Becky has a career as a nurse. Becky loves her job but the part she doesn't care for is helping deliver babies. Becky works for Dr Blum. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, Dr Blum can no longer practice. Dr Blum's wife has died and he has clammed up. Dr Blum is like a zombie, and the only who will take care of him is Becky.
So Becky packs up the car, and takes Dr Blum with her to go see her old friend Patience who is a midwife in Becky's home town of Hope River. Patience is very happy to see both of them and try's to convince Becky to help her out by being a midwife. Becky wants no part of it, but due to not being able to find a job to support her and Dr Blum she has no choice.
While I am not a big fan of books that are in the early 1900's, Patricia Harman's book really caught my attention. I found that even though THE RELUCTANT MIDWIFE is set in the early 1900's it really could be set at any time in the century. The struggles that Becky had to go though remind me of my own life in some ways.
Harman has a way of writing that you can feel the friendship coming off the page. I did notice in Patricia Harman's bio that she herself is a midwife. I feel this is how she could write such a great book of how a midwife has to learn to handle any situation that might come up while delivering a baby. THE RELUCTANT MIDWIFE is a great book which, makes me more willing to read books that I think are not my usual reads.
The USA Today bestselling author of The Midwife of Hope
River
returns with a heartfelt sequel, a novel teeming with life
and full
of humor and warmth, one that celebrates the human spirit.
The Great Depression has hit West Virginia hard. Men are
out of
work; women struggle to feed hungry children. Luckily,
Nurse Becky
Myers has returned to care for them. While she can handle
most
situations, Becky is still uneasy helping women deliver
their
babies. For these mothers-to-be, she relies on an
experienced
midwife, her dear friend Patience Murphy.
Though she is happy to be back in Hope River, time and
experience
have tempered Beckyβs cheerfulness-as tragedy has
destroyed the
vibrant spirit of her former employer Dr Isaac Blum, who
has
accompanied her. Patience too has changed. Married and
expecting a
baby herself, she is relying on Becky to keep the mothers
of Hope
River safe.
But becoming a midwife and ushering precious new life into
the
world is not Beckyβs only challenge. Her skills and
courage will be
tested when a calamitous forest fire blazes through a
Civilian
Conservation Corps camp. And she must find a way to bring
Isaac
back to life and rediscover the hope they both need to go
on.
Full of humor and compassion, The Reluctant Midwife is a
moving
tribute to the power of optimism and love to overcome the
most
trying circumstances and times, and is sure to please fans
of the
poignant Call the Midwife series.
No excerpt available.
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