Reviews for Leaving North Haven: The Further Adventures of a Small Town Pastor

The average rating for Leaving North Haven: The Further Adventures of a Small Town Pastor based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-03-12 00:00:00 Anna Hester A sweet read that, from what my minister friends who pastor in small towns have told me, is an accurate portrayal..sort of reminded me of Philip Gulley's Harmony series: "Like its predecessor, Good News from Haven, Leaving North Haven is a collection of related stories following one year in the life of the wise and understanding pastor of a small Presbyterian Church, Rev. David Battles. The books are set in the fictional town of North Haven, Minnesota. North Haven is a place that has seen better days and Battles is torn by his love for the rhythms and folkways of the tiny village and his longing for a more glamorous assignment. Fans of Good News from North Haven will be pleased to encounter many of the same characters in the sequel, though the two can be read independently. In Leaving North Haven, Lindvall's storytelling is keener than ever, weaving emotion and compassion with gentle humor

Review # 2 was written on 2015-10-10 00:00:00 Bryan Schmidt Quirky, odd, and nice. Good to read something solidly clean. Glad to see the scripture verses. That said, for me the writing style is strange on 2 counts. 1) A character will be presented in a chapter and then a few chapters later the same character is re-introduced like you don't already know the background -- spoiler alert here -- i.e. Larry who had an accident and became a photographer after he was an unsuccessful realtor-- yes, we know all that, so why outline the character that way again later on? 2) A single sentence would be written that begged for expansion, then the subject would be completely dropped like it was never even there. Five chapters down the road it would suddenly be addressed. When these odd/random sentences were originally thrown out, I would find myself re-reading them a few times and trying to tie them to something, but to no avail. I don't have a problem with hinting at something and then later addressing it, but the way it was done in this book, just did not work. Also as one of my pet peeves I would be remiss if I did not say that the version I read had some printing errors (missing words) and at one point the character being discussed was referred to by the wrong name. Yes, I double checked it, and this is a personal thing that makes me a little nutsy -- smiles. All in all the book was a disappointment to me, although it had some touching and humorous moments. Sometimes I found myself scratching my head though and saying "huh"? Even though I love quirky characters i.e. The Mitford Series by Jan Karon (they don't get much quirkier than most of those people), it did not work for me in this book.