Hello Everyone :)
Happy September!
I'm not going to lie, I couldn't be more excited that it's finally September. I do enjoy each and every season, as I'm thankful for the blessing that our Heavenly Father has gifted us in getting to enjoy each beautiful season and different times of the year.
However, fall is by far my favorite time of the year. It would be a very long list if I were to list every single thing I love about the season. Pumpkin everything, sweaters and riding boots, crisp evening nights, tea and a good book by the fireplace, and the trees turning beautiful, warm colors that inspire and enchant everyone who notices them. Fall is the season that I feel the Lord's majesty is on full display for His children, and I I couldn't enjoy it more.
So for my first book review of my favorite season, I knew it had to be a good one, and I'm here today to share my review with you all of a heartwarming, upcoming holiday novel that will be sure to please.
A Christmas Haven by Cindy Woodsmall and Erin Woodsmall:
Source: Complimentary copy from the publisher (Waterbrook Press) via NetGalley
Publisher: Waterbrook Press/Multnomah
Publication Date: September 24th, 2019
Genre: Christian Fiction/Amish Fiction
Synopsis:
For fans of holiday romances and Amish life comes a new Christmas tale of surprising expectations and discovering miracles.
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.
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
A Christmas Haven is a charming and heartwarming holiday story that focuses on the importance of faith, family and friendship during whatever hardships come to light.
Surprisingly, this was my first experience with a Cindy Woodsmall novel, but she's for sure an author that I will be picking up again in the future, especially her Christmas stories. I didn't actually realize before I picked this one up that it's technically a sequel to Cindy and Erin's novel, The Christmas Remedy. However, it read beautifully as a stand alone, and I never truly felt like I missed out on anything by not having read the first book.
I've read quite a few Amish fiction novels over the years, but this is the first one I've ever personally read that highlighted the conflicts, differences and often tensions between the Swartzentruber Amish and the Old Order Amish. Ivy and her sister Holly have been raised Old Older Amish. Holly has been granted special permission from her Bishop to receive education and training in the health care industry in order to provide better medical care for the Amish community. However, her future within the medical industry remains unclear, as her fiance Josh's Bishop is more traditional and set in his ways, and Holly is unsure if she will be able to continue the work she enjoys doing once her and Josh are finally married. Ivy, on the other hand, is struggling to fit in within the strict guidelines expected of the Old Order Amish, and she's decided to leave the faith in order to start a party planning business with her Englischer best friend.
Arlan and his younger sister Magda have both been raised in the stricter Swartzentruber Amish faith, and have grown up without a lot of the conveniences that are permitted within the Old Order Amish. Arlan has worked hard to be exactly the man his father has expected him to be, and soon he will be permitted to leave the family's farm in order to run a dairy farm in New York with his brother, and finally be reunited with the girl he wants to marry. When Arlan discovers that his younger sister Magda is pregnant, extremely sick, and being denied proper healthcare by their parent's, he knows he can't stand idly by and watch. Instead, he and Magda choose to run away to give her the help she needs, and a chance encounter put them in the pathway of Holly and Ivy Zook. Tensions arise between the siblings who come from different faiths, but a friendship also slowly begins to emerge.
As Ivy and Arlan both wrestle with questions regarding the faith they've been raised in, Cindy Woodsmall and Erin Woodsmall illustrate that above all what's truly important is the answers that are given to each child in His teachings in the scriptures. At the end of the day, each of us is where we are by God's never ending grace, not man's.
I enjoyed this lovely story for the well developed characters, the plot that focuses on real issues and tensions, the developing friendships, and the important messages about faith and letting go and letting God.
I loved curling up with this heart warming story in front of the fireplace, and am so thankful I finally had the chance to pick up a novel by the Woodsmall women. I loved it from start to finish, and I can't wait to read more books from these authors in the future.
Final Rating: 4/5
Thanks so much to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for allowing me to advance read this!
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher (Waterbrook/Multnomah) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not required to give a positive review.
Happy September!
I'm not going to lie, I couldn't be more excited that it's finally September. I do enjoy each and every season, as I'm thankful for the blessing that our Heavenly Father has gifted us in getting to enjoy each beautiful season and different times of the year.
However, fall is by far my favorite time of the year. It would be a very long list if I were to list every single thing I love about the season. Pumpkin everything, sweaters and riding boots, crisp evening nights, tea and a good book by the fireplace, and the trees turning beautiful, warm colors that inspire and enchant everyone who notices them. Fall is the season that I feel the Lord's majesty is on full display for His children, and I I couldn't enjoy it more.
So for my first book review of my favorite season, I knew it had to be a good one, and I'm here today to share my review with you all of a heartwarming, upcoming holiday novel that will be sure to please.
A Christmas Haven by Cindy Woodsmall and Erin Woodsmall:
Source: Complimentary copy from the publisher (Waterbrook Press) via NetGalley
Publisher: Waterbrook Press/Multnomah
Publication Date: September 24th, 2019
Genre: Christian Fiction/Amish Fiction
Synopsis:
For fans of holiday romances and Amish life comes a new Christmas tale of surprising expectations and discovering miracles.
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.
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
A Christmas Haven is a charming and heartwarming holiday story that focuses on the importance of faith, family and friendship during whatever hardships come to light.
Surprisingly, this was my first experience with a Cindy Woodsmall novel, but she's for sure an author that I will be picking up again in the future, especially her Christmas stories. I didn't actually realize before I picked this one up that it's technically a sequel to Cindy and Erin's novel, The Christmas Remedy. However, it read beautifully as a stand alone, and I never truly felt like I missed out on anything by not having read the first book.
I've read quite a few Amish fiction novels over the years, but this is the first one I've ever personally read that highlighted the conflicts, differences and often tensions between the Swartzentruber Amish and the Old Order Amish. Ivy and her sister Holly have been raised Old Older Amish. Holly has been granted special permission from her Bishop to receive education and training in the health care industry in order to provide better medical care for the Amish community. However, her future within the medical industry remains unclear, as her fiance Josh's Bishop is more traditional and set in his ways, and Holly is unsure if she will be able to continue the work she enjoys doing once her and Josh are finally married. Ivy, on the other hand, is struggling to fit in within the strict guidelines expected of the Old Order Amish, and she's decided to leave the faith in order to start a party planning business with her Englischer best friend.
Arlan and his younger sister Magda have both been raised in the stricter Swartzentruber Amish faith, and have grown up without a lot of the conveniences that are permitted within the Old Order Amish. Arlan has worked hard to be exactly the man his father has expected him to be, and soon he will be permitted to leave the family's farm in order to run a dairy farm in New York with his brother, and finally be reunited with the girl he wants to marry. When Arlan discovers that his younger sister Magda is pregnant, extremely sick, and being denied proper healthcare by their parent's, he knows he can't stand idly by and watch. Instead, he and Magda choose to run away to give her the help she needs, and a chance encounter put them in the pathway of Holly and Ivy Zook. Tensions arise between the siblings who come from different faiths, but a friendship also slowly begins to emerge.
As Ivy and Arlan both wrestle with questions regarding the faith they've been raised in, Cindy Woodsmall and Erin Woodsmall illustrate that above all what's truly important is the answers that are given to each child in His teachings in the scriptures. At the end of the day, each of us is where we are by God's never ending grace, not man's.
I enjoyed this lovely story for the well developed characters, the plot that focuses on real issues and tensions, the developing friendships, and the important messages about faith and letting go and letting God.
I loved curling up with this heart warming story in front of the fireplace, and am so thankful I finally had the chance to pick up a novel by the Woodsmall women. I loved it from start to finish, and I can't wait to read more books from these authors in the future.
Final Rating: 4/5
Thanks so much to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for allowing me to advance read this!
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher (Waterbrook/Multnomah) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not required to give a positive review.
Comments
Post a Comment