About the Book: Lilly Gray Corbett has just
graduated from medical school and decided to accept an internship in the coal
camp of Skip Rock, Kentucky. Her beau, Paul, is doing his residency in Boston
and can’t understand why Lilly would choose to work in a backwater town. But
having grown up in the mountains, Lilly is drawn to the stubborn, superstitious
people she encounters in Skip Rock—a town where people live hard and die harder
and where women know their place. Lilly soon learns she has a lot to overcome,
but after saving the life of a young miner, she begins to earn the residents’
trust.As Lilly becomes torn between joining Paul in Boston and her love for the people of Skip Rock, she crosses paths with a handsome miner—one who seems oddly familiar. Her attraction for him grows, even as she wrestles with her feelings and wonders what he’s hiding.
About the Author: Jan Watson won the 2004 Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest
for her first novel, Troublesome Creek. Her other awards include being
named the best Kentucky author in 2012 by Kentucky Living magazine, a
nomination for the Kentucky Literary Award in 2006 and second place in the 2006
Inspirational Readers Choice Contest sponsored by the Faith, Hope, and Love
Chapter of the Romance Writers of America. Jan has published six
novels. As a registered nurse for 25 years at Central Baptist Hospital in
Lexington, Kentucky, she incorporates her nursing experience in the hospital's
mother/baby unit into her novels. Jan resides in Kentucky.
My Take:
When I first read the summary of this novel, it struck a chord with
because it seemed to be similar to the famous Christy novel by
Catherine Marshall. While Christy is the story of a young female
teacher journeying to the mountains of Tennessee to educate the people there, Skip Rock Shallows is about a young
female doctor going to a Kentucky coal mining town. Both of these women face
opposition from the townsfolk – an outsider coming to their town to supposedly
help them, and a female at that.
The issues and troubles that Lilly encounters in Skip Rock Shallows keep the story moving for the most part, even
though it didn’t become really gripping until closer to the end. The secondary
characters help in this aspect, as they were engaging and were able to keep
things interesting. That was what was most fun for me in this novel – the
adventures and people that Lilly encountered during her ‘doctoring.’ I always
enjoy a fish-out-of-water tale.
However, the relationship and romance between Lilly and Joe felt kind of
forced to me in this novel. I felt as if the reader was sometimes left out of
the loop in that relationship. So, while the medical and community aspect of
this book was interesting, one of the main plot points – the romance – sort of
fell flat. I also thought that the writing was disjointed at times. There were
times when I felt as if I had missed something, especially when large periods
of time were skipped.
I did appreciate the author’s use of scripture in this novel. That is
something I really liked to see in Christian historical fiction.
Overall, this novel was an easy read that was a bit slow-moving but did
have an interesting plot and conclusion.
I will give Skip Rock Shallows
… 3 BookWorms.
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