In The Forbidden, Book 2 of The Courtship of Nellie Fisher series, author Beverly Lewis picks up the story of Nellie Mae Fisher and Caleb Yoder a little over six months from the dreadful day Nellie’s sister Suzy drowned.
During the month and a half of the winter of 1967 that the story encompasses, we follow Caleb and Nellie as they seek to make sense of Caleb’s father’s demand that they part company. We also watch as Nellie’s older sister Rhoda edges ever closer to breaking with her Amish family, enter into Roseanne’s dismay as Kate, the birth mother of her adopted twins, begins to act more and more possessive of them, and get a glimpse into how Suzy’s non-Amish friends are coping with her death. Overshadowing all these things is the seemingly unavoidable church split that threatens to tear Honeybrook apart.
As is typical of Beverly Lewis’s books, her characters drive the action. Despite scenes of Amish life as idyllic as illustrations in an old-fashioned book, there’s a lot going on under the surface. Nellie is a talented, confident, and determined young woman and entrepreneur who knows her mind. However, she’s also every bit an Amishwoman who respects tradition and realizes, given how important Caleb’s inheritance is to him, that the fate of their love may lie with Caleb’s intractable father. Caleb is determined too, as well as obedient, respectful, red-blooded and smitten – a combination that leads to more than one complication.
Lewis plumbs some psychologically sophisticated depths through secondary characters as well. We get an understanding through Rhoda of how the pressures of ‘fancy’ society tug at these plain young people. Through Nellie’s barren friend Roseanne we experience the overwhelming instincts and emotions of motherhood. Susannah Lapp shows herself to be a diva of manipulation. And Caleb’s father is portrayed as Mr. Control.
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