Friday, June 15, 2012

Review - Skip Rock Shallows

Skip Rock Shallows
AUTHOR: Jan Watson
PUBLISHED BY: Tyndale Fiction
ISBN: 978-1-4143-3914-6
RELEASED DATE: May 18 2012
PAGES: 400

 Fresh out of medical school Lilly Gray Corbett takes an internship in the coal camp of Skip Rock, Kentucky, but not long after she arrives, the town’s doctor dies leaving her as the town’s only physician. The men in the town aren’t ready for a woman doctor and are never respectable to her, treating her as second-class. Skip Rock is a coal town so accidents and injures occur constantly, challenging Lilly everyday.

    Her finance Paul is also a doctor, but is in Boston, where she had planned to meet him after her internship is over and begin her life as a doctor’s wife. As she becomes closer to the people of Skip Rock, she debates whether or not she should leave or stay. To make matters worse is that she starts to have feelings for a coal miner named Tern Still.

    The fish-out-of-water Doctor story reminds of Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman or even Don Knotts in The Shakiest Gun in the West, so the basic plot is nothing new, and has somewhat been used to death in recent years. The premise may be old, but the author, Jan Watson, keeps switching the narration from Lilly and Tern, keeping the flow of the novel going even through some boring parts. I thought there could have been some more action, but the well-written dialogue kept my interest. This is my first read by Jan Watson, and even though the plot was stale, she managed to keep the story going by clever writing. I recommend Skip Rock Shallows to fans of Jan Watson’s other works and to other Christian readers.

*I would like to thank Tyndale Fiction for sending me a copy to review.


About the author:

Jan Watson's first novel, Troublesome Creek, was the 2004 winner of Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest. Skip Rock Shallows is Jan's sixth novel. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky, and has three grown up sons and a daughter-in-law.

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