The Refuge {A Book Review}

**Book received for consideration. Post contains affiliate links. All thoughts are 100% my own.

 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.

Ann H. Gabhart is the bestselling author of several Shaker novels--The Outsider, The Believer, The Seeker, The Blessed, and The Gifted--as well as other historical novels, including Angel Sister, These Healing Hills, and River to Redemption. She and her husband live on a farm a mile from where she was born in rural Kentucky. Ann enjoys discovering the everyday wonders of nature while hiking in her farm's fields and woods with her grandchildren and her dog, Frankie. Learn more at www.annhgabhart.com.

To be honest, before reading this book I didn't know anything about the Shakers. The name was of course familiar so I'm sure I'd read about them in passing at some point or another... but I never knew the specifics of how they lived and what they believed. This book was a great introduction, pulling me right into their culture...and oh what a fascinating culture it was! One of the things I love about diving into a good book is the ability to look in on a way of life so different from my own and that is just what 'The Refuge' provided. Though historical fiction isn't my preferred genre, I certainly am fascinated enough to check out more books from this writer about them!

In a great romance, you know from the start that your two love interests are going to end up together. That's the makings of the romance, right? We enjoy watching the romance develop throughout. We know that they will end up together but we are along for the ride to see how it plays out. And this story is very much the same in that you know (or suspect) that Flynn and Darcie will find their way together in the end. Still, what sets this book apart is that these leads cross paths minimally throughout the bulk of the story. While there is certainly that hint of romance- it is not like most romances that I read. The greatest love story is all of it was the love of family--- the love that a parent to a child and the lengths that they will go to to make sure that their child is protected. And there truly is no greater or more beautiful love.

This was a beautiful story and one that I would certainly recommend to anyone who loves historical fiction/romance or truly just to anyone who is really looking for an uplifting story. This truly is that!

'The Refuge' is available to purchase at your favorite Christian book retailers.