In the last episode, Martha's daughter has run away from home to join a theater group. Martha has gone after her daughter to try to find her to no avail. The tavern where Martha lives has burned down, and the Confectionary owners have offered a place for Martha to live.
As we pick up this next episode, Martha is called to deliver a pre-term baby because the mother "fell." When the baby is still-born, Martha sees that the cord was wrapped around that baby's neck twice and the baby would have died regardless of when he was born. Unfortunately, the father of this baby takes his anger about losing his son on his wife and beats the pulp out of her. Martha cannot abide a man who uses his fists to express his frustrations and takes the girl in. In the meantime, her daughter returns with ideas to go back to New York and work for the woman who took her in.
Martha has many choices to make during this novel and the naming of the book is so apropos. Thomas wants to marry Martha, Martha's patient has to choose whether to forgive her husband for his abusive ways, and Victoria (Martha's daughter) has to choose whether to stay and help her mother or go back to New York and work. Fern, one of the Confectioner sisters, has choices of her own to make.
Delia Parr has written another five star book, with two thumbs up, and a choice of a lifetime. The plot never lags, the characters have depth, and the whole book is hard to put down, ever.
My thanks to Bethany House Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.
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