Bridge to Haven: A Novel (A Riveting Historical Christian Fiction Romance Set in 1950s Hollywood)

This book starts with an abandoned baby girl who was named Abra by her foster parents. The characters are rich and the story is intricate and follows her and the lives she touched. The mistakes and the power of God and his forgiveness and plans for us are woven into a story of a hurting young woman who made so many wrong turns. I have read all of this authors books and have been enriched by each one. Like all of her books I will save this one to read again. It us that good.

A wonderful book. Very heart warming and lots of truth about life in this book .A great read from finish to start . I loved it beautiful and bravo 🌹🌹

This book made me feel many different emotions. I felt intense anger at Pastor Zeke for giving Abra away. I see some reviewers stopped reading after that. I wish they hadn't. It is all explained in the end. Some reviewers felt that Abra took all blame. No she did not. When she went to finally comfront Zeke, he owns his part. I got frustrated with Abra at times. But I remembered my own self destructive behaviour due to hurt also caused by being 'given away', and I realised that my frustration was because I was looking at her choices through the eyes of an adult, not a wounded child. Others would do well to remember that too. I was mad her for not fighting back when she was taken for the abortion, but she did a good job beating herself up for that decision. Not to mention what happened afterwards to cause even more guilt in her heart. Some were freaked out by her and Joshua. They may have been foster siblings for a very short while, but ultimately they were nothing more than friends. They were NOT blood related so I didn't have issue with that. After all, it was only a short awhile ago, relatively speaking, that 1st cousins were still getting married to each other. Perspective. I love Francine Rivers's books and have always found them to be sound Christian fiction. So I was mortified to read one review that said the story contained explicit sex! I avoid books with sex scenes but I couldn't fathom it as I've read so many of this authors books! I had to give her the benefit of the doubt. I'm so glad I did. WHAT A LIE! The scene in question is on the wedding night. Joshua is super sensitive to the fact that she has suffered a lot of abuse. The scene is NOT sensual or sexually decriptive but a picture of loving care towards one another, putting your spouse before yourself. It is imo, a beautiful picture of the union God intended. To make it into something as ugly as explicit sex that is cheap and common and freely available in most books - that is unfair and not true. It is nothing like that! I'm truly glad I gave Ms Rivers the benefit of the doubt. Im also glad i persevered through my anger, frustration and tears because in the end, it was an amazing story of God's forgiveness. One I'm well acquainted with. My only gripe was the ending with Susan. That was a bit anticlimatic. I had already figured things out long before it came to light but the ending made me want to go with 4 stars. In the end the quality of writing demanded 5 stars. I hope you give this book a chance and see for yourself how wonderful God's love and forgiveness is.

*Spoilers*I am going to start this review by saying, if you come here expecting this book to be as good as Redeeming Love . . . I am sorry but that is not going to happen. I am not saying this book isn't great, I am just saying Redeeming Love is one of a kind and not every novel can live up to it's expectations. Now, since we got that out of the way, Bridge to Haven is a great book. I truly enjoyed it. Obviously it has it's moments where your questioning the plot and characters but that is the point. I saw many people questioning " 'why did Pastor Zeke abandon Abra?', 'why wasn't her second family more loving?', 'why weren't they better Christians and showed her she's welcomed?' " when that is the point of the book. The point was, though Zeke was a Pastor he is not perfect and he makes mistakes... though her family loved her they might not have known how to properly express it... though they we're Christians, we don't always act the "right" Christian way. Zeke took Abra home because his wife wanted her (since the beginning he thought it was a bad idea) and when his wife died, he freaked out and made a decision that affected everyone around him... isn't that how life happens? We are not perfect, we make impulsive decisions that we think is for the best when it clearly is not. The book isn't trying to depict a perfect scenario, it is depicting a real situation. But of course, the book did have some down falls such as being a bit predictable and cut-off story lines (Abra's biological mother, Joshua's high school friend) and so on but all in all I think the book was good. Not the best but also not the worst. The book has a strong message behind it, which I think is that God never forsakes you and is always waiting for you to come home with open arms and that He is very loving, kind, forgiving, understanding and is not ashamed of you at all. You are His child and He has unconditional love for youI hope this review helps. Sorry about the spoilers

This is a great story of wandering but the how God redeems His people. It is a must read for everyone!

A beautiful story of waiting in prayer and the redeeming love of God. Very compelling from the beginning to the end.

I didn’t want to read this book. I read the plot and thought it would be boring. I wanted a modern love story. But one chapter in and I was hooked. Loved this book! I loved the characters and story. You could relate to their situations and really felt like you were there. And the love story is romantic :) There were a few times I wanted to scan through the pages when the author was describing something in too much detail. Some parts of the book could have been condensed and I found them boring. But it was only a small part of the book. I would recommend this book to any romance novel fans. Or anyone looking for a redemptive story.

Love Francine Rivers books. She always put in interesting historical things too, not only the story itself but back in that timezoon. And it makes it come so much more alive. And also how she helps you see God and His people in different perspectives, helps you have more faith and hope for future that all things are possible with God. I dont want to share too much about this book, but its a really adventurous, heartbreaking from time but most hope filled book. Highly recommend!

Très beau roman, avec de beaux rebondissements, je recommande, pour ceux qui lisent l'anglais !J'aime beaucoup cet auteur <3

This is an excellent Story of how we sometimes get rumbled in the too many activities of this life, while Jesus is always reaching out to us to come and cast our burdens on Him, for HE cares for us. The different characters displayed shows how imperfect man is and how God loves us past our imperfection. He needs us to TRUST Him always to take us through Life to our eternal destination - To be with Him forever.