Bridge to Haven

By Francine Rivers

(Blurb: To those who matter in 1950s Hollywood, Lena Scott is the hottest rising star to hit the silver screen since Marilyn Monroe. Few know her real name is Abra. Even fewer know the price she's paid to finally feel like she's somebody.

To Pastor Ezekiel Freeman, Abra will always be the little girl who stole his heart the night he found her, a wailing newborn abandoned under a bridge on the outskirts of Haven. Zeke and his son, Joshua--Abra's closest friend--watch her grow into an exotic beauty. But Zeke knows the circumstances surrounding her birth etched scars deep in her heart, scars that leave her vulnerable to a fast-talking bad boy who proclaims his love and lures her to Tinseltown. 

Hollywood feels like a million miles from Haven, and naive Abra quickly learns what's expected of an ambitious girl with stars in her eyes. But fame comes at an awful price. She has burned every bridge to get exactly what she thought she wanted. Now, all she wants is a way back home.

In this riveting and highly anticipated tale of temptation, grace, and unconditional love, "New York Times" best-selling author Francine Rivers delivers big-canvas storytelling at its very best.)

This amazing and shocking novel by New York Times Bestselling Author Francine Rivers forces you back to the decade of glamour and movie stars that inhabited most of Hollywood back in the 1950's. But, aside from the outward perfection and the drop-dead gorgeous film stars, we see the inward workings of a young girl lured into the limelight by a set of sweet-talking playboys who proved they'd do or say anything in order to get what they want from her, both on and off the screen. 

Having run away from her safe, yet comparingly dull hometown of Haven, Abra Matthews searches for a place and man to finally make her feel like a somebody, and not only that, she seeks the approval and love she feels that she's been deprived of since her birth; she desires to feel as if she's good enough, and that's a feeling all to familiar (for me in particular). Being abandoned as an infant and passed between families as a child, she struggles with feeling unworthy and abandoned. However deep these scars are, though, she learns, through time, that surrendering herself to please those around her will not make her any more valuable than she already is. And, after this internal revelation, she surrenders her 'runaway' ways and succumbs to one man who has loved her and cared for her since the moment he laid his eyes on her. With his help and encouragement, and by his side, she faces old demons and comes out  the victor, learning that unconditional love is more than just a fairy tale.

This novel is really wonderful. It isn't the typical 'romance, romance, romance' novel that I'm guiltily so drawn to. Yes, it is romantic, completely, but the majority of the novel focuses on Abra when she's in Hollywood, away from the ones who truly love her. The focus is on her mental journey and discovery of who she truly is. 

Through the example of Abra's life, Francine Rivers also shows us how grace and unconditional love can heal a broken and scarred heart and how temptation isn't all it's cracked up to be, that there's more to it than it's addicting allure, that it's dangerous and risky - all the while bringing God into the equation. :)

This is the 5th novel I've read by Francine Rivers, and, I'm sad to say, it wasn't my favourite. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, I really did, but it just couldn't surpass The Mark of the Lion series for me. Sorry! That considered, I give this novel a 9/10. Please read this novel and see for yourself how special it is.