Customer Reviews

The Butterfly Garden (Five Star Expressions)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really enjoyed Jacob's Return, so was happy to find this book, as well.

Not quite so polished as Jacob's(bails for bales, moon shining in a blizzard, etc.), but a very good read, nonetheless. Blair's writing has something mesmerizing about it.

I hope she writes many more 'bonnet' books. I like the reality she throws in them, sex and all. Her Amish world is not all sugar-coated and well-mannered. Her characters are so well-developed, and so real.

I was sorry to come to the end of this beautifully redemptive story.

Butterfly Garden is a true, heartfelt story that celebrates the bonds of family, the restorative power of God's love, and the healing that comes from having loved ones to share our joys and sorrows. This is a very emotional book with passages that will bring you to tears as well as passages to make you laugh. Amish fans, Christian romance fans, historical fans will all love this book!

The story begins in Walnut Creek, Ohio, 1883. Amishwoman Sara Lapp, has all but been shunned for studying with "the English" local doctor, Dr. Jordan Marks, to become a midwife. After months of waiting, she is called to tend the birth of her best friend, Abby. However, upon arriving, Sara finds Abby has already died in childbirth. Abby's husband, "Mad" Adam Zuckerman, did not want Sara to help Abby deliver the baby. He wants Sara to take his four daughters, including the new born, home with her to raise.

Adam is a self-appointed outcast. He keeps everyone at a distance. He dares not love anyone, including Abby and his children. Adam's childhood had been far from happy. In fact, Adam never recalls smiling even once in his entire life. Adam fears that he has too much of his father in him and he cannot have his children around him without Abby to protect them should his father's blood prove true. It is best for him, and his children, that they be raised with someone who could give them the love they so desperately need. Someone like Sara.

When a drunken Adam falls from a barn loft Sara moves in to tend him, and she brings his girls. Then the Bishop and the Elders take a stand. They must marry or they, and the children, would be shunned. Sara knows there is something good in Adam. There has to be or Abby would never have fallen in love with him and married him. Sara has hope of drawing it out of him. She hopes to heal him. If not, she will love and raise the children as her own.

Unexepected help, and trouble, arrives when Lena (Adam's mother) and Emma (Adam's quiet sister) knock on the door. Adam has believes them to have died long ago, another lie from his father. Now Sara has help with the children and can do her midwife duties without worrying about the children. However, Adam, Lena, and Emma have much to resolve. Sara must teach everyone in her new home that there is a time for everything under God's heaven. Now is the time for healing. Yet as Sara teaches those she loves to bloom, they teach her much more in return.

***** Fans of the TV show "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" will adore this novel! Sara came across to me as almost a mirror image of Dr. Quinn. She is strong when need be (stubborn), stands up for those in need (sharp tongued), and has so much love to give everyone. She also must deal with the Amish ordnung (rules) which makes everything near impossible. I found myself cheering her on to victory.

The author, Annette Blair, has a real writing talent. She inserts tiny things that the reader does not immediately notice, but makes the reader come to care for the characters as if they were kin. You may need tissues nearby at some points of the story. Another award winner that I cannot recommend highly enough. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

In 1883 Walnut Creek, Ohio, partially ostracized midwife Sara Lapp rushes to help Abby Zuckerman give birth for the fourth time in four years. However, Abby's spouse Mad Adam refuses to allow her to see his wife. Instead he tells her to take his four daughters with her. Adam believes that his children would be better off with Sara, who agrees to temporarily watch the children once she learns that Abby died birthing their fourth daughter.

A few weeks later, Adam falls hurting himself. Sara and his four children move in to nurse him over his protestations. Adam fears that he will hurt his daughters just like his father abused him. As he begins to meet his children and become acquainted with Sara, he falls in love with the five females who have disrupted his life. When Bishop Weaver insists they marry, Adam wonders if Sara could learn to love him, which has already happened now that she knows he is not mad or a beast as he cherishes his children.

Annette Blair writes a wonderfully insightful Amish historical romance starring two intriguing lead characters and four precocious little girls. The story line focuses on relationships as Mad Adam fears that he will prove a chip off the old block and abuse his daughters while Spinster Sara courageously confronts him and his phobia. Fans who appreciate a deep look at a different lifestyle will enjoy THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN and THEE, I LOVE for their deep look at the Amish through the eyes of the key cast members.

Harriet Klausner

Even if you don't like historicals and wonder what could possibly be romantic about the Amish, you must read this book! One of the most satisfying romances I've ever read--and that includes the many other Annette Blair novels which I adore.

I loved the premise of this book, read the reviews, and was sorely disappointed. Making it an Amish romance was a little weird, especially when the "Amish" didn't act Amish at all. I've live with Amish neighbors for most of my life & very little in this book reminded me of their simple & dignified lifestyle. The story jogged all over the place, never staying in one direction long enough to follow through. There were endless unbelievable occurrences--one or two could be reasonable, but when the number that occur in this book show up, it makes you think the author was straining for focus. The love scenes seemed lifted from a typical bodice-ripper romance, and everybody was just too nice in the final scene. Ick.

I love any book by Annette Blaire, and she does it again in this compelling story about love and togetherness. Butterfly Garden is a must read. Get it today and fall in love with the hero and heroine as they fall in love with each other. Sweet and Inspirational!

This was such a wonderful book. The characters were so well written and they pulled emotion from the reader. This is a story I will read again and recommend to my sisters. I even learned a little about Amish culture. Please pick up this book it will be worth your time.

I just received this book yesterday afternoon and finished it this morning. I was in the middle of another book, but having read the book Jacob's Return recently by this same author I couldn't wait to start in on this book so I set my other aside and went on a new fulfilling journey with this book and it didn't disappoint. Immediately, the book pulled me in and captured my attention and a piece of my heart.

Midwife and spinster, Sara is summoned to her only friend's house by Abby's husband, Mad Adam nicknamed for his temper and uncaring, detached demeanor. Upon arrival, Sara learns that Abby has died during childbirth and Mad Adam wants Sara to take his four daughters including the newborn to live with her. She is willing to do this for her friend but only for a short time because she knows that the kids need their father and he accepts what he can get for now.

After Sara and the kids are gone he begins to drink heavily and falls from a ladder in his drunken stupor, breaking his arm, ribs and severly breaking his leg through the skin. Nobody is willing to care for Mad Adam and he has no family so Sara agrees to move in and care for him only because she thinks it will allow the kids are their father to be together.

Sara begins to glimpse a different side to Adam that no other has seen but he tries to suppress it and is unwilling to love his children because of deep emotional and physical abuses he endured as a child. As Sara cares for Adam's daily needs the bishop and preachers feel that her living in his home and caring for him has crossed the line and they are forced either to marry or be shunned.

The book is an emotional journey and shows a love like no other. The passion is intense and has a few scenes that are sexually graphic but they add to the emotional barriers being torn down between the characters. The setting, story and the lives of the peple are compelling and feels very real. I can only hope that Annette Blair continues to write additional amish love/romance novels and doesn't stop at these two. I know she writes other romance novels but I really enjoy the amish settings.

There is so much that is beautiful and uplifting in this book that offsets the wading thru the more predictable plot elements of abuse and angst-ridden sexuality. The characters are interesting people you might like to know and the settings in 19th century Amish country are lush. It is really an ambitious and worth while book.