“Doctor-in-training Louisa Vaughn has no intention of remaining in Sweetwater Crossing. She's just there for a few days to help a friend. But she can't abandon the injured man she finds at the side of the road. Until his broken leg heals, she'll serve as the town's doctor and midwife. She may not be fully qualified yet, but surely she's better than nothing.
Josh Porter's plans to win his grandfather's challenge and fulfill his father's final wish to gain full control of the family business hit a roadblock when he breaks his leg. But his enforced stay in Sweetwater Crossing gives him new ideas about the expansion of the company into new territory--ideas Louisa could help turn into reality.
If only the town were more accepting of Louisa's talents! Someone is determined to convince her to abandon her dream of healing others. Can Josh help her uncover the person behind the threats before it's too late? And is there any future for them together when neither of them plans to stay?”
Series: Book #2 in the “Secrets of Sweetwater Crossing” series. Review of the first book, Here! Mentions the town from the author’s previous series, “Cimarron Creek”.
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are mentioned, read, & quoted; Prayers; Bible reading; Church going & Sermons; Set around Easter time; Talks about God; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; Louisa believes that God intends for her to be a healer; A voice (implied to be God) speaks to Josh; A mother who is grieving says that her grief is between her and “the God who won’t let me be happy” (there are no other mentions on her emotions towards God by the end of the book); Another mother says that God took away her daughter but gave her a second chance of happiness with another daughter; Mentions of God, Jesus, His plans, & His creation; Mentions of prayers, praying, thanking God, & blessings over food; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of churches, church going, sermons, ministers, & hymnals; Mentions of Easter, Jesus’ resurrection, Good Friday, & Palm Sunday; Mentions of blessings, being Blessed, & a Blessed event (childbirth); Mentions of miracles; A few mentions of someone seeing angels due to his fever; A couple mentions of Heaven; A couple mentions of signs from God; A mention of the Christian thing to do; A mention of sinners.
Negative Content- A mention of a curse (said, not written); Seeing the death of a young teen & Grief (up to semi-detailed); Being held at gunpoint, Being flung off of a horse, Pain, Injuries, a Broken bone, & Passing out (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of deaths, how they happened (including murders and accidents, Book #1), & grieving (including Louisa and Josh for both of their parents, a mother for her daughter and other mothers for their sons, a wife for her husband, a boy for his father, & a husband for his wife and son); Many mentions of injuries, accidents, pain, & near-death experiences (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a carriage accident & deaths (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Mentions of fevers, seizures, vomit, illnesses, blood/bleeding, delirium, & deaths (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of domestic violence, a man physically hurting his wife, & her injuries (*Spoiler for Book #1* Emily; She can’t talk about it with Louisa for half of this book, but does tell her that he was violent towards her and Louisa is shocked to learn this as she didn’t know but does remember seeing a glimpse of Emily’s bruises *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of stealing, stolen items, thieves, & horse thieves being hanged; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of injured animals; A few mentions of wars & deaths; A few mentions of fighting & fights; A few mentions of a storeowner cheating others; A few mentions of betting; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of fires; A couple mentions of threats; A couple mentions of a saloon; A mention of it appearing like someone took their own life (Book #1); A mention of jail; A mention of a child being locked in a smokehouse when she misbehaved; A mention of someone rolling their eyes;
*Note: *Spoiler* A mentally unstable woman holds Louisa at gunpoint & locks her in a room with bees; Louisa is saved, and the woman is whisked away by her husband to leave to go to a place that treats “diseases of the mind” *End of Spoiler*; Louisa believes that her sisters are better than her at most things and that she’s lived in their shadows growing up (Louisa and Emily’s relationship is quickly improved at the beginning); Josh’s father pushed him to surpass his cousin, even if he’s the younger one (due to his father being the younger sibling and not getting a fair chance); Many men and women make comments to Louisa about women not being doctors (including blaming her for deaths, telling Josh he’ll be lucky to be able to walk again, that women are too weak and aren’t smart enough for being doctors, & a man says he would “let” his wife be a midwife but not a doctor; A woman tells Louisa that women are supposed to be a wife and mother so she should give up her fantasy, but Louisa believes God has called her to be a healer); Josh wonders if it’s true that females don’t crave adventure and new places like males did (particularly referring to horses); A young teen gets upset at his mother for not being able to give him what he wants (financially); Mentions of when Louisa had an allergic reaction to a bee sting as a child & her fear of them since; A couple mentions of a child with Down Syndrome being called “simple” by most.
Sexual Content- Three hand kisses, a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, and two border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kisses; Remembering a kiss (up to semi-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Warmth, Smelling, & Nearness (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch, embrace, & dance (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing; Josh doesn’t believe in love, only in marriage being beneficial for both families; Mentions of kisses; Mentions of jealousy; A handful of mentions of a young teen girl (age 15/16) getting pregnant by a man who left after he got “what he wanted” from her & her having to give up her baby; A couple mentions of men leering at Louisa; A couple mentions of blushes; A mention of a young woman conceiving a child in only one night; A mention of a dalliance that resulted in an illegitimate child; A mention of chaperones; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Louisa helps deliver two babies and there’s mentions of blood, screaming, & pain (semi-detailed) *Spoiler, but Important Trigger* One goes well but the second is a stillbirth; Another one that Louisa does not help with ends with the mother and baby dying (all are up to semi-detailed) *End of Spoiler*; Louisa’s midwife mentor told her that some “young mothers did not always make the best parents”, adding “they’re still children at heart, if sometime goes amiss, they’re less able to handle the grief”; Mentions of mothers and babies dying or possibly dying in childbirth (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Mentions of some believing that a woman is too old to have her first child & Louisa thinks that while “older women were more likely to have a difficult time during their pregnancy, but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t have children”; Mentions of a woman believing she’s barren *Spoilers* Emily; her first husband told her that he could have one (though she didn’t know how he could be sure) so it was her fault they couldn’t have children; At the end of the book, she shares she’s pregnant with her new husband *End of Spoilers*; A few mentions of some women telling a petite woman that she’ll have a hard time in labor because her husband is tall; A mention of a woman who has had three miscarriages.
-Louisa Vaughn
-Joshua “Josh” Porter
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1883
368 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
{Trigger Warning: Side characters go through deaths of their children & major grief}
For the first half of this book, it was much calmer than the prior book, which was nice. It was very sweet and a good read—particularly the first half. I say that, because in the second half of the book there is a lot more about death and grieving that could be hard for some readers. A part of life, yes, but everyone has different topics they can handle and topics they cannot—and sometimes things hit closer to home some days than other days. This was still a really good book, I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting to, actually. But I do want to give that warning that there is sadness.
I think this is a series that you’re going to have to read in order or you will get lost. I was struggled to remember everyone and events from the prior book, so I had to skim parts of it and reread my own review because events were hinted at in the beginning of this book, but not explained fully. There’s also a lot of different characters mentioned and I had a harder time keeping up with everyone and how they are all related, so I made use of the search feature in my e-book copy.
One thing I was concerned about going into this book was Louisa. She was quite harsh towards Emily in the first book, but I’m glad that the sisters made up very quickly into this bookLouisa felt like a completely different person in this book, but that could be because of grief and her anger cooling down after leaving.
It may be an odd thing to note, but I liked Josh’s marketing skills and how his eye was trained to set up merchandise. The business information and parts were really interesting to me. (I’m a nerd, I know, I know.) He’s a good guy—a gentleman even, but has been raised with the concept that romantic love is only for fairytales, not real life. Oooh, I was so looking forward to seeing him eat those words! Hahaha! The romance was very sweet clean, and innocent. May be a little cheesy, but I’m okay with that!
The ending was pretty typical for Christian historical fiction, but that doesn’t mean it was bad. It’s just a plot line I’ve seen many times before. That said, I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, the middle sister’s, story when it releases and possibly even reading a few other books by this author as well in the meantime.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free from the Publisher (Revell) for this honest review.
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