The Mountain Midwife by Laurie Alice Eakes
Published by Zondervan on December 15th 2015
Genres: Christian, Contemporary Women, Fiction, Romance
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
For nearly two hundred years, women in Ashley Tolliver’s family have practiced the art of midwifery in their mountain community. Now she wants to take her skills a step further, but attending medical school means abandoning those women to whom she has dedicated her life, the mountains she loves, and the awakening of her heart. Ashley Tolliver has tended to the women of her small Appalachian community for years. As their midwife, she thinks she has seen it all. Until a young woman gives birth at Ashley’s home and is abducted just as Ashley tries to take the dangerously bleeding mother to the nearest hospital. Now Ashley is on a mission to find the woman and her newborn baby . . . before it’s too late. Hunter McDermott is on a quest—to track down his birth mother. After receiving more media attention than he could ever want for being in the right place at the right time, he receives a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to be his mother. Hunter seeks out the aid of the local midwife in the mountain town where the phone call originated—surely she can shed some light on his own family background. Ashley isn’t prepared for the way Hunter’s entrance into her world affects her heart and her future. He reignites dreams of having her own family that she has long put aside in favor of earning her medical degree and being able to do even more for her community. But is it commitment to her calling or fear of the unknown that keeps her feet firmly planted in the Appalachian soil? Or is it something more—fear of her growing feelings for Hunter—that makes her hesitant to explore the world beyond the mountains?
My mom has been on a reading “spree” for the last year or two – ever since we helped her get an e-reader on Black Thursday. She will sit and read for four or five hours at a time – even if it is the middle of the night because hey, she’s retired, and can take a nap all afternoon if she wants! When I received this book, The Mountain Midwife by Laurie Alice Eakes, I knew my mom would love the book and since I had quite a stack of books myself, I gladly shared with her in exchange for her honest review. Below you’ll find my mom’s review:
The Mountain Midwife is a wonderful book that is the story of midwife Ashley Tolliver and it contains many twists and turns. I loved reading this book because the Appalachian setting. This book touched the areas of Virginia and parts of West Virginia which mean so much to me.
The women in Ashley Tolliver family has been practicing the art of midwifery for many years in their small Appalachian mountain community. Ashley wants to further her education by attending medical school and leave behind the women that she serves. One of the women that Ashley helps deliver in her home is abducted while Ashley is trying to get her to the hospital because she is bleeding dangerously. Ashley now must find the woman and her newborn baby.
After receiving a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to be his mother, Hunter McDermott needs to track where this call came from and seeks the aid of the local midwife (Ashley Tolliver) in this mountain town hoping that she can help him find his family’s background.. Hunter McDermott learning that he is adopted now wants to meet his birth mother who says he has a brother and sister living in the Appalachian Mountains.
Ashley is on her own mission to find the abducted mother and newborn baby and Hunter McDermott wants to know his family in the Appalachian Mountains. Will Ashley leave the place where her feet is firmly planted or will Hunter learn to love her Appalachian Mountains?
The characters were complex, but at the same time, they were easy to relate to. The Mountain Midwife was definitely a page-turner, and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. There were a few times in the story that the characters had tough decisions to make, and it was refreshing to see that they always turned to God to help them with these tough decisions.
“
Eakes has a charming way of making her novels come to life without being over the top,” writes Romantic times of bestselling, award-winning author Laurie Alice Eakes. Since she lay in bed as a child telling herself stories, she has fulfilled her dream of becoming a published author, with a degree in English and French from Asbury University and a master’s degree in writing fiction from Seton Hill University contributing to her career path. Now she has nearly two dozen books in print.
After enough moves in the past five years to make U-Haul’s stock rise, she now lives in Houston, Texas, where she and her husband are exploring their new neighborhood. Although they haven’t been blessed with children – yet – they have sundry lovable dogs and cats. If the carpet is relatively free of animal fur, then she is either frustrated with the current manuscript, or brainstorming another, the only two times she genuinely enjoys housework.
I received a copy of this book without cost from the publisher through The Fiction Guild, a Thomas Nelson/Zondervan book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own (or well, in this case, my mother’s).
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