Again, I went into this book completely blind and only picked it up based on reviews I had seen that raved about this book. For some reason I was thinking there was going to be an element of fantasy or have some magical realism, which it did not, but I ended up loving the book anyways.

This book tackles rape, birth, and miscarriage in the 1800s. We follow the story from the POV of a bad-ass midwife who honestly, is goals of a person. Her relationship with her husband is heart-warming, the way she handles her children is goals and the way she treats everyone in town as equals is an inspiration. There are some really tough subjects in this book, but for the most part it has a happy ending. 

Ariel Lawhon did an impeccable amount of research that clearly comes through in this novel.  I couldn’t help but get sucked in the town drama and gossip. And as a fellow New Englander I loved seeing the history of Maine and Boston come through as well. Lawhon left no stone unturned when writing this novel. The setting is almost a character itself, especially the river! There were just so many tiny details that highlights how much care went into this book.

This will quickly jump up to one of my highly recommended books, and with that I truly really can’t stress how important reading the authors note is as well.