Choices of the Heart

Midwife Esther Cherrett follows in the footsteps of generations of women delivering babies in coastal Virginia until scandal and tragedy threaten to ruin her mother’s practice and Esther’s reputation in this third novel, which continues the Midwives Series from Eakes (the Daughters of Bainbridge House series). To protect her parents, Esther abandons her calling as a midwife and leaves her coastal Virginia home to take a position as teacher to children in rural Appalachia. She is forced to reveal her healing skills, however, when she lands in the middle of a bloody, long-running family feud. Cousins Griff and Zach have vowed before God to end the killing, but when Griff is attacked mysteriously, an unmarried sister turns up pregnant, and both men find themselves falling in love with beautiful Esther, all hope of peace between the families might be threatened. Esther also must come to terms with the past that has followed her into the mountains and with feelings that God has abandoned her. She battles a growing attraction to one of the men in the face of past actions that she believes make her undesirable to any potential husband. Well-written descriptive passages help develop the mood, but the story offers little mystery, few details that set it in 1842, or much persuasive justification for Esther’s self-loathing. Agent: Tamela Hancock Murray, Steve Laube Agency. (Jan.)