Midwife of the Blue Ridge [Paperback]

Christine Blevins (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 5, 2008

A stirring debut novel ?of love, struggle, and savagery on America?s colonial frontier? (Bernard Cornwell).

They call her Dark Maggie for her thick black hair, but the name also has a more sinister connotation. As the lone survivor of an attack on her village, she was thought to be cursed?and unfit for marriage. Maggie is also gifted with quick wits and skilled in medicine, trained as a midwife. Venturing to the colonies as an indentured servant, she hopes to escape the superstitions of the old country?and find a home of her own. But what she discovers is a New World fraught with new dangers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An accomplished midwife, orphan Maggie Duncan leaves 1760 Scotland at 22, in search of opportunities in the New World. She pays for her crossing with four years of indentured servitude. Aboard ship, sadistic viscount Julian Cavendish drunkenly stumbles upon Maggie attempting to grab a few moments of forbidden above deck sleep and tries to rape her. At landfall, kindly Virginia frontiersman Seth Martin, in need of Maggie's medical skills to save his ailing wife, purchases her contract. Seth's best friend, Tom Roberts, a rugged hunter, instantly catches Maggie's eye, but she hasn't seen the last of evil Julian Cavendish. Blevins doesn't soft-peddle the brutal realities of women's lot in the colonies, but she gives strong, skilled Maggie pluck and hope. (Aug.)
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Review

“Love and adventure, pride and passion…an unforgettable novel that will capture your heart. There is simply no way to put it down once you have begun.”
—Rosemary Rogers

“A splendid novel of passion and danger in the early Virginias by a talented new author. I highly recommend it!”
—Bertrice Small --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; 1 edition (August 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425221687
• ISBN-13: 978-0425221686
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #565,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christine's love for storytelling began before she could read. As a little girl, she would hunker under the covers with her sister, whispering stories to keep from being afraid of the dark. Once she learned to read, she spent a good portion of her childhood with her nose in a book. Christine's romance with the past began with books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcottt - later she discovered Twain, Dickens, Dumas and Sabatini and then on to epic sagas by the likes of Tolkien, Clavell and Michener. It was in these beloved books where she found the pathways to worlds beyond her small neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.

Christine eventually left the old neighborhood, completed college, and began a design career. At work she met and fell in love with her fellow designer, Brian Blevins - a truly wonderful guy - and she married him. They had children - four fantastic kids - and eventually the family settled in Elmhurst, Illinois. Christine built a busy life together with Brian, running their graphic design studio, raising their children, and all the while never losing the need to feed a curious mind and become wholeheartedly immersed in a good book.

Christine and Brian share a love for travel, and over their years together, they journeyed all around America and to countries abroad. She was on the Isle of Skye, when a story popped into her head. In itself, this was not an unusual event. She would often while time away making up stories while waiting in line at the grocery, nursing a baby, or filling the moments before falling asleep.

But something was different on Skye. Breathing in the smells of heather moor, and sheep, and salt-sea, Christine listened to the waves lapping the shore of Loch Dunvegan, took in the twilight panorama and let her mind fly away on an adventure. It was her favorite kind of story, complete with a good dose of danger and a dash of romance. And suddenly in this wild place, she was struck by the wild urge to write it all down. Though she'd never written anything other than essays and papers back in her school days, she purchased the first of many spiral notebooks at the airport, and on the flight back began scribbling her Scottish inspired story in longhand. She found her scribbles necessitated research. The research resulted in more scribbling...

Christine wrote the kind of book she loved to read - an adventure story filled with compelling characters and set against a detailed backdrop of vivid history that would transport the reader to another time and place. She learned many things over the two years it took to complete this first novel, the most important being how much she enjoyed researching the details of culture and period, how very much she loved storytelling and writing, and how much more she needed to learn. She tucked her finished manuscript into a box, set it on a shelf, and signed up for a writer's workshop at the community college.

Genealogical research gave impetus to her next effort, which became her first published work. The premise for Christine's debut novel, MIDWIFE OF THE BLUE RIDGE was inspired by the discovery of a pair of Daniel Boone-like Blevins ancestors who were hunters and explorers living on the Virginian frontier in the mid 1700's.

THE TORY WIDOW and it's companion book THE TURNING OF ANNE MERRICK come from her avid interest in the thrilling, romantic and incredible event known as the American Revolution. Christine crafted a story about the men and women who took up arms to wage an impossible war against the world's mightiest superpower. She is at present finishing the third and final book in the series.

Christine continues to draw inspiration from travel and history, and still spends a good amount of time with her nose in a book, scouring up the details that make her stories come alive. Now that her children have grown and gone off on their own, she lives with her husband Brian and their golden-doodle, splitting her time between their home in Elmhurst, and tramping the northern woodlands for fiddlehead ferns, morel mushrooms and flights of fancy at their lake house in Michigan.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Just OK October 2, 2008

By HHK VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I enjoyed this book. It was not great but not bad either. I really enjoy books with strong female protagonists who survive despite the odds, and the heroine here fits the bill. I also liked that this was primarily historical with the love story woven in, not a typical historical romance.

That said, I think the romance element was weak. It was clear from the first moment Maggie saw Tom that she was going to fall in love with him. He is the typical bad boy who does not want to settle down. Absolutely zero romantc tension. However this not a primary romance novels, so I am not sure if I should complain.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that the rape scene and whipping were gratuitous and were not absolutely needed to show how grim Maggie's ordeal was. I did enjoy the Midwifery/herbal healer parts.

Not a bad way to pass your time. Not an earth shatteringly great read either.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars View from afar September 11, 2008

By Amelah

Format:Paperback

Although educational insights into the struggles of colonial frontier life, this book lacks depth. The plot moves as plot does, without insight into the characters' psychological motives or even an emotional connection to each other -- I anticipated these, along with a sense of character development, given the horrific events that occur. However, it's a simplified read, but did not engage me as I had truly hoped. This story had such potential, but it lacked the power that others of this genre have. It was as if looking down upon the story from afar.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Best Ever Book of Colonial America August 27, 2009

By Jim Duggins, Ph.D.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

One of the pleasures reserved for a reading addict is the discovery of a book that is so good, so perfect, so satisfying that you can't stop thinking about it. AND, if it's a debut novel that you wish YOU had written, it's all the more awesome. Christine Blevins's book, "Midwife of the Blue Ridge" was/is just that kind of book for me. This historical novel is the saga of an 18th century Scotswoman who comes to America as an indentured servant. Because she is very beautiful and intelligent (a practicing healer and midwife) she is plagued by a Stephen King-type monster and loved by a colonial version of Tom Cruz. Is that enough conflict, or what?

Maggie Duncan's adventure in Colonial America began aboard a ship whose primary cargo was African Slaves and Indentured Servants. As luck had it, Maggie for her intelligence and winning ways narrowly escaped the clutches of a verifiable British sadist and ersatz nobleman, Lord Cavendish. Cavendish lives on to haunt the rest of Maggies' days as well as those of her handsome paramour, Tom Roberts.

"Midwife of the Blue Ridge" includes positive and negative interaction between European migrants and Indigenous peoples (Shawnee and Cherokee) with revelations of cruelty and humanity on both sides.

Of particular note is the skillful way author Blevins uses Scottish terminology and brogue, sometimes interspersed with Irish, in ways that are easily understood and authenticate the book's time and place. One is astounded, too, by author Blevens's knowldege of Colonial period medicine and skills at "baby catching" (midwifery) -- her understanding of homeopathic cures both European and Native American in the 8th century is awe-inspiring.

In a book of this size it was a joy to experience, first hand, the sights and sounds, the smells and touch of people and places: a great novel, all show, very little tell.

There are so many things to recommend about "Midwife of the Blue Ridge," I can only mention a few and assure there are dozens of delightful things still to discover. Blevins's sketches of people are wonderfully quick and powerful, e.g., "Standing far left of the crowd of bachelors, dusty and grimy Tom Roberts pushed his hat back, leaned on his rifle, and smiled through a scruffy beard. His faded blue shirt was ringed with salt stains and dark with sweat. In his right hand he cupped a leather sack heavy with coin. Maggie restained an urge to run to him, happier at that moment than she could ever remember being in her whole life." Another indication of Ms. Blevins's skill is shown in the short pieces of sentences that capture your mind with a quick metaphor or simile. ""Sick baby and dire threat of Indian attack combined with exhaustion to concoct a stressful brew of frayed nerves and short tempers." . . . "Maggie flailed about like a trout tossed up on the bank." . . . "She could feel the fabric rougher than a cow's tongue, pricking her skin right through her sweaty shift."

Furthermore, her characters are not cardboard, rather they're well-defined, with credible motives and histories that explain how they got the way they are. Because one knows them so well one cares about them and what can happen to them. In the same fashion, one also cannot resist "hissing" the villains and wishing for their punishment.

The love story of the novel is that of Maggie and Tom -- Maggie is early on quite in love but feels she cannot commit herself to anything bcause of her legal indenture. Tom, whose living has been made as a fur hunter, always homeless, always on the move, has never known the emotional turmoil of love, nor dealt with the concept of settling down with one woman.

If your reading time budget is stretched and you can choose only one book to start now, make it Christine Blevins's "Midwife of the Blue Ridge." You won't go wrong.