him practically his entire life. I felt irked whenever the Shakers referred to “the sin of matrimony.” I could understand Ethan feeling torn at the end because, even though he doesn’t agree with the Shaker beliefs, he was still “forced” to leave his home, his people, in order to be with Elizabeth. I know that must hurt because you have to accept the beliefs to be with the Shakers and become one of them. I still don’t quite understand why the Shakers thought that matrimonial sex and procreation were sins. I guess it had something to do with Mother Ann (that’s their founder whom the Shakers believe is the second coming of Christ in female form.)

I know Ethan really hurt leaving his people, but I was glad when he was able to be with Elizabeth at the end.

I did do some reading online about the Shakers. They died off, for the most part. I did see an article in Wikipedia (I know, Wikipedia is not an authentic source) that told of one remaining Shaker community that only has FOUR MEMBERS!! I can’t recall where this place was, though. When I was telling others about this novel, one of the first questions they asked were, “How can the Shakers expand and get new members if they can’t have kids?” The answer: They took in anybody who wanted to embrace their way of life, plus they took in a lot of orphans. Of course, this changed in later times when religious sects could no longer adopt children. I just thought that the little bit of history I read was interesting.

Great book. A must-buy. I can practically guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

~Cecelia Dowdy~