Elderberry Croft: A Place of Refuge for a Hurting Soul
When Willow Goodhope moved into the old cottage in the Coach House Trailer Park, she named it Elderberry Croft. She had chosen it because she had seen the little elderberry tree growing along the creek near her cottage. It had reminded her of a Bible verse about a tree planted by the water that sent its shoots out and did not need to fear heat or drought. Its leaves would remain green, and it would continue to bear fruit.
As Willow told her neighbor Kathy, ‘I’m like that tree. I’m in a place right now where growing seems almost impossible, but God is teaching me to send my roots toward the water, to choose life, and maybe to bloom where I’m planted, even to bear fruit. For now, this is where I’m planted.’
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What Is Willow’s Secret Hurt?
As soon as Willow got out of her old Toyota truck and started unpacking, her nearest neighbors Kathy and Myra started spying on her. They watched as she transformed the old cottage they both knew was a shack into a hanging garden with her potted plants.
Not only Kathy and Myra but also the rest of the Southern California trailer park residents were curious to see what the young redhead would be like. They couldn’t imagine why someone so young would live at their trailer park. Most of the residents were much older. Most believed they and their neighbors had come to the Coach House Trailer Park to remain until they died. Willow didn’t seem to fit.
Willow was a mystery, an enigma. She managed to find out her neighbors’ secrets as she helped heal their wounded spirits with her goody baskets and tasty things made of elderberries. She somehow managed to help physically and emotionally isolated residents to form healthy and supportive relationships with other residents they knew only as names.
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Willow knew everyone’s problems. No one knew Willow’s. Occasionally someone heard her plaintive singing by the creek or saw her tears. Rumors were that she had a husband but was not living with him. No one could pry the reason she was hiding at Elderberry Croft out of Willow until almost the end of the book.
No Spoilers Here
The author gave me a free download for this book with no strings attached. I did not even have to promise to review the book. I decided to read it when I came home from a trip exhausted and didn’t feel like anything heavy. It was the perfect book to keep me curious to the end without taxing my brain too much.
I loved getting to know all the residents of the trailer park and I began to care about all of them. Although the plot was light, the residents all dealt with heavy problems. They ranged from substance abuse, childhood abuse, and PTSD to serious relationship problems that tore families apart.
Until Willow came and reached out to them with her healing baskets of baked goods, teas, jams, and salves made of herbs and elderberries, the Coach House residents nursed their hurts in isolation. Willow gave to others to keep from facing her deepest hurt. In the end, it’s the hurt of another that forces her to confront her own pain.
I did not want this inspirational novel to end. It appeared that Willow was on the way to healing at the conclusion, but I still bought the sequel because I wanted to know more. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Willow yet. If you read Elderberry Croft, you probably won’t want to say goodbye either.
I recommend that you start with the complete collection because once you start reading, you won’t want to stop. The characters’ stories develop together until the end. If you don’t have all the parts, you will be left hanging.
Elderberry Croft: The Complete CollectionElderberry Croft (4 Book Series)
Elderberry Days: Season of Joy: Elderberry Croft Volume 5 – The Sequel
Elderberry Croft: The Complete Collection by Doughty, Becky (December 1, 2013) Paperback
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