The Midwife’s Tale by Delia Parr

Book reviews are subjective. I tend to rate books not according to how “perfect” they are, seem to be, or are said to be in general but rather to how perfect they are to me. Bethany House provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review.

The Midwife’s Tale by Delia Parr

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Before she worried about facing her friends and neighbors, as well as her family…she had to face herself. Honestly. And without pretense.

I’ll confess that The Midwife’s Tale by Delia Parr is yet another book for which I didn’t remember whatever the book blurb had said before I started reading the book. I barely skimmed the blurb, but the cover of the novel is what got me, not so much on account of its loveliness but because the heroine depicted has gray in her hair. It’s nice to read about a more mature protagonist when I can, and Martha certainly has her hands full in this story of small-town life, some suspense, and hints of romance.

As far as midwifery goes, it was interesting to see it as a system and culture, not just a lone woman who appears to deliver a baby and disappears from the story again. Though the novel is officially labeled as historical romance, it’s rather light on the romance piece, but it’s more a story of Martha’s journey of grief, joy, self-discovery, and faith. There are some pretty endearing moments of character interaction, humorous or downright cute, and one duo of ladies in town couldn’t help but to remind me of the Baldwin sisters from The Waltons.

While much of this novel is easy reading, not unpleasant, it does move slowly, and halfway through the book, the story didn’t seem to have hit a clear stride yet, like it was still in the introductions stage. Martha’s feelings about her daughter who has run off, Victoria, are well-expressed, but since I as a reader didn’t get to see or meet Victoria for myself, I couldn’t connect with Martha’s sentiments about who her absent daughter is.

The novel’s strength is in its final fourth or so, and though it was a long time in coming, reading wise, it turned out to be enough to interest me in continuing on with the At Home in Trinity series.

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The next book in the At Home in Trinity series, The Midwife’s Choice, is scheduled to release in December 2015. The books are republications of novels first published in 2002 and 2003, originally titled A Place Called Trinity and Home to Trinity.

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