Media Monday - Review - The Doctor Takes A Wife - Laurie Kingery

Quick review of the second book (of 4) that I won from Love Inspired's Historical line. Bear in mind that I'm not a huge romance reader and am not the target audience.



So what drew me to this novel? Honestly, the cover put it at the bottom of my list. Man and woman having a picnic? "Can his love heal her heart?" Yeah, no. The art is pretty, don't get me wrong, but....no.

Fortunately, the book itself has a lot more action than the cover would lead you to believe. OK, OK, a well-played game of golf has a lot more action than the cover would lead you to believe.

I actually was interested to read it when I saw this guest blog series that Laurie Kingery (ER nurse and author!) wrote about 1860s medicine. Good read! And I wouldn't really consider the entries massive spoilers, either.

Back cover:
The Doctor Wore Blue

Why did the new doctor in Simpson Creek have to be a Yankee? Sarah Matthews can see that Nolan Walker is a good man—and a handsome one. But she can't return his affection. Not with so much bitterness from the war fresh in her memory.

Yet when the town is struck by a deadly influenza epidemic, it's Nolan who battles to save Sarah's life. And when a shadow from the past returns, the time arrives for Sarah to decide if she's finally ready to utter the words her doctor longs to hear—"I do."

This is actually the second in a series. You don't need to read the first book to follow this one (I didn't), though some of the characters were a bit confusing to me.

3 things I liked:

*Nolan was fairly engaging. He was smarter than most doctors of the period (i.e. more successful, doing things that modern doctors take for granted like washing his hands). Sarah was fairly likable. I definitely liked it best when she was being so pigheaded and hating him. For the plot I know she had to come to like him fairly early on, but I wish she could've gone on hating him a while longer. Too fun!

*1860s medicine! Interesting stuff.

*Spinster club. Too funny! The young women seem to put out ads and such to find eligible men who then come to town to woo them and the like. Actually, with the casualties in the Civil War, maybe it was tricky for women to find husbands...

1 thing I found a touch peculiar:

*The ending really took me by surprise, in that the rest of the book strikes me as almost X-TREME Anne of Green Gables series (influenza epidemic; parentage scandals)...and then.... Well, from reading the back cover and the first couple chapters, you can probably guess who or what the "shadow from the past" is, but I was really surprised at the turns it took. It wasn't BAD, but I would've liked it better if I had been expecting it to be that kind of book. Given Nolan's past as a Civil War doctor it does make sense that he could rise to the occasion if needed, but a big part of me was wondering why these small-town characters were being put through all of this.

1 more thing I liked:
*The last paragraph made me laugh out loud in a "how sweet" way.


I do get kind of lost when I'm reading a book and there are a kajillion characters (might come from being an introvert). But a lot of characters seems to be the sign of a well-thought-out small town! So it's not exactly my style. I still found it fairly enjoyable, though. I kind of wish there hadn't been as much action in the end. It sounds like the first book also ended with a lot of action...might be interesting to see how the subsequent books are. Not that there wasn't violence out there, mind you, but still...even with the post-Civil War talk, I was surprised!


*FTC disclosure--I WON this book and didn't pay a thing for it, not even shipping. Though I still try not to pull my punches.

Media Monday - Review - The Gunman's Bride - Catherine Palmer

So here's my little review of the first book (of 4) that I won from Love Inspired's Historical line. Bear in mind that have read fewer than 10 romance novels in my life, and this is only the second "category" romance. I actually don't think I'm quite the target audience for Love Inspired--I honestly don't really have a desire to read roughly one romance novel a week....

And yes, I freely admit, what drew me to this novel was primarily a) the word "gunman" and b) the train on the cover, with a dash of c) pretty dress (I'm no expert on Victorian fashion so I'm hard-pressed to discern the accuracy).

Back cover:

They were running from the past...and looking for a new beginning

Bart Kingsley had followed her to New Mexico, ready to lay his love--and his life--on the line. But spirited Laura Rose had made a fresh start for herself. She hadn't left her controlling father in Kansas to let some gun-slinging outlaw ruin her hopes--no matter what scandalous past they shared six years ago. Or how his green eyes beckoned!

Rosie was his light in the darkness--Bart would do anything to win back her trust. But he was a wanted man. Would the past, with its dangerous demands and debts, conspire to destroy their new beginning? Or would his faith in God--and in Rosie--be rewarded?

The majority of the conflicts can be summed up by Bart's line: "It's not other people who come between us, Rosie. It's us. We keep tearing this thing apart. Why? Why do we do that?"

So if you love romances based around misunderstandings and distrust, this is your kind of book.

2 things I liked:

*The male lead is actually half-blooded Native American. (I do think it's a bit sad that of the books I won, it's the only one that doesn't depict the male lead, which makes me wonder if they worry about what their audience might think about a non-white male lead...)

*I was surprised to find that quite a few minor characters were based on or inspired by historical figures--there was more research here than I'd expected.

2 things I found a touch peculiar:

*At one point in the book there are numerous wanted posters for our green-eyed, half-blooded Native American hero Bart. I would have thought the townspeople would instantly recognize Bart from the description, but they didn't seem to. So I would've liked to see that issue more clearly addressed. Were men with those features actually fairly common in 1880s New Mexico? Or were the townspeople going easy on Bart and I missed it?

*Bart's obsession with Rosie's feet made me squirm (mercifully, that obsession seems to wane). Now, in fairness, I do believe the legs were considered indecent in Victorian times (I've even heard that instead of saying "leg" they would have to say "limb" or "extremity" to be proper!). But that doesn't mean I didn't find it uncomfortable.

1 more thing I liked:
*Bart's literal answer to Rosie's prayer near the end, which hearkened back to the very beginning of the book with the near-climax, made me laugh out loud in delight. Given that I'm not huge on romances, that was pretty good.



*FTC disclosure--I WON this book and didn't pay a thing for it, not even shipping. Though I still try not to pull my punches.

Winning Wednesday

So winning refers to something that was "luck" (or Providence), not anything to do with writing skills. Be warned!

And for my writing progress report...could be worse. I did finally finish the last full chapter of Endwood (just need to complete the epilogue). I probably should have split the ending into two pieces but I really didn't want the story to continue too terribly far after the climax. I'm SO looking forward to being done with it!

So I joined American Christian Fiction Writers a while back and sometimes people will post about when they have agents or editors on their blogs. So someone at Seekerville posted on ACFW about how they were having a costume party and invited everyone to come. I'm not sure if they mentioned a giveaway or not, but I didn't notice. I just wanted to dress my avatar up!

So the real story is that Tina James, senior editor of Love Inspired Historical and Love Inspired Suspense, was announcing they are printing four Historicals a month instead of two. Since I've never actually wrote historical romance (or any historical fiction without a major speculative element) I'm not sure if that's relevant for me or not, but squee! Historical clothes!

So I posted.

Aside from sewing the ribbon on the hat, this is all items I found at Ross and/or TJ Maxx. I do love making historical and fantasy costumes, but I suppose that's a story for another time. Anyway, I chose to dress in 1920s garb because if I WERE to write an outright historical, I reckon that's when I'd set it. And I love the Coney Island pictures, LOL.

Anyway, long story short, I was just outright SHOCKED to have won a contest that I believe was just a random draw. Really? I don't know how many entrants there were (well over 200 comments but some were from the same people). And I won four books? Shipped from the Senior Editor at the one Love Inspired line I could ever imagine writing for??? I didn't even know there were four books to win!

I used to believe in, if not luck, then things just happening randomly. But after going through Beth Moore's study of Esther, I'm not so sure. It's pretty much impossible for my mind to wrap around how every single little thing (as small as misplacing my keys and taking a minute to find them) could happen for a reason, but it certainly wouldn't be outside the range of God's power.

At any rate, winning four books is a lot bigger deal (and more unusual!) than losing my keys. A little part of me is wondering--maybe I should try a historical romance?

Another historical outfit I made (perhaps the most accurate, and completely made by me) is a 1770s dress. It would take so much work and research, but I believe people were getting into 1770s historical recreation in the 1920s...it seems to me that could be a very fun romance, with characters from a past era trying to recreate an even farther past era. And anything on Coney Island could be interesting (although I'm not so sure that would fly, given that the place used to be nicknamed "Sodom by the Sea"...).

Anyway. For now I reckon I will need to settle down and read them. I'll likely review them here, but I'm both a picky reader AND not much of a reviewer, so we'll see.

Oh right! In the comments from last week, I promised a picture of my phone, too.

If you want your Samsung Comeback to also look a bit like EVE from WALL-E, here's the photo.

I modified a page to print a paper EVE mask (of all things) I saw online, then shrunk it to a 240 height so it looks nice on the inner flip screen (I suggest you set your phone to "Black theme"--Menu, Settings, Display settings, My Theme, Black theme for the Comeback).

So, have you had anything recent happen that might be Providential?