“Thank you, Lord, for letting me see a purpose for my life.”

From Camille Regholec’s The Secret Way to the Heart.

Seventeen-year-old Jayne van Hoyton has recently learned that her family and the freed slaves-turned-lifelong-friends, Hannah and George, have been working as part of the Underground Railroad. While Jayne’s older brother, Jim, sends escaping slaves north to New York’s Hudson Valley, her parents, Amanda and Marc, care for the runways for a few days before sending them on towards the Canadian border. Jayne has managed to convince her family that she is mature enough to help with the escaped slaves that James sends their way from his southern home, but the arrival of the mysterious and annoying Reverend Jeremiah Bronson right after a group of slaves arrive makes Jayne suspicious of the minister’s true intentions. When James writes to announce that he and his new wife, Clara, will be coming home to New York for Christmas, Jayne and the rest of the family is overjoyed. However, Clara’s immediate disdain for Hannah, George, and all free former slaves adds an entirely different layer of difficulty to the household’s involvement in the Underground Railroad. As Jayne tries to connect with her sister-in-law that was raised in such a different world, she also finds herself repeatedly embarrassing herself in front of Jeremiah, whose mysterious coldness greatly irritates her. When it is clear that America is on the cusp of a civil war, Jim returns south to help, both as a doctor and Underground worker, but he leaves the pregnant Clara with his family. Clara soon learns of Jim’s involvement with the Underground, which infuriates her and leads to a deadly accident. Suddenly, Jayne finds herself the sole caregiver for Clara’s newborn son as war erupts across America and her life tumbles from peacefully idyllic to heartbreakingly complex.

Regholec’s second installment in the series gives life to a second generation of genuine characters. The story is filled with history, but blended into the characters’ lives that those familiar with the Hudson Valley will be captivated. Secret Way to the Heart is a faith-based romance story that comes together beautifully as a real page-turner.