Haven: A Western Frontier Historical Fiction Novel

by Irene Bennett Brown

Book Overview

Laila Mitchell has little money, her medical knowledge, a medicine kit, and the clothes on her back when she sets out to search for her last living relatives in 1890's Oregon.

Stranded in the Snake River Canyon, she settles into a small mining community named Venture and from there she serves as practical nurse to scattered miners and settlers. Laila is soon entangled in the hardships of frontier life, guardianship of a "wild child",...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1639777512
• ISBN13: 9781639777518
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing LLC
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Keeper

With determined will and strength, an impoverished Laila Mitchell sets out from St. Louis to find her last living relatives in Oregon. Lack of money forces her to settle short of her destination in a small mining community in the Snake River Canyon where she manages to support herself by nursing the miners and settlers. With fortitude, Laila faces each new setback that might break the will of a weaker person. She even assumes the care of an abandoned child while falling in love with attractive rancher and hotel owner, Ash Corbett. But Ash is betrothed and wealthy, and Laila believes there is no chance he could ever love her. The reader is quickly drawn into Laila's plight while fearing she can't possibly overcome each new obstacle placed in her path. There is much to be enjoyed and appreciated in this story. As always, Brown gives the reader a fast-paced, well-written story filled with compassion, human strength, courage, and hope. Brown's heroines are always strong western women to be admired and remembered. Brown is a writer to put on your favorites list.

What an enchanting book!

I downloaded The Haven from my library and listened to it in one sitting. The story was wonderful, the characters delightful, and spending the day "living" with Laila and Ash proved to be a great way to spend my time. The reader, Stephanie Brush, does a very good job with the voices--I had no trouble knowing who was speaking whether that person was identified by gender or not. Irene Bennett Brown has written a series of four books placed in Paragon Springs. I'm now off to listen to them. What fun to discover a new author! Carol

Warm and wonderful

Irene Bennett Brown's Haven blends impeccable historical research with a romantic plot reflecting the morals and manners of the 19th Century. It's this kind of accuracy that has endeared Brown to her fans. For history buffs, background details on her strong-willed heroine, Laila Mitchell's, crusade against the destructive patent medicine industry lend an unmistakable aura of authenticity. Even a wee glimpse of the well-constructed plot would spoil the intrigue for readers. But the setting is a search for her grandparents that leads to a magical peach-laden canyon, and the handsome entrepreneur, Ash Corbett, who disapproves of her independent bent. There's an adorable wild cat of a little girl, and Ash's father, a cantankerous old man who fights change to the last ditch. Haven is a treat for readers of all ages. Another feather in the cap of this fine historical novelist!

powerfully vivid description of a bygone era

Laila Mitchell was an orphan by the time she was fifteen. A few years later in 1893, Laila decides to join her grandparents living in la Grande, Oregon where she hopes to make a living from her medical skills learned nursing an elderly person for five years. In Boise, Laila meets widow Kate Boston who is crossing the Snake River to work as a housekeeper to a gold mine owner, Austin Corbett. When Kate is injured in an accident, she persuades Laila to cover for her on her new job until she can take over.Across the river, the two women are shocked to learn that Ruby Gold is not a mine, but a peach farm. Austin welcomes the two women, but his father is nasty and abrupt. Austin warns Laila not to go down river, but she does anyway. There she is the only female besides an abandoned wild child. Austin keeps coming down to ostensibly see that's he is okay, but in fact has fallen in love with Laila. She reciprocates, but her need for independence threatens any future together.HAVEN provides readers with picturesque view of life in a remote area (decades before Kneval's failed jump) during ironically that is so opposite to what is often seen in novels occurring during the "gay nineties". The cast is fabulous as fans can see their movies especially the heroine's need to prove herself to herself. Fans of historical fiction with romance as a secondary subplot will take immense pleasure in this powerfully vivid description of a bygone era.