The Butterfly Garden

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.

The Butterfly Garden is a beautifully moving piece of work. It quietly grabs you and immerses you into the lives of these two wonderful people. Sara Lapp is an absolutely wonderful, spunky, loving heroine for the secluded, moody, 'Mad' Adam Zuckerman. They are the epitome of the perfect hero and heroine. Annette Blair writes with such stunning prose, you step into the lives of these people, they aren't even characters, they feel too real to be. Everyone and everything is so fleshed out in exquisite detail, you feel like you are there, with them, and when you're done, you're taken aback at being in the real world once again. The book is aptly named with Adam and even Sara emerging from their cocoons to finally be free. I highly recommend you taking a warm and breathtaking journey through this book, it's one you won't soon forget and you'll find yourself wrapped into the safe cocoon of the Butterfly Garden.

As a contest judge, I was required to read THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN. The competition was unusually good, the books I read delightful. Even in this heady company, however, BUTTERFLY GARDEN stood out. Blair's cadence and word choices were like breaths of fresh air, the characters unique. The book placed second in the More Than Magic contest and more recently first in the Published Beacon competition. There is a reason for that. It is a thoroughly pleasurable read.

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

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.