When almost 16-year-old Dakota Brown learns she is being placed in yet another foster home by social services, she begins plotting her escape. After all, she has run away from seven foster homes already and starts creating a list on how to quickly make this newest placement number eight. Little does Dakota realize how the quirky Dr. Annie Coolidge and her stay-at-home husband will pull at her heartstrings.

With hearts of gold and actions to match, the Coolidges demonstrate unconditional love in the most simple and practical ways that even the cynical Dakota can’t resist. Their love for one another and for the teens living in their home far outshines even the most painful past reminders of other adults who have let the foster kids down in earlier times. That and their assortment of horses, dogs and cats make for even more interesting adventures as each child finds his or her own special niche with these wounded animals. Dakota, Wes and Kat learn to relate better to each other and give back the love they’ve never received.

All in all, the Coolidge farm makes for a lively, unlikely family who are slowly allowing their broken hearts to mend through faith, hope and love.

  --- Reviewed by Michele Howe