Sally John

Heidi Hathaway’s life is not only shaken up but altered when she crashes her car on the California freeway. Injured, too weak and exhausted to work, and unable to drive, Heidi has some major decisions to make about her life. When she happens across an acquaintance at the pier on the beach, she finds out about Casa de Vida, a small complex of bungalows hidden away in Seaside Village. When she meets the owner of the complex, she is washed with a sense of peace (the same peace she experienced with one of her nurses in the hospital). Heidi makes the decision to lease her sleek and modern condo–the one she can’t live in because she can’t navigate the stairs–and move into Casa de Vida. As Heidi tries to figure out her new life, her friendships with the other residents grow. The women are always willing to help her or talk to her, and the owner is like a mother figure to the entire group. They are a family. With Heidi’s new life comes strain between her and her best friend (and business partner). Heidi is ready to recover from her accident and get on with her life again. But what will life look like after?

Heaven Help Heidi was the first book I’ve read by Sally John. There were several different points of view in the book, but it wasn’t distracting. If anything, it made the story more well-rounded because as a reader, I was able to experience what many of the people were struggling with both in the past and present. The residents of Casa de Vida are all there divinely and all of them are likable. This book is about relationships, both disfunctional and functional. It’s about family, both traditional and the family that you make when you become about adult. It’s about friendship, how years of friendship can change and how new friendships can become a gift. And it’s about trust others and God with fears, pain, hope, and joy.

Available Feb 1, 2015. Order your copy here

****Harvest House Publishers provided me with a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.