Skip Rock Shallows... a book review

ISBN: 978-1-4143-3914-6

Publisher: Tyndale Fiction

Available: June 11, 2012

by Jan Watson

Fiction / Christian / Historical

Publisher's Description

Lilly Gray Corbett has just graduated from medical school and decided to accept an internship in the coal camp of Skip Rock, Kentucky. Her beau, Paul, is doing his residency in Boston and can’t understand why Lilly would choose to work in a backwater town. But having grown up in the mountains, Lilly is drawn to the stubborn, superstitious people she encounters in Skip Rock—a town where people live hard and die harder and where women know their place. Lilly soon learns she has a lot to overcome, but after saving the life of a young miner, she begins to earn the residents’ trust.

As Lilly becomes torn between joining Paul in Boston and her love for the people of Skip Rock, she crosses paths with a handsome miner—one who seems oddly familiar. Her attraction for him grows, even as she wrestles with her feelings and wonders what he’s hiding.

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"I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever; yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God." 

~  Jonah 2.6

In 1908, women physicians were not as well received as men.  Add in a superstitious mining town with its first female physician, and you have a backdrop for many story lines.  Jan Watson has woven a beautiful novel of commitment, respect, and love with the harsh realities of a coal miner's life.  As much as we have read idealized accounts of a miner's life in the late 1800s and early 1900s, this book brings the real life drama of mining disasters and the cost to each family and town to life.

Click HERE to read Chapter 1!

I love a well-written historical fiction novel.  I know the author brings the characters to life, but the historical time in which they live is based on true events and time periods.  In Skip Rock Shallows, I learned more about the people who lived and breathed life into the coal mining industry.  They lived a hard life with many superstitions and fears. 

How would my life have been different if I had been born and raised in Skip Rock during this time?  Would I be helping to raise my siblings because my father died in the mine?  Would an education be only a dream for the very few fortunate ones?

This is Jan Watson's 6th novel.  I look forward to reading her other books as well!

I received a complimentary copy of Skip Rock Shallows from Tyndale House Publishers for my honest review.

Blessings,

   Ellen