The Refuge by Ann H. Gabhart - Revuew

I received this book free from the publisher. All opinions are my own. 

Book details

Paperback: 400 pages

Publisher: Revell (April 30, 2019)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0800729277

ISBN-13: 978-0800729271

Book description

When Darcie and Walter Goodwin hear of a new cholera epidemic sweeping the area, they join the Shakers whose villages seem immune to the disease. It's meant to be a temporary stay, but Walter is killed in a riverboat accident. With no family and no money, Darcie has little choice but to stay with the Shakers. To complicate matters, she is expecting a baby conceived before she and her husband came to the Shaker village. Marital relationships are considered sinful in this celibate community, putting Darcie in a unique--and lonely--position. Can the arrival of widower Flynn Keller and his headstrong daughter offer Darcie the hope of happiness . . . and family?

Ann H. Gabhart returns to the enigmatic world of the Shakers in this emotional exploration of the power of love and the bond of family.

Meet the author - Ann H. Gabhart

Ann H. Gabhart grew up on a farm in Kentucky. By the time she was ten she knew she wanted to be a writer. She's published over twenty novels. She and her husband have three children and nine grandchildren. She still lives on a farm not far from where she grew up. She loves playing with her grandkids, walking with her dog, reading and, of course, writing. Her Shaker books, set in her fictional Shaker village of Harmony Hill in the 1800's, are popular with readers. The Outsider was a Christian Fiction Book Award Finalist in 2009. Her Heart of Hollyhill books are Small Town, America books set in the 1960's. Angel Sister, a Rosey Corner book set during the Great Depression, will be followed by Small Town Girl. 

Visit Ann's website http://annhgabhart.com or her two blogs, 

One Writer's Journal, www.annhgabhart.blogspot.com, and

Hollyhill Book of the Strange, www.hollyhillbookofthestrange.blogspo.... 

Giveaways several times a year.

My thoughts

I liked how the author showed all the emotions of trying to fit in somewhere that is not necessarily your normal place. That can be hard to do. It also makes the characters more real to see them go through everyday situations even if it is set in a different time. I did not realize in some Shaker communities the children are kept separate from the parents. I don't know that I could do that, although if that is all you know I am sure it may be easier. While reading this I not only got to know the characters I learned a little more about the Shaker community and their ways. Not my ways but that is their choice to live that way and to each his own. This was a very enjoyable book that I did not want to put down. The author has a nice way of writing so the story flows off the pages and her descriptions of places and people make you feel a part of the story.