Just home from her last adventure, Dr. Chaney Duval and her handsome nurse, Shiloh Irons, are trying to figure out what comes next.  Chaney struggles to find where she belongs, believing she knows what she wants, yet she remains restless.  When a devastating plague hits the city, Shiloh jumps in to help, willing to sacrifice not only his time, talent and perhaps even his own life.  He even finds a small piece of the puzzle concerning his past along the way.   

It’s fantastic the way the author, Lynn Morris, creates three-dimensional characters who are so real and lifelike.  The supporting characters are also well-developed and their unique talents and imperfections make them all the more interesting.  They aren’t extraordinary; they are real and engaging.  New characters are often introduced who could be looked down upon by society, yet Chaney and Shiloh remind us of why they are people, too, and deserving of respect and friendship. 

Lynn Morris also does a superb job of pulling in pieces of history and painting pictures in the theater of the reader’s mind.  She is a master of detail and description without getting too fantastical or even boring.  It’s easy to get immersed in the world surrounding Chaney and Shiloh.  They are fun without being frivolous.  Shiloh always supports and often defends Chaney when needed.  Chaney is a woman before her time or perhaps leading the charge on behalf of all educated women of her time.  The pacing is just right without bogging down or struggling to move forward.  Each page leads quickly to the next and suddenly the end is near and the “problem” solved.

This is book three of this eight book series.  Lynn Morris often wrote with her father, Gilbert Morris, but she says in a forward at the beginning of the book that she wrote this one and the rest in the series on her own.  She has written about twenty-one books so far.  As a Christian author, her books proclaim the love of God in a simple and clear manner without being preachy or pushy.  There is also a three book companion series after this one that compliments the story of Chaney and Shiloh.  

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None 

Violence/Gore:  A riot with violent people; man punches another man who gets aggressive; mention of a man who lost his leg in the Civil War; 2 boxing matches, bloody, descriptive; an epidemic, people dying, death carts, lightly descriptive; a boy is a rat killer, descriptive; a baby is bitten by a rat, runs a high fever, has brain damage. 

Sex/Nudity:  A male nurse puts his hands on a woman’s chest to feel for a heartbeat, clinical. 

Mature Subject Matter:

Abortion, death of parents & family.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Some men often drink alcohol.