Miriam's Secret

Miriam’s Secret by Jerry S. Eicher is a lovely, Amish novel.  It tells the story of Miriam Yoder and her family.  Miriam is one of ten children.  Her father believes that money is corrupt and evil and will not sell to tourists (with ten children you would think he would reconsider this view point).   Miriam has been working for an English neighbor, Mr. Bland, for the last two years.  Mr. Bland is elderly and needs someone to help him out during the day (cooking meals, housekeeping, etc.).  The pay is very generous and has helped the Yoder family tremendously.  One day Mr. Bland passes away suddenly.  Miriam comes to find out that Mr. Bland has generously left her one-third of his estate.  She received the farm, all the equipment and animals, as well as $2 million dollars.  Miriam knows how her father will react to this news and only tells him about the farm.  At first, her father wants her to give it away, but Miriam feels this will go against the wishes of Mr. Bland.  Miriam has the farm put into a family trust.  Her father and brothers will run the farm but it cannot be sold.  Mr. Yoder states he will run it until Miriam gets married and then the farm will go to Miriam and her husband (she is not seeing anyone at this time). 

Miriam had taken a liking to Ivan, a local young man.  However, just before she received the inheritance, Ivan starts taking out Laura Swartz, a young beauty who just moved into the area.  After Miriam receives the inheritance, Ivan now wants to go out with Miriam.  Wise to Ivan’s motives (he just wants a farm), she convinces her family to let her and her sister, Shirley, go to Oklahoma to visit relatives.  Shirley needs to get away because she has been going out with a local English boy whose family has money.  Shirley is determined to marry someone with money.  She does not wish to continue to live in poverty.

The Oklahoma Amish community is different than Possum Valley.  The community is very open and friendly.  They see more of a person’s inside beauty than their outside beauty.  Miriam is quite popular while Shirley, who is used to being the center of attention around the young men, is not.   Miriam meets Wayne who helps her forget about Ivan and helps her accept her inheritance. 

Miriam’s Secret is a good Amish book.  I was provided a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be out in February 2015 according to Amazon.com.

Thank you for reading my review and I hope you have a lovely week!  Happy Reading!

Kris