Review: These Healing Hills by Ann H. Gabhart

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About:

When a young woman’s plans for her future fall apart at the close of World War II, she discovers new purpose as a midwife in the hills of Kentucky—and a possible chance at new love.

My Thoughts:

These past couple of weeks I have been immersed in stories about the Appalachians and the people and their ways of life. These Healing Hills was the second story I have read and this time the time period was right after World War 2. Francine Howard has decided to leave her very familiar life in Cincinnati, Ohio to become a midwife in the Kentucky Appalachian area. She has decided to embrace a new dream after her long held ones were shattered when the love of her life decided to bring back another woman to be his bride. After four long years she decides to leave before he returns and get out from under the thumb of a very controlling mother.

I liked Francine’s character and her fearlessness to try a new adventure and to carve out a new life for herself even though she was alone and heartbroken. She was not willing to just sit back and feel sorry for herself, but to get up and make something of her life. She enters the Frontier Nursing Service and actually finds that she connects with these mountain folks in such a way that it feels like home to her.

Enter Ben Locke, who is returning from the war back to his home and family in the mountains. Ben has lived his whole life in the mountains and except for his military service did not know anything else. Now that he has seen how different the world is, the loss of his father, the burden of caring for his family, and trying to not remember the horrors of the war, Ben has a lot on his shoulders. He definitely feels that he is not ready to fall in love, especially not with an outsider.

I enjoyed this story of two very different people working together and falling in love. I enjoyed learning more about the Appalachian mountain people and some of the different phrases that they used in their everyday language that was different than a ‘city’ person used. I also found the historical details about the nurses that did train there in the very real Frontier Nursing Service. A lot of these women were from England and were able to go back with the knowledge that they garnered. This was a piece of history that I did not previously know about before.

I received a copy of this book for free. I was not required to post a positive review and all the views and opinions stated are my own.