Last week was a crazy week for my family. My sister lives in Boston, MA and was two blocks away from the bombing that happened during the Boston Marathon. We shared messages on Facebook back and forth while they were in pursuit of Suspect #2 and celebrated when he was taken into custody.

Then, a few days later, my brother and dad got into a serious car accident where they were hit by a semi truck and walked away with almost no injuries. The vehicle they were driving in was completely totaled and not very recognizable from the photos I saw. Again I contacted my brother via text to let him know how happy I was that he was OK.

And so with these two events so close together, it makes me realize how important family is. To know who you are, where you come from and that you’ll always have someone to Facebook message you or text you and say “You’re important to me and I’m glad you’re OK.”

In Peaceful Meadows by Tracey Madeley, this is the theme of her story. The idea of “family” and how it can be represented to different people and how many “families” one person can begin to accumulate as they go out in the world.

Ironically this hippie story starts with death, not life. Jarrod is 19 years old and has just lost his mother suddenly leaving him with no other family than his older brother and grandparents. It’s the 1980’s in the UK and Jarrod is headed to Wales to begin studying at the university uncertain of the path he would want to take once his studies are complete.

While there he meets a girl who seems to be full of life and carefree. He learns that she lives in a local hippie commune and begins using his weekends to stay in the community where he begins to meet and interact with others who live there as well.

Blue and Rose are Christians who seek to live without prejudice as Rose is handicap. Clover lost her husband and moved to the commune to begin growing vegetables and fruit for the community. Harmony is a young lesbian who came to the commune after her parents rejected her alternative lifestyle. Fleur, Jarrod’s love interest, is an artist who seeks to live a life that does not tie her to a 9am – 5pm job. Solomon, the founder of the community, is a British hippie who spent time in the 60’s in San Francisco where he was given the vision of the commune and sacrificed everything including his family to make it a reality.

As Jarrod gets to know the members of the community, he feels as if he has a home with them and they can be an extended family. However, his capitalist-driven family is not happy about Jarrod’s dabbling in socialism. They want him to focus on a future and prospective jobs and leave the commune behind him.

But Jarrod’s family is harboring a secret about the tie between the commune and their family. Will this secret bring Jarrod to his senses about pursuing a respectable job or will it push him further into the community that he has grown to love and respect?

When it comes to Peaceful Meadows, it’s all about the story… the way Jarrod grows as he pursues his education and figures out his relationship with Fleur; the way Peaceful Meadows is still an ever-evolving community where rules and lifestyle choices help to protect those within; and how someone from the outside can easily infiltrate this idealistic society and victimize it, yet the people remain strong and united.

For you book snobs, this is not a book for you. Self-published, as most e-books are, this book has examples of obvious grammatical and spelling errors that this publications editor had to try her best to read through. However, the story itself is compelling and well-rounded not really taking one side or the other when it comes to socialism versus capitalism. If you like a good hippie read, this is for you.

Have you ever read a book where the story was so good you overlook obstacles such as grammar errors and language barriers?