I first encountered Beverly Lewis when I read “The Shunning,” the first book in The Heritage of Lancaster County series. I’ve always been curious about the Amish but never knew much about them, and “The Shunning” helped broaden my understanding, although the book does portray a stricter order than actually practiced by many. When I saw “The Confession” at the library the other day, I was more than happy to pick it up and continue my look into the life of Katie Lapp, the Amish girl who discovered at the end of “The Shunning” that she’s not Amish at all, but was given to the Amish to be raised.
As we begin “The Confession,” we see Katie leaving her family and going to stay with her aunt. Her family has shunned her and she is basically dead to them, and so this decision to strike out on her own is really her only recourse to finding a happier life. She has a tough choice ahead – should she stay with her aunt, or should she try to reconnect with her birth mother? As questions war in her mind, she finally decides to head to New York to the sumptuous Bennett estate, where her birth mother now lives.
Suffering the ravages of disease, Laura Mayfield-Bennett wants nothing more than to see the child she brought into the world before she dies. Her unscrupulous husband learns of Laura’s intent to leave her vast fortune to her daughter, and he decides to get in on the action. Hiring an actress to portray the long-lost daughter, the imposter is in place before Katie arrives at the mansion. Not sure how to approach her mother and divulge her identity, Katie takes a job as a domestic in the house, biding her time until the moment is right to reveal herself. When she finally does, she feels as though she’s finally come home, and yet how will a shy, reserved Amish girl take her place in society where she rightfully belongs?
This book is a teary read as we see Katie’s mother deeply regret the shunning of her daughter and we see Katie and Laura reunite after more than twenty years. I’m eager to get my hands on the next book in the series to see what happens next.
(This book was published in 1997 by Bethany House.)
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