These Healing Hills

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.