The Face of Heaven

Title: THE FACE OF HEAVEN
Author: Murray Pura
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
August 2012
ISBN: 978-0736949491
Genre: Historical Amish

Lyndel Keim discovers two escaped slaves hiding in a barn stall when she goes in to see what disturbed the cows. One of the men is injured since he'd jumped from a moving train and his friend helped him to the barn to hide. Lyndel and her brother's friend, Nathaniel promise to help the slaves, as does Lyndel's father, but the slave hunters do find them and drag the slaves off to return them to their owners.

The next morning, Lyndel finds the body of one of the slaves hanging from a tree. She and Nathaniel are torn, heartbroken, and dismayed, but during their grieving and talk about the unrest in the union, they begin to fall in love--at least until Nathaniel leaves to join the union fighting for freedom of the slaves...

A year later, Lyndel tires of waiting and wondering what happened to Nathaniel so she runs away from home to serve the union army as a nurse. But she doesn't realize that it's not a given she'd be anywhere near Nathaniel.

THE FACE OF HEAVEN is the second in Mr. Pura's historical Amish series, the first being The Wings of Morning set in WWI. THE FACE OF HEAVEN is set in the Civil War era and is not always pleasant to read.

It was interesting to see Mr. Pura's take on how some of the Amish might have perceived the unrest in the nation and might have felt called to leave the faith of their fathers and despite their upbringing, go to fight. Lyndel and Nathaniel are both very caring individuals, and Nathaniel was nice even when Lyndel developed a temper that matched her red hair. If you like history and Amish, then THE FACE OF HEAVEN would be a book to consider. $13.99. 352 pages.