Choices of the Heart by Laurie Alice Eakes - a review

I have grown quite fond of reading Christian Historical Fiction. If the author has truly captured the time period then I always feel like I walk away from the story with new knowledge about that period of time.  I did just that when reading Choices of the Heart, the new novel in The Midwives series by Laurie Alice Eakes,  The story begins in 1842 Virginia and Ms. Eakes truly captures the dialect and time period of the life in rural Appalachia.

The story begins with Esther Cherret leaving her home to travel to rural Appalachia in order to be a school teacher.  We learn in the first few pages that she has been raised to be a Midwife just as every woman in her family has been trained.  She is the only daughter of her Pastor father and Midwife mother but because of a scandal stemming out of her flirtatiousness, she feels she must leave her home so her family can continue to hold their heads high without her shame bringing them down.

Unfortunately, in traveling to rural Appalachia, she has found herself face to face in a longtime family feud, much like the Hatfields and McCoys. Esther had hoped to keep her healing skills to herself but in time she has to reveal them.

Cousins Griff and Zach have vowed to end the feuding and killing in the families but when mysterious things start occuring and Griff and Zach find themselves both falling in love with Esther the hope of peace between the families becomes questionable.

Esther finds herself trying to deal with her past and the feelings that God has abandoned her.  All while she begins to have a growing attraction to one of the cousins.  Esther believes because of her past, she could never be a proper wife for any man.  She feels she would be undesirable.

I feel Ms. Eakes captured the time period both with her setting, vocabulary and customs of the day.  I enjoyed the story but I found the mystery a little predictable for me.

I would recommend Choices of the Heart for anyone wanting to read a clean historical romance.

On a 5-Star Scale = 4 Stars.

** Available January 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group**

I would like to thank Donna Hausler and Revell for my review copy of Choices of the Heart.  I received my copy of free in order to read it and give my honest review, which I have done.

Smiles & Blessings,