Hannah and Ariela

Hannah and Ariela by Johnnie Bernhard is a novel of suspense about two women living very different lives that are brought together by tragedy. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “When Hannah, a seventy-three-year-old widow, finds the semiconscious body of a fourteen-year-old Mexican national in a ditch along a remote central Texas road, she has no idea someone is watching. Not until the girl's brutal attacker arrives at Hannah's door in the middle of the night, threatening not just the girl's but Hannah's very survival. Ultimately the question of justice for a victim of human trafficking and the woman who helps her lies in the hands of a biracial border patrol officer and an unconventional small-town sheriff. The I-10 corridor of Texas connects saints, demons, and victims as the ultimate question of life and death is decided by two strangers fate has bound together. They must make a hard choice in order to survive: either follow the law or follow their consciences.”

Johnny Bernhard returns with her fourth novel, a book of suspense and a family drama about two women living very different lives, one in Texas and one in Mexico, brought together by tragedy. Bernhard's strength is showing the lives of both women, the relationships with their family members, and their lives in their communities. Hannah is a recent widow who desperately misses her husband and struggles to keep their ranch in order. Ariela dreams of going to the US and living a new, very different life. When Ariela is kidnapped by a sadistic trafficker, she finds herself living a nightmare and eventually ends up in a ditch on the side of the road where Hannah finds her. Bernhardt effectively shows the lives of both women and their relationship which grows through their common painful experiences, although the suspenseful elements of the novel could have been ratcheted up a little more. Ultimately, this is an affecting literary novel revealing a modern tragedy that is all too common in the southern border states of America.

I enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 4 and 1/2 stars.