Customer Reviews

The Stars for a Light (Cheney Duvall, M. D., Book 1)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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The Stars for a Light by Lynn and Gilbert Morris is the first book of the Cheney Duval, M.D. series which consists of 8 books and a subsequent series called the Inheritance. So far, that contains only 1 book.

Overall, this is a nice, entertaining book. The series is fun, too, although sometimes the adventures seem rather unrealistic. However, there are adventures, and they are exciting. This book/series has that, plus mystery and romance. I'm not a big fan of christian literature, but I did like these books. I reccomend it for people who like christian fiction or historical fiction.

The Stars for a Light tells the story of Cheney Duvall, a lady physician who struggles to become accepted in an all-male medical world. Other physcians look down on her, and patients don't trust a woman to doctor them. As a last resort, Cheney gets a job escorting/doctoring a group of women traveling by ship to California in order to add more women to the western population. Cheney brings along a nurse, who was reccomended by a friend. Mr. Shiloh Irons. He's an orphan, with his name coming from the crate marked Shiloh Ironworks in which he was found.

This unlikely pair (a female doctor and male nurse) travel to California with plenty of adventures to keep them busy, including Shiloh's hobby/second job of fighting, fires on board the ship, disease, and other excitements.

It is a good book. The characters are likeable and realistic, with their own particular traits. The dialogue is fun and the characters seem to work well with one another. It's well written and original, showing character development aplenty during the series. If you start on this, read it all. By the fourth book, you'll be hooked. I was.

I'll admit I was skeptical at first. While I read Christian fiction all the time and enjoy it, I'd never read a Christian historical fiction book that I really liked. My cousin highly recommended these books, so I thought I would give the first one a try. Of course I became hooked almost right away.

I liked the premise before I even started to read the book. A female doctor in the 1860's? Great premise! The book met and exceded any expectations I had for such a premise. As Dr. Cheney Duvall and her nurse, Shiloh Irons, travel from New York to Seattle with Asa Mercer and his hundred belles, they face danger and disease, along with more common shipboard problems. I was so disappointed when I finished this book, simply because I didn't have the next book in the series (Shadow of the Mountains) along, so I had to wait to start it.

Lynn and Gilbert Morris make a fantastic writing team. The plot is swift and intriguing. The characters are well fleshed-out and believeably, delightfully human. The dialogue is fun to read. All in all, this is a wonderfully well done book. Needless to say, not only do I love this book, but I love the others in the series that I have read so far. I definitely recommend this, even if you don't think Christian historical fiction is your thing.

I really liked this book. Mr. Morris is very capable of writing books that capture your attention, and yet he weaves a remarkable tale of God's love into his stories. This is by far one of my favorite series. I literally couldn't put this book down. Cheney is like a lot of women I know (me included).

I read this book years ago and am currently reading the followup series, Cheney and Shiloh: The Inheritance. Personally, I enjoyed this series (and still do) about the same time I was fascinated with Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. Apparently I enjoy women doctors in the 19th century...??? Anyhow, this is a wonderful series, not only exceptionally stating the strength of a woman, but Godly views and relationships as well. Read this SERIES and you won't be sorry, I promise!

This book is wonderful for teens because it adds excitement, a young girl doctor, and a twinge of romance with Gilbert Morris's decriptiveness and Lynn's reserching skills. An absolutley wonderful read!

I just started reading the Dr. Duvall series, but I love it!! I think it is the best historical women's series since Dr. Quinn. I look forward to reading the rest of the books

I thought that the book was descriptive and greatly recommended for women to read and men will ebjoy iy too.Dr.Cheney Duvall and nurse, handsome Shiloh Irons set out to overcome the trials of a female doctor in 1865.I thought that this was one of Morris's best book series. I will treasure it forever. I love the series so much a made a webpage for it. http://www.angelfire.com/mo/blondgirl/cheney.html The Cheney Duvall sereis is higly recommend from me and my friends.This book series is good for anyone old and young.

This if one of my favorit books! I love the way the authers use details and facts. The story captures you, you'r filled with cheneys emotions and you can feel what she is feeling. This book is truley an insperation. I love this hole series, each book is even better than the last.

Although this book was a bit slow-moving at times, I stuck with it and started to enjoy it more towards the end as the action seemed to pick up a bit. But then came the ending scene which I found to be very offensive. The last scene is supposed to be a romantic scene between Cheney Duvall, the woman doctor and Shiloh Irons, the male nurse who has assisted her on the ship. She has resisted his advances all along even though she is secretly attracted to him. In the final scene, she is still resisting his advances until he forces himself on her, forcibly kissing her and holding onto her until she finally gives in and kisses him in return and holds onto him, and confesses her attraction to him. This is a very inappropriate way to have women treated. It is the old stereotypical idea that women don't really mean it when they tell a man no and that all he has to do is push hard enough, even force himself on her, to get her to give in and enjoy his advances. This is the view that makes men feel justified in mistreating women even to the point of rape. It is sad that this is considered to be Christian fiction since truly Christian men who follow the Biblical way of treating women would never treat a woman like this. And this kind of treatment of women should not be viewed as positive!

This is the first book in a great series by Gilbert and Lynn Morris. If you love history, adventure, humor and romance this series is for you. If you like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman then you'll love this series about Dr. Cheney Duvall and her faithful nurse Shiloh Irons.