This is a wonderful collection of novellas. I enjoyed all of the stories in this book. They are the perfect length for when you don't have time to read a long book. All of the stories are well written and hold's your attention. I highly recommend this book. Thank you Barbour Publishing via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own. This book was a joy to read.

This book is a collection of four novellas about midwives in varied settings of America.
In 1868 Phoebe Hudson heads to Possum Bottom, MO from Boston where she faces both culture shock and opposition.
It’s 1871 in Auraria, CO when Dr. Vaughn Strahan comes to work with widow MC Brownstone, turning her world upside down.
Grace Sullivan goes from being a New York City heiress to working in the poorest tenements in the city in 1885. While Camille Duval contends with voodoo in New Orleans as she stresses hygiene and a healthy diet to the consternation and opposition of Madame La Fleur .

I enjoyed each of these stories and appreciated learning a bit of factual history from different regions of the USA.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Barbour through NetGalley.

I feel like this should have been titled “Midwives campaigning for social reform who occasionally deliver babies.” While the stories were enjoyable, they were also rushed. I felt like the authors were more intent on delivering their social injustice messages than they were on developing their characters or their relationships. Some stories were better developed than others.

This collection of novellas all share the midwife theme. I like the show "Call the Midwife," so I looked forward to reading this book, especially as I've read collections from Barbour in the past and I'm familiar with most of the authors in this collection.

As is the case with many novella collections, some stories were a bit better developed than others, and most tend to feel a bit rushed due to the short nature of the story. Some plot points seemed a bit more modern, but the stories were well done and enjoyable overall. I think I enjoyed the first story the most. The characters in the latter stories felt a bit too modern compared to the first story. Each story also had a romance angle.

Love Charm by Cynthia Hickey.
I loved this story back to back. The characters were wonderful. The story line absolutely amazing. I admired Phoebe's heart and tenacity. She was strong, kind and hardworking. Luke's care and protection over Phoebe was swoon-worthy. I loved how the both of them took their jobs seriously taking care and influencing change to the people of Possum Bottom.

Love Rebirth by Darlene Franklin
Women like Maia are one of the reasons I read; strong, kind, determined, surviving and thriving in a world that is always against her. I loved her heart for people, I loved how much she choose to take care of people others didn't want to have anything to do with. She was a great plus to Vaughan and I loved how he valued her.

If Not For Grace by Patty Smith Hall.
Fiends turned lovers with a common goal of helping the outcasts of society. I loved this story filled with love and sacrifice. A very beautiful one. Grace and Patrick's story was simply heartwarming.

Between Two Worlds by Marilyn Tuck
Partners in both profession and love. Camille and Julian! I loved how they worked together. I admired Camille's tenacity despite the opposite against her, and her courage. She wasn't a woman that scared easily. I liked how they both took care of their patients and found love.


This book was a beautiful collection of courageous young midwives who thrived and found love despite the opposition against them.


I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and this is my honest opinion.
1 like

Midwifery fascinates me! Barbour Publishing's new book The Heart of the Midwife, tells of young Christian midwives in the late 1800s attempting to improve the health and well being of the pregnant and birthing women in their care. They faced an uphill battle to prove their worth. When physicians believed them to be only a little better than prostitutes, they were not respected. And it was thought that being as young as they were, they could be of no benefit.

As a nurse, I found the stories immensely enjoyable. I especially liked Marilyn Turks' story Between Two Worlds as midwife Camille battles not only the usual biasses against midwives but is confronted by the evils of voodoo in historical New Orleans.

This collection of novellas will appeal to nurses and women interested in this period of history and in midwifery itself. My thanks to Barbour Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC for this, my honest review.

The Heart of the Midwife is one of those novels I love because it is 3 stories in one. I love books that have more then 1 story in them.
We start out in Possumbottom Missouri, with a young woman, named Pheobe, from the high society of Boston, Massachusetts. She trained to be a midwife and went to Possumbottom to be the midwife for the area. She meets the town teacher, Luke, who is very easy on the eyes, and he is asked to show her the area and introduce her to the locals. She ends up winning the area over. Wish some drama mixed in, a daring rescue and some weddings, the story is beautiful.
The second story is called Love's Rebirth. I loved this story, showed the strength of 1 woman (MC) to try and help change the women around her. She bought the building they practiced medicine in, was able to work with a Dr to save more lives and when he went away a friend of his stepped in to help out. I won't give any spoilers, but Dr Asa's friend is more then he seems, and he turns out to be an essential piece of a puzzle MC has been trying to solve for a long time. A well written story, i think this was my favorite of the 3.
The 3rd story If Not for Grace is about a woman named Grace, from the high society of Park Avenue, New York City. After the death of her parents she trains as a midwife under a woman named Nia and they open Sullivan House on Mulberry Street in Lower Manhattan, which in the 1800's is a very poor neighborhood where Dr's won't come to visit. Grace and Nia help people whose rent becomes too much to bear in the tenements, and help the women who work in brothels to have children. After receiving a letter that the Dr's are going to try and discredit midwives, Grace goes to speak on behalf of midwives and sees a friend from her past, and the object of her affection as a child, Patrick. He is now Councilman and one of the people hearing the case. He decides this matter needs further looking into and gives Grace some time. This story is full of details as to how the tenements used to be run by some members of the Mob, Mob bosses threatening people, the help of midwives to the women other Dr's refused to touch. It is also full of hope.
I enjoyed reading these stories, however, there was one recurring theme throughout all 3. The young women in each story wanted to become independent and do their work without men by their side, or without love in their lives. But....each story had a male counterpart to the main female character. Each women fell for the man, and what bothered me the most, would become weak when the men were around like they couldn't do anything without a man by their side, but if the man wasn't present they were strong independent women. One part in particular bothered me, especially in the last story (Not For Grace), Patrick, Grace's friend from childhood, knew her inside and out on a friendship level. He took to calling her names and teasing, which friends do, but these were names like "Sweet Idiot." That bothered me a lot. The independent/need for a man was most prevalent in Not For Grace. To tell the truth the story kind of ticked me off because of this reason.
I think these stories were well written, but the fact the women wanted to be independent, yet so craved a man and became mush, or a "sweet idiot" when the main male character was around was too much. I think the independence of these women, especially in the 1800's was an important part of the book, and an important part of the work the women were doing as midwives. I wish that came across more then the independent/I need a man struggle.

This book contained 4 short stories about midwives. They took place in different settings and were all historical. It was fun to see the midwives in the different locations and pretty much the same time period (1868 – 1890) basically having the same issues with their work and different issues with their personal lives. All were interesting and enthralling. I enjoyed every segment. The first was in the Ozarks of Missouri serving the mountain folk. She was a big city girl and had to learn the ways of the folks in the backwoods region she chose to serve in. The following one was in Colorado where the brothel owners didn’t want interference in their working girls’ lives and wanted abortions performed against the beliefs of the midwife.. The next one was in New York City where doctors and housing among other things were hard to obtain in the section of the city where the midwife was working and she had to battle the slumlord of her neighborhood.. The final one was in New Orleans where they were up against the voodoo practices commonly used. All the midwives were strong Christians who were paving the way with their values and principles.

I recommend this book. It was hard to put down. I was disappointed at the end when I ran out of stories.

I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from NetGalley. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

A lovely read for an afternoon, even if some of the endings felt a little rushed to tie them up in a bow. The second story threw me a little and took some time to understand fully. I wish some of them could have been a little longer to make the endings more coherent.

This review covers all 4 novellas in the book. I received this book through Netgalley and Barbour Publishing. The review is my own opinion and freely given.
First, all of the stories seemed too rushed at the end. It was like they had just so many words they could use and were reaching the limit.
All the stories had one central theme, a midwife as the main character. I enjoyed all the characters but I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. Each had something going on that endangered the midwife to some degree. Each also had an underlying romance.
The book was mostly well written with few errors and hopefully, the few errors are corrected in the final edition as I was given an ARC edition.
Overall, I give this a 3 out of 5 stars. Not bad, but not my favorite. If someone was looking for a series of novellas I would recommend these as ok but not great.

This anthology had some good stories and some stories that needed some work. My favorite was the first story of the book. It was what I was expecting and it was set in the hill country of Missouri. If you are a Pamela Morisi fan, you will enjoy this tale. The heroine is a young lady of good background. In fact, all the stories had a heroine of similar background. The ladies learn their craft and go to help the poor and lower class since they cannot afford the services of a doctor or a doctor is not local. The heroes were each different in their own right, they were of differing backgrounds, but they all felt something for the heroine right away. Again, the first story was the best for me. It had a setting that I liked. The characters developed nicely, unlike one of the other stories. The story line and plot told a good tale. I enjoyed reading this book one evening. I give it 3 stars and suggest reading if looking for a quick story.

I loved all 4 short stories in this book. Each was very different and unique in its own fashion. The Authors were lighthearted and kept the stories short and to the point. Of course each of them had a love story intertwined in the middle of babies being born and evil being conquered. A truly wholesome and good natured book, I would recommend it for anyone.

I really enjoyed this collection of novellas. Each story was interesting and compelling. I highly recommend this book.

A sweet book with four totally different takes on midwifery.you will enjoy trying to figure out how love will emerge in each story and as they hear the end, BOOM, love takes over. A great book with sweet innocent love wrapped up in it.

A very well written collection of historical novellas. Each selection is well written with the common theme of midwifery. I highly recommend. I received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.

Barbour Books is well-known for its collections of novellas revolving around a central theme. The Heart of the Midwife chronicles four very different midwives in historical settings.

From the backwoods of Missouri with a Hatfields and McCoys type feud being central to the story, to the questionable practices of some "healers" in New Orleans, each story takes on the life of a midwife in the hardships of medically under-served women in the mid to late 1800s. Each of the midwives in these stories has to overcome prejudices, some dangers, and otherwise out-dated ideas. Each of the midwives finds a man who will champion her in her work.

I found some of the novellas to hold my interest better than the others did. Each one is entertaining in its own way, but for me a couple of them were better than the others. Four Stars.

Barbour Books and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The book is made up of four stories in which the protagonist is a midwife.
Being written by different authors, I must say that I enjoyed some more than others, but in general they left a good taste, especially due to the will of the authors of show that vocation of help that all of us who are dedicated to health profession. Nevertheless I must add that due to this, the lack of precision of what a delivery really is, the real health knowledge of the time, and erroneous concepts taken from series or movies made me get out of the book many times.

I could not put this book down. It was a mix of drama, love, and all the feelings. I flew through this book, I just wanted to keep reading!

This is a comprehensive review of the four novellas presented in The Heart of the Midwife. Overall, I found the romance within to be realistic, though the wrap-ups felt too rushed into marriage. The only story I felt didn't rush it was the first one, and that was the one I actually enjoyed the most. I found that a lot of the turns of phrase and idioms in this collection were too modern, and the characters either too proud or annoying to really relate to. The examples I have for that would be the characters in the second and fourth novellas. I found that I couldn't relate and any "independence" on the part of the woman lead was mostly to keep the romance from blossoming immediately more than it was for an actual character's reason. I really disliked the second story. I felt like it was too hard to follow at first and then I could never really get into it. I noticed an error in the synopsis for the third story. The male protagonist is not Patrick O'Leary, but Patrick Mosby. I know a team will be going over everything later, but I wanted to point it out, just in case. Thank you for the chance to read and review this eARC prior to publication!

I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would since I typically enjoy these short stories Barbour puts out. It wasn’t that the stories were bad, they weren’t, it’s more because I thought the writing/use of phrases was way too modern for historical fiction. Sometimes that doesn’t bother me but I just really felt it was jarring and out of place in these stories. All of the novellas had promise though, so I think it’s more of an “it’s me, not them” thing.