The Haven consumed my thoughts for three days-- until I finished it. Then, I was swept along and began reading a book about living in an Amish community (Better Off by Eric Brende-- which will be blogged about next) immediately after finishing The Haven. That said, Fisher should teach Nicholas Sparks a few things about writing love stories and I may decide to pick up more of his books.
I love Fisher's writing because it deals with serious issues, she has complex characters and at the same time there's a sense of peace within the turmoil because she always manages to neatly wrap up her stories by the end of the book.
I ended up with my mother's copy of The Haven, which had been sent to her by the publisher as a thank you for some of the answers she'd helped provide regarding some of the aspects of birding. Along these lines, I'm just a newbie birder, but it seemed that there were a couple of places where I found myself questioning either myself or the author because of how some of the birding facts were woven in. They sometimes distracted me from the main focus of the story and I couldn't help but wonder if some of them could have been left out because they weren't necessary for the plot (i.e. hearing a Whippoorwill during the mid-day struck me as peculiar while two of the characters were out in a row boat since they're usually associated with evening sounds) or if there may have been a less obvious way to work in the details. It just felt a little contrived with these details at times.
The plot(s) I really enjoyed. The main story launches off when a teenage Amish girl named Sadie Lapp returns home to her family and she has a baby who'd been left in a basket at her feet. The community is aghast and her main suitor tries to help her out by claiming the baby as his and he offers to marry her to help deflect the shame- which totally backfires on him and creates some comical scenes because of his pitiful nature and her heightened annoyance at him.
In the meantime, a young man named Will shows up to help supervise some rare birds that'd taken up residence on Sadie's family's property. This college student is taking some time off because of some of his poor choices and it quickly becomes apparent that he's sweet on Sadie and he's going to make her life even more difficult because of this. Will and Sadie's relationship is intriguing because it highlights the cultural differences between the Amish and the English-- particularly when it comes to dating and friendship. As Sadie tries to sort out her feelings, her mischievous little sister helps her tackle the mystery of the orphaned baby's parents. I can't bare the thought of spoiling the ending, but I can easily say that the book had me ready to take up with the Amish-- particularly for the excuse to work hard and eat well.
