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This successful follow-up to Wings of Refuge and Eve’s Daughters combines a strong spiritual story line with endearing, believable characters during the Great Depression. “How’s a scrawny young thing like you, with three little kids to raise, ever going to run a big outfit like Wyatt Orchards?” the widowed Eliza Rose Wyatt is asked. She’s desperate to hold on to the only real home she has ever known, but Eliza believes it will take a guardian angel to help her succeed. When the handsome hobo, Gabriel Harper, comes into her life, Eliza at first holds him at arm’s length, wondering whether the aptly named mysterious stranger could be the guardian angel she’s been waiting for. The strength of this beautifully descriptive book is its characters, from the whimsical, eccentric “Aunt Batty” to the one-eyed dog, “Winky.” Austin incorporates subtle allusions to the angel theme throughout the text in everything from a Christmas tree ornament to the birth of a calf. Underlying layers of the story deal with the impact a father has on future generations and the importance of following one’s dreams in spite of opposition. Throughout, readers are teased with misconceptions about Gabriel that are resolved in an unexpected manner. The flashbacks to the past can feel somewhat jarring, but Austin’s writing is strong enough to take the reader through them with only a few difficulties. If Christian fiction fans haven’t discovered Austin before, this appealing book will send them to her backlist, wanting more.

This is my first encounter with Lynn Austin. I enjoy historical fiction, but have not read many books set during the Great Depression. This is a favourite era of mine, so I anticipated a great read in this book and was not disappointed!!


Let me begin by saying that I loved this book and I hated it. No, that’s not quite right. I loved this book, but I hated some of the characters in it! I believe this is what Lynn Austin intended. Her characters are so believable that the reader finds herself so immersed in the story that strong emotions like love and hate are felt throughout the duration of this novel.


Lynn drew me in immediately with her detailed and humourous descriptions of her characters and their hilarious antics, such as Aunt Batty and her one-eyed hunting dog, Winky, who meanders around the farm in a zig zag line because he cannot see straight! Or her pampered cats, Queen Esther and Annabella, the latter one who so longs to have kittens that she pretends the kids’ mittens are her kittens!! I found myself laughing outloud at these outrageous characters throughout the beginning of this book. The author has you so “in love’ with these characters that as you learn more about their pasts and the crueler characters in their lives, you feel emotions close to hate. I found myself reminding myself that “these are only fictional characters and don’t get so upset!” Yes, the animals in this book are characters in their own right!


Lynn Austin succeeds in describing characters that we can all probably relate to in some part of our lives or pasts. Including the despicable sorts that cause damage to us or our loved ones. Her descriptions of Frank Wyatt are powerful and the actions of this character and his negative influence on the lives of his own family members were the parts of the novel that I hated. Yes, they were necessary. In fact, this character was central to all the story lines in this book. It is his selfish, mean-spirited and evil character that causes the reader to feel such hostile feelings towards him. Yet again, I say, I loved this book.


The author cleverly tells the story through various different points of view. Each character’s narration is followed by a chapter on “Wyatt Orchards” during one season or another. It could be argued that the orchard became one of the characters in this novel! In fact, this novel would be an excellent one to study in detail. Each character’s narration brings another piece to the puzzle of this family and helps the reader (and in fact the characters in this book) understand the motivations that drove each character to act the way they did. It is a mystery of sorts that is carefully revealed through each chapter of the book, by different characters and their personal life stories, until the mystery is solved at the end. It has the reader guessing, along with the main character, about who the real identity of one character is.


The character descriptions, the plot (how will Eliza Wyatt save the family Orchard for an inheritance for her children during the Great Depression) and the plot- within-the-plot (which is essentially the retelling of personal stories of the lives of certain characters,) and the emotional dialogues between characters all contribute to making this novel the unique tapestry that it is. It is a definite must read for all fiction lovers, as well as critical readers, who will find this book a gold mine. Go out and get this book today!