"Bridge to Haven" by Francine Rivers {Age warning!!}

First off, please be cautious reading this review if you're under 20. There is high s*xual content in the book and this review. I had very high expectations for this book after hearing so much good about Francine Rivers. It technically is consider a Christian book because it’s published by a Christian publisher. Had I known what was in the first 9 chapters (which is all I read and reviewed) I would not have picked up this book! I’m not holding back on the details of this review, so read at your own caution.

 

About this book:

   “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.”


 Series: As of now, no.

Spiritual Content- Scriptures are quoted; Hymns are played on a piano & sung; A man is mad at God & says he wants to spit in His face; Many Prayers & talking to God; Zeke is a Pastor; 13-year-old Abra wonders what God ever did for her; 13-yea-old Abra also says/yells/prays to God that if a certain person dies she’s hate Him forever; Talks about God, His Love, and His Will for us.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘h*llfire’, an unfinished ‘son of a—“, a ‘goddess’, a ‘foul name’ is said but not written, a ‘the devil’, a ‘like the dickens’, a ‘piece of trash’, a ‘tough!’, a ‘witch’, two ‘stupid’s, two curses are said but not written, three ‘shut up’s, four ‘idiot’s; “Mother” says she has to find a way to kill herself; Cigarette smoking; Wars, Blood, Bombs (all semi) and bugs coming out people’s skin (detailed); Joshua talks with the devil? (I don’t know how to explain this…); Lots of drinking, getting drunk and having a hangover; Dylan shakes, gives bruises and hints Abra; Fighting.     

Sexual Content- a ‘hot’, a ‘stumpet’, sixteen ‘baby’s; Four Semi-kisses, not detailed kisses; s*x scenes (see below); “Mother” has a baby (Abra) it’s not very detailed, but we don’t know if it’s out of wedlock; A hint of what couples do in the back row at the Swan Theater; Abra wonders what a guy would look like in a bathing suit; Joshua tells Abra that Dylan is “it’s not about love, Abra. It’s about s*x, the basest kind”; Dylan says (to her face!) he wants to get his hands on Abra, that’s he’s going to “have fun with her”, that he can’t wait to get her in bed (Abra wonders if the “earth will move, like Penny’s hidden romance books said”) but Dylan has no plans to marry her (Yet, Abra stays with him!); Abra thinks/says she knows nothing about s*x besides that it is a mystery; A getting undressed for a s*x scene, Dylan takes Abra’s clothes off  (This is when Abra at 16) thankfully it’s not very detailed but it is detailed and there; Dylan flirts & kisses other girls; Dylan takes Abra to a place where n*ked women dance for a room full of men, the waitress are topless and Dylan gives Abra a pill that makes her dance s*xual; bikini wearing; at a party, a naked man and woman run out to the beach; Dylan says “when push came to shove, she lost her nerve” when talking about another girl, then another; Dylan’s mother calls Abra “this one” and tells him to take Abra to the doctor for protection and that if him creates another little problem he’ll have to make payments for the arrangements “this time around”; Dylan gives Abra a look (many times) and we get told they have s*x; Dylan wakes Abra up so he can have the bed for “one last hurrah” with another girl; Dylan watches Abra change; Abra gets asked why she stayed with Dylan “he is good in bed?” she does not reply; Franklin tells Abra that she has a “very nice, very nice indeed” body, but says he’s not after what she’s thinking; Affairs are mentioned loosely; Franklin says he won’t compromise Abra’s virtue, Abra wonders if she has any left; Abra says that Franklin says that her audition wasn’t about s*x, but she still wonders; Franklin said he met a woman at a drive-in, she leaned over to take his order, he saw “her assets”, lost his head had an affair with her that ruined his marriage (which he is not broken hearted about at all); Franklin looks at his bed then at Abra and asks “No?” and when she does not reply he says “Good girl”; Dylan asked how well Abra played for Franklin; a hairdresser tells Abra “Men will see your eyes first, then the rest of you” and fixes her hair over her bre*sts.   {{{According to other reviews on Goodreads, there is a very, very detailed s*x scene at the end with two married people (I’ll let you guess who) on their wedding night.}}}

-Abra *enter one of her last names here*

-Ezekiel “Zeke” Freeman

-Joshua Freeman
                      P.O.V. of switches between them, Mitzi and Abra’s birth mother (once)

                                              Starts in 1936 and goes past 1955
                                                        468 pages

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 Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens- 

My personal Rating-

Folks, that all was by chapter nine—and not even half way through the book!

First, let me just say one of my biggest pet peeves is when a guy (normally a jerk) calls a girl “baby”! I absolutely despise it! I honestly can’t tell you how disappointed I was with this book! Other reviews have said it was like a Harlequin Romance novel. Now, I’ve never read one of those (and I never will!) but those are some of those books you see in mainstream bookstores with half-naked people on the cover! The bedroom scenes were so much! (And apparently there’s more?!) I honestly can’t believe a Christian publisher would publish this! There was barely any Christian content and with all that s*xual it could have been a mainstream book! And that is something no Christian author wants to come across as.

See y’all tomorrow with a review of a book that’s become one of my favorites I’ve ever read & reviewed!
      {Psst! have you seen our Giveaway? Open Worldwide & ends on the 5th!}

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

*I received this book for free from the Publisher (Tyndale ) for this review.