Forbidden Truth

Title: Forbidden Truth

Series: Willow Brook, Secrets of the Pen #2

Author: Debra Torres

Genre: Amish, Christian Fiction, Mystery

Publisher:

Source: Author Provided

My Review:

Forbidden Truth is Debra Torres second novel.  I would HIGHLY recommend reading the first book, Forbidden Gift, first.

Forbidden Truth picks up three weeks later from where the first book ended. The main characters are the same, so the story line is a continuation instead of a new/separate story.

Forbidden Truth has a slow start. I also felt it had a confusing start. I read the first book but kept getting lost in the first few chapters. While there is some mystery, it is not as suspenseful as the first novel. The story is description-driven.

The storyline itself is still very unique, especially as an Amish storyline. I appreciate the fresh ideas/voice that Torres has brought to Amish fiction.

The story ends rather abruptly but has the first few pages of book three and the continuing scene that ended abruptly. I will be anxiously awaiting the release of the third book to see what happens next.

I received a PDF of Forbidden Truth from the author. I was not required to provide a favorable review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

★★★/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 

What happens when living the dream means losing yourself?

Johanna Yoder can breathe again. Willow Brook’s once tyrannical Bishop Zook has been replaced by Gott’s true elect, Gideon Hochstetler. And the new bishop can’t help but show some special leniency towards the aspiring Amish writer.

Working at the Mountain Laurel Star newspaper while remaining Amish is a dream come true for Johanna. And, as her love for the Englischer reporter, Judah Barton, steadily increases, so does a niggling suspicion that her former bishop rots in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Judah joins Johanna in her convictions, and together they seek to uncover the truth to what really happened that dark night over forty years ago when three men were killed.

But in the middle of searching for answers, Johanna finds herself struggling with a crushing crisis that comes from living a double life. Who is she, really? Does Johanna have it in her to embrace what she needs most as she desperately fights for justice for a man who once wished her dead?