A Christmas Haven ~ Review

A Christmas Haven
An Amish Christmas Romance
By Cindy Woodsmall
  and Erin Woodsmall

Ivy Zook wants to leave the confinement of her Old Order Amish upbringing behind - she wants the freedom to be herself. But to do this she'll have to hurt her family and walk away from the family farm. Not wanting to leave her mother with the daily labor of the farm she pushes her mother to sell the farm. But with her sister Holly's wedding soon to be upon them Ivy temporarily postpones her plans.

Arlan Keim is desperate to get his sister Magda the medical help she needs. His family is an ultraconservative sect that shuns everything modern and any perceived sin is met with the strictest measures by their father. But when their trip for medicine ends with a crash into Greene's Pharmacy their plans are suddenly upset.

The Zooks open their home to the Keim siblings as Magda recovers and Arlan offers to help around the farm - milking the cows, making repairs, and helping out with the crops. Can the kinder freer attitude of the Zook's community offer something that will appeal to Arlan and Magda?

 Christmas is a time for miracles and grace and A Christmas Haven has both as Ivy, Holly, Arlan, and Magda all find something worth having. At approximately 200 pages this book is a surprisingly quick read. The story is well-paced and enjoyable. One can relate to the characters as they navigate life and try to find where they fit in it. I really like Ivy and like how her character just comes alive and she makes the scenes something more with her very presence.

I was provided a complimentary of this book with no expectations but that I provide my honest opinion - all thoughts expressed are my own.



About the Book:

In a desire to grow her budding party-planning business,

Ivy plans to leave behind her Old Order Amish community

and enter the modern world as an Englischer.

Old Order Amish Ivy Zook is wrestling with her need to shed her community's ways so she can grow the business of her dreams: planning parties. As long as she's stuck living without modernization, she can barely get her business on its feet. But if she leaves too soon, she'd cause trouble for her sister, Holly, who is planning her wedding to Joshua Smucker. All of their plans become twice as complicated when an old car crashes into the storefront of Greene's Pharmacy, carrying a Swartzentruber (ultra-conservative sect) Amish man, Arlan, and his very ill sister.

The Zooks take in Arlan and Madga, tending to the woman's illness and Arlan begins helping around the family farm. Ivy and Arlan are on different tracks, one wanting to leave her community and the other to return to his. But both young people are trying to discover what God has in store for their futures and what miracles might lie around the corner this Christmas season.