ECPA BESTSELLER • 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 … 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.
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A Christmas Haven is another heartwarming Christmas novella by the team of Cindy Woodsmall and her daughter-in-law Erin. In this book readers will revisit characters from last year’s Christmas novella, The Christmas Remedy. Not only will they catch up with Holly and Joshua but Holly’s sister Ivy takes center stage along with a couple of totally new characters.
The story itself actually covers a number of months but concludes during the Christmas season. Ivy finds the strict rules of her Old Order Amish community to be restrictive and has already begun to make plans to leave when Arlan and his sister Madga take refuge in her family’s home. The brother and sister are members of an even more conservative Amish group and find the Old Order practices to be quite liberal in comparison to how they have been raised. Over time both Arlan and Ivy begin to question their personal beliefs and decisions they have made.
I thoroughly enjoyed A Christmas Haven and appreciated the spiritual journey that several characters traveled during the course of the book. I encountered a number of very quotable passages during my reading and particularly liked the conclusions that Arlan came to about grace.
A Christmas Haven is another keeper for my growing collection of Christmas themed books. Readers who enjoy Amish fiction should love this one.
I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by Waterbrook Multnomah. A favorable review was not required. All views expressed are my own.
Such a beautifully written book! Ivy Zook is wanting to leave the old order Amish Faith. Her Mamm, Betty Zook, tells her daughter that she must stay in the Amish Faith until her sister, Holly, is married in January. Ivy is curious but follows her mom’s request. Arlan Kiem, a Swartzentruber Amish, needs to protect his sister and find her medical help. After crashing his car, Arian and his sister, Magda, go and stay with the Zoom family. Everyone loves the Kiem siblings, but Ivy isn’t impressed with Arlan. Arian and Ivy both need to learn how to see the differences in each other’s lifestyles and be more accepting to how those differences are Gods way of showing us his love. This book makes you remember to stop focusing on our wants and needs,and to remember God’s purpose for us all. To keep our Faith in love in his words! This book is a true blessing and reminded for us all to remember those words and to allow God to work through us.
I enjoyed this second book in this series, and love being updated in the lives of the previous characters, and now moving on with some of the other folks me met in Christmas Remedy, and note that they can stand alone, but love having read both.
We meet a young man willing to sacrifice all he has for the love and care of his sister, and an Amish woman who feels the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
The author treats us to some information about different groups of the Amish religion, and with this story we see some of what it is like to be a member of the strictest sect, Swartzentruber.
Most of all I so enjoyed the epilogue, we get to know the future after the books conclusion.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Waterbrook, and was not required to give a positive review.
The title of this book is so appropriate. Ivy Zook yearns for the freedom she believes she will find when she leaves the confines of her Amish heritage in order to grow her party-planning business. Swartzentruber Amish Arlan Keim and his sister, Magda leave their ultraconservative Amish sect after Magda makes a serious error in judgement. Can they return home, or will they like Ivy and her sister Holly find their Christmas Haven? There are so many layers to the story as each character discovers the true meaning of Christmas. I delight in Author Cindy Woodsmall’s Christmas books and encourage you to check them out. A great gift for yourself or a friend.
I was given a copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions are my own.
A Christmas Haven, a touching Christmas story, gives us a glimpse of the Zook family, one year after the story, The Christmas Remedy.
Ivy Zook, like most young people, is struggling with who she is and who she wants to be. It is a struggle that will touch a chord in almost everyone’s life. However, her dilemma is complicated by her being Old Order Amish.
Arlan and Magda Keim, brother and sister, land in Ivy’s area when running from an even stricter Amish group. Arlan knows his sister desperately needs help, and by helping her he violated so many rules he may not ever be able to return home. He already knows Magda cannot return home.
I enjoyed how the focus of the book was more on sibling/family love vs. romantic love. Not to fear though, there is some romance, too! Arlen’s love for Magda was heartwarmingly moving. In addition, Ivy’s conflict, which will affect her sister the most, demonstrated her deep love and affection for her sister, also.
A Christmas Haven illustrates the true meaning of Christmas. As each person struggles to reconcile faith, hopes and dreams, they begin to learn life lessons in honor, forgiveness, kindness and most of all, God’s love for them.
I received the book from Waterbrook Multnomah. However, I was under no obligation to post a review.