BLOG TOUR: The Runaway Midwife by Patricia Harman

Hi there!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Today, we're joining a TLC Book Tour already in progress starring a new release via William Morrow Paperbacks. It's a moving work of Fiction that will have many readers nodding in agreement, worried about the outcomes, and smiling when things turn out for the best now and then.  Ready to meet the title on deck?  Wish granted!  Today's book of choice and blog tour guest is...

The Runaway Midwife

by

Patricia Harman

William Morrow Paperbacks

About the book...

From the USA Today bestselling author of the Hope River series comes a new contemporary midwife novel.

Say “goodbye” to your old life, and “hello” to the life you’ve been waiting for…

Midwife Clara Perry is accustomed to comforting her pregnant patients…calming fathers-to-be as they anxiously await the birth of their children…ensuring the babies she delivers come safely into the world.

But when Clara’s life takes a nosedive, she realizes she hasn’t been tending to her own needs and does something drastic: she runs away and starts over again in a place where no one knows her or the mess she’s left behind in West Virginia. Heading to Sea Gull Island—a tiny, remote Canadian island—Clara is ready for anything. Well, almost. She left her passport back home, and the only way she can enter Canada is by hitching a ride on a snowmobile and illegally crossing the border.

Deciding to reinvent herself, Clara takes a new identity—Sara Livingston, a writer seeking solitude. But there’s no avoiding the outside world. The residents are friendly, and draw “Sara” into their lives and confidences. She volunteers at the local medical clinic, using her midwifery skills, and forms a tentative relationship with a local police officer.

But what will happen if she lets down her guard and reveals the real reason why she left her old life? One lesson soon becomes clear: no matter how far you run, you can never really hide from your past.

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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This is one of those stories that while not filled with unending action and who-dun-its, still manages to move you with its gentle grace and well written beauty.

Clara...or should I say Sara...is a woman who feels deeply, cares deeply, and loves deeply...but the same can not be said of everyone around her.  She put all of her self into her work as a midwife, truly feeling it as a calling not simply a job, and yes, perhaps her marriage played second fiddle at times, but is that a reason to not work through things, address the areas lacking, and try to regain the ground lost?  I think not...but my opinion is apparently not the status quo.  The personal life issues though were only part of the problem that drove her to extremes.  Her cheating husband was one thing, but the death of a patient seemingly falling on her hands was the straw that broke this gentle woman's back.  Her patients were her everything and when everything was ripped away and replaced with charges of manslaughter, it was more than she could bare. 

She ran away, as the title implies, but not every desertion is what it seems.  She wasn't hiding from everything, though at first it clearly appears that way, but rather taking the long road back to the real world with many lessons learned along the way.  She is reminded that not everyone has ill intentions at heart, that there are people willing to stand up for others in the face of adversity, and that no one is truly alone if they are only willing to reach out a hand, place a call, or smile at a passerby.  Life puts people in our paths for a reason and while sometimes those reasons aren't all that clear, it doesn't mean we shouldn't glean from them what we can in hopes of seeing the bigger picture one day.  So while Clara disappears off the map, Sara makes a bigger imprint than intended and endears herself to the hearts and minds of a town she had no thought of calling home in any permanent way...but life has a funny way of changing what we think may be in our cards.

In the end, it was a remarkably moving story that takes us on a journey of the heart through the wilderness of the soul and back again to discover that sometimes a departure from what we know is not a weakness...but a strength.  I truly enjoyed getting to know Clara/Sara and while I didn't always agree with her choices, I could definitely see where she was coming from, and cared about how everything would turn out for her.  I was thrilled to pieces with the ending, but umm, yeah...can't tell you why.  You'll just have to read it... ^-^

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About the author...

Patricia Harman, CNM, got her start as a lay midwife on rural communes and went on to become a nurse-midwife on the faculties of Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, and West Virginia University. She is the author of two acclaimed memoirs and the bestselling novel The Midwife of Hope River. She has three sons and lives near Morgantown, West Virginia. Find out more about Patricia at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Special thanks to Trish at TLC Book Tours for the chance to bring this promotion to you and to the HarperCollins Publishers team for the ARC for review.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title, the author, the publisher, THIS TOUR, or those on the horizon, feel free to click through the links provided above.  This title just hit bookstore shelves late January 2017 via William Morrow Paperbacks, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer or your choosing.

Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!