This is the second in the Shenandoah Album series. It focuses on Sam Kinkade, the minister in rural Toms Brook, VA. He's come there after being imprisoned for practicing his faith and human rights beliefs that placed him at odds with the law and his congregation in upscale Atlanta. In Toms Brook, he's encouraged the Hispanic children to attend a school designed to help them learn English even though some members of his new congregation disapprove of his outreach efforts.Elisa Martinez says she's from Mexico, but that's no more true than her name is hers. She has arrived in Toms Brook to hide, but also to learn something about her family history, which she comes closer to in the person of an elderly woman in the nursing home where Elisa works.But more than that woman forms part of Elisa's past, and in spite of Sam's efforts, Elisa is intent on keeping her secrets deeply buried lest getting close to him places him at risk, too. Risk? What kind? More than simply finding her missing brother, Ramon? More than knowing something about central and south American hit squads?There's much more than learning to quilt in this novel with its compelling and complex cast of characters, some of whom were introduced in the prior title, though this book easily stands alone.How Sam and Elisa find each other and come to terms with both their pasts and what they want for the future begins to coalesce when Elisa helps birth a baby in the midst of a winter snowstorm, forcing her to reveal more than she intended. What follows when the men in blue show up and take Sam, Elisa and Ramon into custody ramps up the tension before it is skillfully reduced in the denouement of the tale.As with her other titles, Richards captures the reader from page one and doesn't let loose until well after the last page. I can't wait to explore the next in this series.