Lady in the Mist, by Laurie Alice Eakes
Tabitha Eckles is a unique woman in a time when women and men had very defined roles in society. It’s 1809, and Tabitha is an unmarried midwife for a coastal Virginia town. Tabitha focuses on her patients, other townspeople who need medical help, and her garden – until she meets a mysterious British man early one morning on the beach.
Young men from the area have been disappearing, and most people think the Brits are guilty – that they’re forcing the men to join the British Navy with its ever-patrolling ships nearby. A disappearance is why Tabitha is still unmarried – her fiancé Raleigh disappeared right after proposing, though no one knows whether he ran away for some reason or if he was snagged by the British.
The mysterious newcomer complicates Tabitha’s life on multiple levels. Each has secrets they’re afraid to share, even though they could help each other. Each suffers public disapproval because of their convictions. And each wonders what the future might hold, especially when Raleigh returns with a story some people don’t quite believe.
Laurie Alice Eakes has been a prolific writer in the last few years, but Lady in the Mist was the first book of hers that I’ve read. I’m always a softie for historical romances, and it definitely filled that bill. There was also a little intrigue/suspense woven through the story that kept it interesting. I knew how I wanted everything to end, but wasn’t absolutely sure Laurie Alice had taken her characters in that direction until just before the end. The story itself was great, and I learned a lot about midwifery and the time period because of the details she included (the kind that help make the story come to life, not the kind that bog you down and make you skip to a more interesting part). 🙂
Lady in the Mist is one of my favorite books in 2011 so far. I’m looking forward to the other titles in her midwives series.
(This book was provided to me for reading and review by the publisher, Revel, a division of Baker Publishing Group.)
