This was a book that I purchased Christmas 2013 but just read this Christmas. I guess I am a "little" slow! But it was such a fun book to read that I am glad that it didn't stay on my "TBR" pile any longer.
This book is actually four different novellas written by four different authors, from none of which I had previously read anything. So all new authors for me.
The novellas follow in time sequential order with the first starting in 1820 about a house know as the Graff House, which was in she location of Schooley's Mountain in New Jersey. Steven Yost is the local carpenter who becomes very fond of Annaliese Braun and is determined to build a house for her.
The next novella takes us to 1868 and a story about giving an orphaned girl a place to stay temporarily with a woman who has claims to not want any children.
The third novella takes place in 1910 with this house serving as an orphanage. Ready to lose the house and property due to back taxes, manager Olympia Paris fights to earn whatever it takes to pay them off, only to fall short on the due date.
The final novella dates to an unknown modern-day setting and the house serving as a transitional house for foster children.
The story was fun to read as it progressed over time, but always serving to be a place of refuge for those needing help in some way. This was a good Christmas read and I loved how it progressed in four generations of time.
