That Certain Spark

June 1, 2009
Christian fiction writer Hake, who is also a nurse, offers her fans a mixed blend of fun, witticism and romance and a theme of medicine, with scenarios involving the care and keeping of man and beast. Against a backdrop of male chauvinist prejudice and smalltown small-mindedness, twins Enoch and his sister Taylor Bestman, veterinarian and medical doctor respectively, arrive in Gooding, Tex., with the best of intentions. What they find is a great deal of anti-female sentiment when it’s discovered that Taylor, the new medical doctor, is a woman. Determined to prove herself, Taylor takes on whatever the little town can throw at her and slowly wins over most of the people’s affections, including that of a stubborn blacksmith who views medicine as an inappropriate profession for a woman. Hake’s text is sweet, to be sure; still, the plot resolves all too neatly and swiftly, almost like an unlikely miracle cure.

August 1, 2009
Everyone in Gooding, Texas, is delighted that the small town will finally have a new doctor and veterinarian, but when Drs. Enoch and Taylor Bestman arrive, some of the residents quickly change their minds. The town was expecting two brothers, not a brother and sister, and most of the folks in town just dont think a woman can be a physician. Even though one of the first things Taylor does after she sets up her office is save his leg, blacksmith Karl Van der Vort is one of those people. Having spent her entire medical career proving she is just as competent as any man, Taylor isnt afraid of a fight, and she is determined to show everyone in townespecially a certain stubborn blacksmiththat she isnt going anywhere. Hake deftly dishes out equal measures of love and faith in the latest addition to her warmly emotional and delightfully humorous Gooding series(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)