Outsider

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He stumbled into her life one cold, bitter day, almost dead from a bullet in his side. Instinctively, Rachel Yoder reached out to help the stranger, for kindness was in her nature. What she could not know was that this simple act of mercy would forever change her life and challenge her deepest beliefs. Until then, life for Rachel Yoder had been a straight path, however brutal. She had come to Montana with her family and a scattering of other "Plain People," an Amish sect which had fled the corrupting influences ...
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More About This Book

Overview

He stumbled into her life one cold, bitter day, almost dead from a bullet in his side. Instinctively, Rachel Yoder reached out to help the stranger, for kindness was in her nature. What she could not know was that this simple act of mercy would forever change her life and challenge her deepest beliefs. Until then, life for Rachel Yoder had been a straight path, however brutal. She had come to Montana with her family and a scattering of other "Plain People," an Amish sect which had fled the corrupting influences that threatened to destroy their simple way of life. In this wild new territory, she had married Ben Yoder, also raised as part of the sect, yet blessed with a passion and a humor that belied his severe upbringing. So when he was killed - hanged by a vigilante posse that falsely accused him of stealing cattle from a neighboring ranch owned by a powerful and ruthless man they called the Baron, abetted by his mysterious wife, Ailsa, and his headstrong half-breed son, Quinten - she felt an emptiness in her heart that she knew would never go away. But then the outsider appeared in her life, and from that moment on, nothing would be the same. Yet despite all the warnings, despite the efforts of her brothers and of Noah Weaver - himself a widower who once had courted her - Rachel invited the outsider into her life, hiring him to work the ranch with her. In her heart, she thought she might change him, but she had not reckoned on the irresistible lure of the gun that he kept ever at the ready. Nor had she reckoned that it was his willingness to use it and his skill at killing that would someday prove her salvation.
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
For her latest western romance, Williamson (Heart of the West) adapts the recipe used in the John Wayne film Angel and the Badman (itself retooled for Harrison Ford in Witness): take one strong-willed, God-fearing Plain woman; add one worldly tough guy with a penchant for firearms; dramatize the difference between redemption and revenge; and stir. Time passes steadily with a "sweet sameness" for the hardworking Plain People in the Montana mountain valley where they raise their sheep, until one bleak late-winter day in 1886, when wounded gunslinger Johnny Cain staggers into widow Rachel Yoder's hay meadow, leaving a trail of bloody footprints. Rachel tends to the handsome stranger, who gradually recovers and seems to bond with Benjo, her stuttering nine-year-old son. Filled with "the smells of fried mush and blood," "the sour stink of sheep" and "the whispered perfume of apple blossoms," The Outsider contains plenty of details that nicely evoke the hardships of life on the frontier, along with the simple joys. Dialogue ranges from terse (Plain people aren't big talkers) to corny: "I know I'm nothin' but a worthless chippy, a whore, a tart, sportin' gal and fancy gal," says the town prostitute to the town doctor. The plot is unreservedly melodramatic, as some evil ranchers plot against the Plain people and Johnny and Rachel hem and haw their way toward consummating their forbidden love. But there are enough supporting characters and subplots to keep historical romance fans turning the pages all the way to the bittersweet ending, in which the relative merits of revenge and redemption come to somewhat of a stalemate. (July)
Library Journal
Williamson's follow-up to Heart of the West (LJ 2/15/95) provides the same realistic sense of place and time that have made her characters and story lines so compelling in the past. Rachel Yoder is a widow with a young son living alone on a struggling sheep ranch. Her husband, Ben, was unjustly hanged for cattle rustling. When a wounded gunman shows up on her doorstep, Rachel takes him in, nurses him back to health, and then hires him to help her through the sheep-shearing season. Rachel's strong religious beliefs and ties to her Plains religious community contribute to her angst as she tries to ignore her growing attraction to Johnny Cain. Her final decision whether to turn her back on family, her heritage, and her God and choose an uncertain future with Johnny is a poignant moment that won't leave many readers unmoved. This is rich, wonderful reading sure to please any fan of good old-fashioned storytelling. Strongly recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/96.]Margaret Hanes Sterling Heights P.L., Mich.
Wes Lukowsky
Rachel Yoder is a young widow with a son trying to survive on a Montana sheep farm in the 1880s. She still grieves for her husband, murdered by the local cattleman's association, but her faith carries her through. As a member of a religious community called the Plain people, she believes that one must not question God's workings. Her beliefs are about to be challenged when a wounded gunfighter named Johnny Cain stumbles onto the Yoder cabin in the midst of a severe snowstorm. Though Rachel is aware of the dangers inherent in association with any outsider--let alone one as wicked as Cain--she nurses him back to health. While she ministers to his needs, she must endure the criticism of her fellow Plain people and the scorn of her one active suitor. At the same time, a few of the Plain people elders recognize that Cain's skill with a gun could be useful in their ongoing struggle with the cattlemen. The result is a series of confrontations in which Cain and Rachel are both forced to acknowledge their pasts--his desperately evil; hers blindly pious--in order to forge a future together. This very entertaining tale is equal parts "Shane", "The Angel and the Badman", and "Friendly Persuasion". There are choice subplots, wonderful secondary characters, and explosive action. Ultimately, though, the novel is, at its core, a carefully drawn love story in which two people from vastly different backgrounds struggle to find a common ground for their future. Western romance at its best from a master of the form and the author of the breakthrough novel "Heart of the West".
Cathe Robin
Ms. Williamson's talent is reaching new and more stunning heights in this remarkable. -- Romantic Times
Kirkus Reviews
Williamson's second hardcover (after Heart of the West, 1995) is a winner for lovers of western historical romance.

This time, the author cuts through the excessive description that bogged down her previous novel and hits pay dirt with her love story of gunfighter Johnny Cain and Amish widow Rachel Yoder. Johnny Cain, critically wounded, stumbles across the wild hay meadow of Plain Rachel, a sheep rancher on the Montana frontier whose husband was hanged by vigilantes encouraged by a villainous cattle baron. Rachel and her stuttering son Benjo follow the Straight and Narrow way of the Amish. Johnny Cain, on the other hand, is a fancy-dressing shooter who is following the path to hell. Because Cain (never called John or Johnny) is thought to be close to death, Rachel gets to take him to her bed, and with the town's cynical doctor by her side, she gets to see him naked ("One of the doctor's pale eyebrows lifted and his mouth curled slightly. `There's nothing wrong in admiring God's handiwork, Plain Rachel' "). Defying the brethren, Rachel keeps Cain on to help out while his wounds heal. Between scenes of growing sexual tension, Williamson gives the reader an absorbing and well-researched education in both 19th-century sheep ranching and the period's frontier brothels. As Rachel and Cain bond, Cain also helps Rachel's son learn some important young-boy lessons. The question is: How can Rachel reconcile her spiritual beliefs with the dictates of her heart? Given the nature of the genre, of course, Williamson could never allow her worthy heroine to spend a lifetime in a religious community that disapproved of oral sex. ("The horror . . .," observes an intruding neighbor, "Dear God in heaven, he had been feeding on her.")

Williamson has a talent for live action and western melodrama. As romance readers say: a keeper.

From the Publisher
San Francisco Chronicle Williamson knows how to spin a lively yarn, and she's not afraid to take the time to develop substantial, multidimensional characters who keep the reader galloping through the pages.

Romantic Times A larger-than-life spellbinding tale told in the tradition of the grand epic. A novel readers will long remember.

Denver Post This fast-paced absorbing novel bursts with lively dialogue and with all the colorful drama an untamed land can offer. More important, though, it vibrates with full-dimensional engaging characters encompassing the complete spectrum of humanity and subtly complementing and contrasting with each other.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780783819075
  • Publisher: Macmillan Library Reference
  • Publication date: 12/1/1996
  • Series: G. K. Hall Romance Series
  • Pages: 649
  • Product dimensions: 6.41 (w) x 9.48 (h) x 1.47 (d)

Meet the Author

Penelope Williamson is the author of numerous novels including Heart of the West, Once in a Blue Moon, Keeper of the Dream, and Wild Yearning. She lives in Mill Valley, California.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 3 )
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Sort by: Showing all of 4 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 25, 2004

    Amazingly Beautiful

    I absolutely loved this book and could not put it down. It was the first book I read of this author and I loved it. I had dreams about it so I could not put it down. I recommend this book to everyone. The ending was unforgettable even now Im still thinking about it. Just amazing!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 23, 2000

    Wow!

    I just closed the cover of The Outsider and I'm still recovering! This is the first of this author's work I've read and, if her other books are like this, I'll be recommending her strongly to all my bookworm acquaintances. Her characters are extremely well drawn - not just bad or good, black or white - no, (with the rare exception of the nasty hired gunslingers one of the protagonists comes up against) they're each drawn with all the ambiguities, all the shadings of dark and light that real people have. And, the path chosen and walked by the Plain people - an obvious offshoot of the Pennsylvania Deutsch (Amish) - seems to be fairly drawn, at least to an ignorant Outsider like me.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 8, 2000

    Surprisingly delighted!

    This book was charming. I was apprehensive about it at first, probably since I'm not that crazy about western-type novels, but I was very glad I picked it up and took it home. I fell in love with all the characters and was amazed how I couldn't wait to read the next chapter after putting it down. The ending was what did it for me. It was well-written and unforgettable. I recommend this for anyone who loves a good story.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 1, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

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