Francine Howard has her life all mapped out until the soldier she planned to marry at WWII's end writes to tell her he's in love with a woman in England. Devastated, Francine seeks a fresh start in the Appalachian Mountains, training to be a nurse midwife for the Frontier Nursing Service. Deeply affected by the horrors he witnessed at war, Ben Locke has never thought further ahead than making it home to Kentucky. His future shrouded in as much mist as his beloved mountains, he's at a loss when it comes to envisioning what's next for his life. When Francine's and Ben's paths intersect, it's immediately clear that they are from different worlds and value different things. But love has a way of healing old wounds . . . and revealing tantalizing new possibilities.
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What a delightful tale! Francine's whole heart is longing for a useful place to call home, after her mother's long effort of trying to cut Francine down to the size of the mold of her mother's ambitions. The new venture of becoming a mountain nurse-midwife (She does much more than simply catch babies, thus the “nurse” part) is her effort at finding freedom to make her own choices in life. Kentucky Appalachia in 1945 is represented in charming and not-so charming detail. I also liked the parts that detailed her job and her relationships with the mountain people.
I really liked that the romance in the book is very low-key, and Ben, the young man, isn't introduced until 1/3 of the way in when he returns from war.
A heartwarming, inspiring, and clean story.
Thanks to the publisher for a free review copy.
