Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Book Review - The Splendor of Ordinary Days

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The pastoral charm of small-town Watervalley, Tennessee, can be deceptive, as young Dr. Luke Bradford discovers when he's caught in the fallout of a decades-old conflict.

After a rocky start as Watervalley's only doctor, Luke Bradford has decided to stay in town, honoring the three-year commitment he made to pay off his medical school debts. But even as his friendships with the quirky townsfolk deepen, and he pursues a romance with lovely schoolteacher Christine Chambers, several military veterans' emotional wounds trigger anger and unrest in Watervalley.

At the center of the clash is the curmudgeonly publisher of the local newspaper, Luther Whitmore. Luther grew up in Watervalley, but he returned from combat in Vietnam a changed man. He fenced in beautiful Moon Lake, posting "Keep Out" notices at the beloved spot, and provokes the townspeople with his incendiary newspaper.

As Luke struggles to understand Luther's past, and restore harmony in Watervalley, an unforeseen crisis shatters a relationship he values dearly. Suddenly Luke must answer life's toughest questions about service, courage, love, and sacrifice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

After growing up on a farm in rural Tennessee, Jeff High attained degrees in literature and nursing. He is the three-time winner, in fiction and poetry, of an annual writing contest held by Vanderbilt Medical Center. He lived in Nashville for many years, and throughout the country as a travel nurse, before returning to his original hometown, near where he now works as an operating room RN in open-heart surgery. He is the author of the Watervalley novels, including More Things in Heaven and Earth and Each Shining Hour.

Connect with Jeff: website, Twitter, Facebook

MY REVIEW:

This is book three in the "Watervalley" series. It definitely stands alone as it's own book and I was never lost or confused about what was happening. However, I think you're definitely going to want to read the first two books as I plan to!

This book focuses on Dr. Luke Bradford, the young, single doctor who has taken over the medical clinic. He is in love with the beautiful, Christine Chambers, who is the school teacher. I absolutely loved how the author showed such a loving relationship between the two of them. I love the conversations between the two of them and how they are content to just sit and chat on the porch together. I love how they just love being together. They are Christians so they live their life accordingly and I loved that, too.

The character I really enjoyed reading about was the new Veterinarian, Karen Davidson. She is a complex character of self-assured former Army medic yet very shy socially. I loved her entrance into the story as it was quite dramatic!

The newspaper man, Luther, is not so easy to like. In fact, I found him quite dis-likable! He says outrageous things to and about people that made me cringe. He does have a troubled back-story so we learn more about this as the story goes on.

Since I normally (not always) review Christian books, I want to let you know that there is a few cuss words. Nothing like the f-word (trust me, I would be offended by that) but I know some of my readers may even be offended by the d--- word. I was not even really aware of these words in the book because they are so few and far between and it wasn't something the author chose to emphasize. The words were used by characters that you would expect this kind of behavior from so, to me, it fit, and I was not offended at all.

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book was because they compared it to the Jan Karon "Mitford" series. I was not disappointed! It truly is that type of feel and I will definitely be reading the first two books and looking forward to others in this series! These characters just made you feel like you were a part of their town and that you were even friends with some of them! The story pulls you in and keeps you there.

I highly recommend this book as it is well written and it kept me wanting to read well into the night! I just didn't want to put this book down. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

*This book was provided to me for my honest review by LitFuse Publicity Group


Blessings - Julie

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