REVIEW | Choices of the Heart

 
My review:
I loved this book! I read into the wee hours of the morning (3 am) to finish it. I love midwife stories, so I  have read the previous two books in this series. Reading the beginning of this book brought to memory the ending of the last book, with Esther facing the horrible scandal that causes her leave her beloved calling as a midwife.  She will become a teacher and go to the mountains to teach the children of the Tolliver and Brooks children What Esther did not count on was finding herself in the middle of  a feud.   How will she be able to help these families find peace and live together, when she can barely live with herself, knowing the shame she brought on her family.  She must also face the fact that life will not always hand her what she wants.  Being raised by an adoring family, has Esther used to getting her way, and using her womanly wiles to do so.  However in the mountains, this can lead to trouble, causing even more problems between Griff and Zach, the cousins who both want her attention. 
This story will grip you and keep you engrossed until the very end.  I loved the ending of this book!  Everyone must realize they are loved by God, and learn to forgive themselves and to move forward in life. For the record I must say that historical novels are not a favorite genre for me, but I have greatly enjoyed this series from Laurie Alice Eakes.  I believe this book was my favorite in the series.  372 pages US $14.99 5 stars
Available January 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group 
  

About the Book:
Choices of the Heart
Laurie Alice Eakes
Laurie Alice Eakes brings to life a gripping story of trust, deception and bittersweet loss, as a young woman learns the true meaning of choices of the heart.  In the third book of The Midwives series, you will be transported back to 1840’s Appalachia with a tender romance that includes closely guarded secrets and a bitter feud.
Esther Cherrett comes from a proud line of midwives and was trained by her mother to take over the family calling. But when a scandal threatens all she holds dear, Esther takes a position as a teacher in the western mountains of Virginia instead. There she finds herself in the midst of a deadly family feud and courted by two men on opposite sides of the conflict. When it seems as though her past has followed her all the way into the mountains, all she wants is to run away again.
Laurie Alice Eakes is the author of Lady in the Mist, Heart's Safe Passage, A Necessary Deception, A Flight of Fancy, and several other novels. She won a National Readers Choice Award for Best Regency in 2007 for Family Guardian. Laurie Alice writes full-time from her home in Texas, where she lives with her husband and sundry dogs and cats.

Praise for Laurie Alice Eakes and Choices of the Heart:
"The gifted Laurie Alice Eakes has done it again with a page-turner romance straight out of the Hatfield and McCoy feud. The wonderful period detail sucked me into 1840s Appalachia, while the realistic characters and tender romance kept me reading late into the night."--Linda Goodnight, Carol and Rita Award-winning author
Reviews for Lady in the Mist, #1 in The Daughters of Bainbridge House series:
4 Stars = Compelling, page turner
The first book in Eakes’ new Midwives series is filled with secrets, a budding romance and mystery with characters who have their doubts about themselves and those around them. Readers will not be able to put this gem of a novel down. – RT Patsy Glans
It’s always wonderful when you start reading a novel with the hope of being entertained and distracted from your busy life, only to be blown away by the discovery of a new favorite author. Laurie Alice Eakes’s novel had that exact affect on me, and I can’t verbalize how pleasing it is to uncover a gem of a story like this one.  – The Christian Manifesto Rachel Ropper