Rachel Ray is an 1863 novel by Anthony Trollope. It recounts the story of a young woman who is forced to give up her fiancé because of baseless suspicions directed toward him by the members of her community, including her sister and the pastors of the two churches attended by her sister and mother.

The novel was originally commissioned for Good Words, a popular magazine directed at pious Protestant readers. However, the magazine's editor, upon reading the galley proofs, concluded that the negative portrayals of the Low church and Evangelical characters would anger and alienate much of his readership. The novel was never published in serial form.

Rachel Ray is the younger daughter of a lawyer's widow (referred to as Mrs. Ray). Rachel lives with her widowed older sister, Dorothea Prime (referred to as Mrs. Prime), and her mother in a cottage near Exeter in Devon. Mrs. Ray is amiable but weak, unable to make decisions on her own and ruled by her older daughter. Mrs. Prime is a strict and gloomy Evangelical, persuaded that all worldly joys are impediments to salvation.

Rachel is courted by Luke Rowan, a young man from London who has inherited an interest in the profitable local brewery. Mrs. Prime suspects his morals and motives, and communicates these suspicions to her mother. Mrs. Ray consults her pastor, the Low Churchman Charles Comfort; and upon his vouching for Luke, allows Rachel to attend a ball where Luke will be present.

At the ball, Luke dances multiple times with Rachel and indicates how much he likes her. The next day, he pays a call on Mrs. Ray and requests permission to court Rachel. Mrs. Ray is favorable impressed with Luke and consents to the request. He then meets with Rachel, proposes to her, and she accepts.

Soon after this, Luke falls into a dispute with the senior proprietor of the brewery, Mr. Tappitt, and travels to London to seek legal advice. While he is away, he writes a love letter to Rachel. Meanwhile, rumours circulate (largely coming from the Tappitt family) about Luke's conduct in Devon, for example, that he fled town while owing money. Comfort believes the rumours, and advises Mrs. Ray against permitting a Rachel-Luke correspondence until the young man's character can be established. Rachel obeys her mother's instructions to write Luke only once, in a somewhat cold, formal tone, as if to release him from the engagement. When he fails to reply to her letter or return to Devon, she grows increasingly depressed.

A subplot involves the abortive courtship of Mrs. Prime by her pastor, Samuel Prong. He is a zealous but intolerant Evangelical. His religious beliefs are in agreement with hers—and he also disapproves of Luke—but Prong and Mrs. Prime have incompatible notions of marriage: he insists on a husband's authority over his wife, and in particular over the income from her first husband's estate; Mrs. Prime wants to retain control of her money, and is otherwise unwilling to submit to a husband's rule.

Eventually, Luke returns to Devon, and the dispute over the brewery is settled to his satisfaction. The disparaging rumors about him are retracted. He calls upon the Rays and assures Rachel that his love for her is still strong. She assents to his renewed proposal. Marital bliss ensues.